HELIOTYPE    REPRODUCTION 

FROM  A  PAINTING  BY   REMBRANDT  PEALE,  DONE   IN    1803, 

IN  THE  POSSESSION  OF  THE   NEW  YORK 

HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


L'l  FE 


OF 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 


THIRD   PRESIDENT   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


BY 


JAMES     PARTON. 


BOSTON: 
JAMES    R.    OSGOOD    AND    COMPANY. 

(LATE  TICKNOR  &  FIELDS,  AND  FIELDS,  OSGOOD,  &  Co.) 
1874. 


IV  PEEFACE. 

until  a  majority  of  its  inhabitants  are  so  far  sharers  in  its 
better  civilization,  that^iheir  votes  can  be  obtained  by  argu 
ments  addressed  to  tile  understanding. 

We  must  now  accept  it  as  an  axiom,  that  universal  suf 
frage,  where  one-third  of  the  voters  cannot  read  the  language 
of  the  country  they  inhabit,  tends  to  place  the  scoundrel  class 
at  the  summit  of  affairs.  We  see  that  it  has  done  so  in 
France,  in  the  Southern  States,  in  New  York,  and  in  Phila 
delphia. 

But  such  virtue  is  there  in  the  Jeffersonian  methods,  that, 
even  in  those  places,  we  find  them  our  best  resource.  In 
Xe\v  York,  a  mass  meeting  and  its  Committee  of  Seventy, 
in  two  years,  suppressed  the  worst  of  the  public  stealing.  In 
the  South,  the  freedman  rages  for  the  spelling-book.  In  Penn 
sylvania,  the  reign  of  the  scoundrel  draws  to  an  end  ;  and  it  is 
everywhere  evident,  that  nothing  is  farther  from  the  inten 
tion  of  the  American  people  than  to  submit  to  lawless  or  law 
ful  spoliation. 

It  is  even  possible  that  the  party  which  Jefferson  founded  — 
such  vitality  did  he  breathe  into  it — may  again,  instructed 
by  defeat  and  purified  in  the  furnace  of  affliction,  deliver  the 
country  from  the  evils  which  perplex  and  threaten  it,  em 
ploying  the  only  expedient  that  will  ever  long  succeed  in  a 
free  country,  the  expedient  of  being  EIGHT.  Jefferson's  prin 
ciples  will  do  this,  if  his  party  does  not.  A  government 
simple,  inexpensive,  and  strong,  that  shall  protect  all  rights, 
including  those  of  posterity,  and  let  all  interests  protect  them 
selves,  assuming  no  functions  except  those  which  the  Consti 
tution  distinctly  assigns  it,  —  these  are  the  principles  which 
Jefferson  restored  in  1801,  and  to  which  the  future  of  the 
country  can  be  safely  trusted. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

I. — Colonel  Peter  Jefferson 1 

II.— The  Mother  of  Jefferson      ..       ,       .       ...        .        .         5 

m.—  Our  Jefferson's  Childhood 9 

IV.— Jefferson's  School-life   .        .       .       .       .       .       .        .        .        15 

V.— He  goes  to  College. 19 

VI.  —At  College       .        .        .        .       .       .       . 26 

VII.  —Jefferson  in  Love  .        .      ^__.__ _«___--^-_--*___i___1____^^ 

VUL  —  Coming  of  Age 41 

IX.— The  Law-student    .        .        .        .       .       .       .  46 

X. — Stamp-act  Scenes    .        .        .        .       .       .     •.       .        .        .        63 

XI. — Lawyers  in  Old  Virginia       .        .    _    »       .       .       ,       .        .        70 

XH.  —A  Member  of  the  Virginia  Legislature 85 

.  —  His  Marriage 99 

XIV— An  Affair  in  Narragansett  Bay    .        .        ....        .        .109 

XV.— The  Effect  in  Virginia  and  Else  where 120 

XVI.— Jefferson  gives  Advice  to  George  LTI.         .       ...        .        .134 

XVH.  —The  Congress 143 

XVIII.,— Hostilities  precipitated  by  the  Royal  Governors       .        .        .151 
XIX.  *-  Jefferson  in  the  Continental  Congress        ,'J      ....      163 

XX— In  Virginia  again 172 

XXL— The  Declaration  of  Independence 179 

XXII. — Jefferson  named  Envoy  to  France 195 

XXLTI.  —Need  of  Reform  in  Old  Virginia 199 

XXIV.  —Jefferson,  Wythe,  and  Madison  begin  the  "Work  of  Reformation  207 
XXV— First  Three  Years  of  the  War      .        .       .  -     .        .        .        .220 

XXVI.— Jefferson  Governor  of  Virginia 225 

XXVII.—  Virginia  Ravaged 240 

XXVLIL— The  Enemy  at  MonticeUo     . 250 

XXIX.— At  Home  after  the  War        /      .       , 257 

XXX.— Death  of  Mrs.  Jefferson        .  265 

XXXI.  —  In  Congress  at  Annapolis 268 

XXXII.—  Envoy  to  France 277 

v 


VI  CONTENTS. 


CHA; 

XXXHI.— First  Impressions  9f  Europe 

XXXIV.—  The  Work  of  his  Mission 

XXXV.  —  I'noiHrial  Labors 

XXXVI.  — Hi-  Travels  iu  Europe 

XXXVII. — JrftVr>on  and  the  French  Revolution 
X  X  X  V I  i  I .  —  I  let  timing  to  the  United  States        .... 

XXXIX.  —  II U  Welcome  Home    ....... 

XL. —  Al«--. under  Hamilton  .        .        .        .        . 

XLL—  Tone  of  N».-w-V«.rk  Society  in  1790   . 
XIJL— The  Cabmet  of  President  Washington    . 
XIIIL— The  New  Government  and  the  PubUo  Debt  . 

XLIV. — Fefferson  settling  to  his  W«k 

XLY.  —Negotiations  with  England  after  the  Revolution  . 
XLVT.  — Tin-  French  "Revolution  in  American  Politics 
X  LYI  I.  —  The  Ouarrel  of  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  . 
XIA'III.— r.r.iM-s  of  his  Desire  to  resign  .       .       .       .       * 

XLIX.  —  (iem-t  coining       .        .        .        ...        •        •        • 

L.  — Edmuiul  Genet  in  the  United  States 
T.I.  —Jefferson  resign*,  and  retires  to  Monticello     . 
L>  I.  —  Arrival  <>f  Dr.  Priestley  in  the  United  States  . 
LIII. — TefTevson  as  a  Fanner         .'.'.. 

LiV.  — C;indidat«-  f..r  tin?  TVcsidency 

LY.  — Klrrtrd  Vii-r-president 

LVI.  —  Hamilton's  Amour  with  Mrs.  Reynolds  . 
LyTL— The  Grand  Embassy  to  Prance  in  1797    . 
LVril.—  Hamilton  improves  the  Opportunity 

LEX. --The  Campaign  lies  of  1800 

LX.  —The  Tie  between  Jefferson  and  Burr 
x   LXI.  —  Tin-  First  KrpuMii-an  Administration      . 

LX  i  I.  — .li-tVi-i-siin  President 

LXIII.— The  Al.Lreriiii-  Piracies 

LXI\'.  —  Lniii  iana  pnrdiased 

LXV.—  Downfall  of  Aaron  Burr 

•LXYI.-The  Embargo 

LXYll. — Correspondence  with  Mrs.  Adarna   . 

LX \'I1 1.  —  Ilrtin-iiH-nt  from  the  Presidency       . 

LXIX.  —  At  M'.nti-'ello 

IAX.  — His  Lal.nrs  to  promote  Education    . 
LXXL  — Visit-.™  at  Monticello,  and  Family  Reminiscences 

L XX II.  —  I. a>t  Years  and  Days 

LXXI1I.— Summary 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


CHAPTER    I. 

COLONEL  PETER  JEFFERSON. 

JEFFERSON  was  a  stripling  of  seventeen,  tall, 
freckled,  and  sandy-haired,  when,  in  1760,  he  came  to  Wil- 
liamsburg,  from  the  Far  West  of  Virginia,  to  enter  the  College  of 
William  and  Mary.  With  his  large  feet  and  hands,  his  thick 
wrists,  and  prominent  cheek-bones  and  chin,  he  could  not  have  been 
accounted  handsome  or  graceful.  He  is  described,  however,  as  a 
fresh,  bright,  healthy-looking  youth,  as  straight  as  a  gun-barrel, 
sinewy  and  strong,  with  that  alertness  of  movement  which  comes 
of  early  familiarity  with  saddle,  gun,  canoe,  minuet,  and  contra- 
dance,  —  that  sure,  elastic  tread,  and  ease  of  bearing,  which  we  still 
observe  in  country-bred  lads  who  have  been  exempt  from  the  ruder 
toils  of  agriculture,  while  enjoying  in  full  measure  the  freedom  and 
the  sports  of  the  country.  His  teeth,  too,  were  perfect,  which  alone 
redeems  a  countenance  destitute  of  other  charm.  His  eyes,  which 
were  of  hazel-gray,  were  beaming  and  expressive ;  and  his  de 
meanor  gave  assurance  of  a  gentle  heart,  and  a  sympathetic, 
inquisitive  mind. 

Such  lads,  eager  and  unformed,  still  come  to  college  from  honest 
country  homes,  in  regions  where  agriculture  is  carried  on  upon  a 
scale  that  allows  some  leisure  to  the  farmer's  family,  some  liberality 
of  expenditure,  books,  music,  a  tincture  of  art,  and  hospitable 
habits.  How  welcome,  how  dear,  to  instructors  worthy  of  them, 
are  such  unhackneyed  minds  in  bodies  unimpaired ! 


-  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

The  abode  of  this  youth  was  a  hundred  aud  fifty  miles  to  the 
north-west  of  Williamaburg,  among  the  mountains  of  Central  Vir 
ginia,  near  where  the  Kiver  luvanna.  an  important  tributary,  enters 
the  James.  His  home  was  a  plain,  spacious  farm-house,  a  story  and 
a  half  high,  with  four  large  rooms  and  a  wide  entry  on  the  ground- 
floor,  and  man}"  garret  chambers  above.  The  farm  was  nineteen 
hundred  acres  of  land,  part  of  it  densely  wooded,  and  some  of  it  so 
steep  and  rocky  as  to  be  unfit  for  cultivation.  The  fields  near  the 
river  were  strong  land,  not  yet  (though  soon  to  be)  worn  past  the 
profitable  culture  of  tobacco;  but  the  upper  portions  were  well 
suited  to  the  grains  and  roots  familiar  to  the  farmers  of  the  Middle 
States.  For  sixty  years  the  staple  product  of  all  that  fine  mountain 
region,  with  its  elevated  fields,  its  far-reaching  valleys,  and  rapid 
.ins.  was  wheat;  which  tin-  swift  tributaries  ground  into  flour, 
and  the  yellow  James  bore  down  its  tranquil  tide  to  Richmond, 
distant  from  the  Jefferson  home  two  days'  ride.  The  rustle  of 
wheat-ears  was  familiar  music  to  Thomas  Jefferson  from  infancy  to 
hoa'ry  age. 

The  farm  was  tilled  at  this  period  by  thirty  slaves,  —  equivalent 
to  about  fif';>'eii  farm-hands.  The  circumstances  of  the  family  were 
ea-y,  not  affluent.  Almost  every  common  thing  they  consumed  was 
en  or  made  at  home,  —  all  the  common  fabrics  and  ordinary 
clothing;  and  of  home-made  commodities  they  had  an  abundance: 
but  the  thirty  pounds  sterling  per  annum  in  cash,  which  the  student 
was  to  expend  at  Williamsburg  for  his  board  and  tuition,  was  not  so 
light  a  charge  upon  the  estate  as  it  sounds  to  us.  The  entire 
expense  of  his  maintenance  away  from  home  may  have  been  fifty 
pounds  a  year;  which  was,  probably,  not  less  than  half  the  sum  that 
could  l>e  taken  properly  from  the  annual  product  of  the  farm  and 
sh»ps.  after  all  the  home  charges  had  been  paid.  The  yeomen  of 
Virginia,  though  they  enjoyed  a  profusion  of  the  necessaries  of  life, 
were  sometimes  sorely  put  to  it  when  a  sum  of  money  was  to  be 
raised. 

This  student  of  seventeen,  through  the  death  of  his  father  three 
years  before,  was  already  the  head  of  the  family,  and,  under  a  guar 
dian,  the  owner  of  the  Shadwell  Farm,  the  best  portion  of  his 
father's  estate. 

The  happy  results  that  spring  from  the  intermingling,  by  mar 
riage,  of  families  long  cultured  with  families  more  vigorous  and  less 


COLONEL  PETER  JEFFERSON.  3 

refined,  has  been  often  remarked.  Such  conjunctions  gave  us 
Shakspeare  and  Goethe.  A  novelist  of  the  day  tells  us  of  a  ducal 
house,  which,  on  system,  married  a  plebeian  estate  every  other  gen 
eration,  which  renewed  at  once  its  blood  and  its  fortunes.  The 
material  point  was  the  renewal  of  the  blood,  which  brings  with  it 
the  brain,  the  stamina,  and  the  self-control  by  which  great  houses 
are  founded,  and  all  great  things  are  done.  If  at  the  present  time 
there  is  an  aristocracy  in  Europe,  which,  in  any  respectable  degree, 
earns  its  wages,  it  is  that  aristocracy  which  has  oftenest  renewed 
itself  by  the  strenuous  blood  of  men  who  have  won  commanding 
places  by  sheer  strength  of  mind  and  purpose.  The  world  would 
never  have  heard  of  the  Palmerstons,  if  the  second  lord  had  not  won 
the  admirable  daughter  of  a  Dublin  tradesman ;  nor  of  Brougham, 
if  the  father  of  the  late  lord  had  married,  as  he  intended,  in  his 
native  country  and  class.  Nature  so  delights  in  uniting  opposites, 
that  she  seals  with  the  unmistakable  signet  of  her  approbation  the 
coming-together  of  opposites  artificially  produced,  —  ancient  culture 
and  unlettered  force. 

Peter  Jefferson,  the  father  of  the  student,  was  a  superb  specimen 
of  a  class,  nearly  extinct  in  Great  Britain,  which  used  to  be  called 
yeomen, — farmers  who  owned  the  soil  they  tilled,  but  had  no  pre 
tensions  to  aristocratic  rank, — a  class  intermediate  in  a  parish 
between  the  squire  and  his  tenants.  In  old  Virginia,  yeomen  were 
fanners,  who,  beginning  life  with  little  capital  besides  a  strong  arm 
and  an  energetic  will,  had  taken  up  a  tract  of  land  to  the  westward 
of  the  great  tobacco-region  of  Virginia,  and  gradually  worked  their 
way  to  the  possession  of  a  cleared  farm,  and  a  few  families  of  slaves. 
In  this  manner  Peter  Jefferson,  and  his  father  before  him,  had 
achieved  an  independent  position  :  stanch  both,  of  strong  self-tutored 
sense,  and  of  signal  ability  in  the  conduct  of  business;  enterprising 
and  methodical;  liberal,  but  exact;  good  at  figures,  with  a  clear, 
careful  handwriting,  and  an  aptitude  for  mechanics.  The  family  was 
of  Welsh  extraction.  The  first  of  the  name  in  Virginia,  it  is  well 
worth  noting,  was  a  member  of  that  Virginia  Assembly  of  1019,  the 
first  legislative  body  ever  convened  on  the  western  continent,  the 
summoning  of  which  ended  the  twelve  years'  anarchy  that  followed 
the  planting  of  the  colony,  and  notified  the  colonists,  that,  in  crossing 
the  sea,  they  had  lost  none  of  the  rights  of  Englishmen.  All  that 
is  important,  characteristic,  and  hopeful,  in  the  history  of  America, 


4  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

dates  from  the  meeting  of  that  Assembly ;  and  an  ancestor  of 
Thoina^  .TrtVerson  was  a  member  of  it.  Virginia  then  contained 
•ix  hundred  white  inhabitants.  The  church  nearest  his  farm  was 
called  the  "  Jefferson  Church"  for  a  hundred  years  after  his  death, 
and  the  ruins  of  it  were  visible  as  late  as  1856. 

Pft«-r  Jefferson,  a  younger  son,  and  therefore  having  little  to 
expect  from  his  father,  made  his  entrance  into  responsible  life  by 
the  door  which,  many  years  later,  admitted  the  son  of  another  Vir 
ginia  yeoman,  George  Washington.  He  learned  the  art  of  survey 
ing  land,  —  a  kind  of  liberal  profession  in  a  new  country.  He 
practised  this  profession  in  his  native  county  of  Chesterfield,  and  in 
all  the  region  trodden  by  Confederate  armies  and  torn  by  Federal 
cannon  during  the  long  siege  of  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  — cities 
which  then  existed  only  in  the  prophetic  minds  of  men  like  Colonel 
I'.yrd,  who  marked  both  as  the  sites  of  towns  when  as  yet  not  a 
tree  of  the  primeval  forest  had  been  felled.  Like  George  Washing 
ton,  too,  this  young  surveyor  owed  his  rise  in  the  social  scale  to  a 
marriage;  though  it  was  Peter  Jefferson's  happier  fortune  to  win 
a  maiden  heart,  and  to  create  for  her  the  home  over  which  he  asked 
her  to  preside. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   MOTHER    OF   JEFFERSON. 

WHAT  a  pretty  romance  it  was !  The  athletic  youth,  master  of 
his  surveyor's  chain  and  knowledge,  a  natural  prince  of  the  frontier, 
becomes  knit  in  an  ardent,  young  man's  friendship  with  William 
Randolph,  son  of  one  of  those  flourishing  Randolphs  who  lived  in 
such  lordly  state,  in  the  good  old  barbaric  days,  when  the  soil  of 
Virginia  was  still  unworn,  when  negroes  were  twenty-five  guineas 
"  a  head,"  and  tobacco  brought  four  pence  a  pound  in  London 
docks.  Together  they  visit  an  uncle  of  William  Randolph,  seated 
on  a  vast  plantation  on  the  James,  some  miles  below  the  mouth  of 
the  Rivanna, — one  of  the  few  grand  houses  of  Virginia  wherein 
knowledge  and  taste  were  more  conspicuous  than  pride  and  pro 
fusion.  Isham  Randolph  was  the  name  of  this  tobacco  lord,  and 
his  eldest  daughter  was  Jane.  She  was  born  while  the  family  were 
living  in  London,  where  her  father  knew  Peter  Collinson,  wool- 
merchant,  botanist,  and  friend  of  Pennsylvania ;  also  Hans  Sloane, 
founder  of  the  British  Museum,  and  all  that  circle  of  the  Royal 
Society's  more  active  members. 

She  was  not  too  lightly  won,  this  daughter  of  a  stately  house. 
Peter  Jefferson  was  twenty-eight,  and  she  seventeen,  when  he 
mounted  and  rode  a  hundred  miles  to  the  northwest  of  his  home, 
and  fifty  miles  beyond  hers,  and  bought  his  first  thousand  acres  on 
the  Rivanna,  and  began  to  hew  out  a  farm  and  home.  Within  half  a 
day's  ride,  the  smoke  of  only  three  or  four  settlers'  cabins  floated  up 
through  small  clearings  to  the  sky,  and  the  trail  of  Indians  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  woods.  For  two  years  he  wrought  there  in  the  forest, 
aided,  doubtless,  by  a  slave  family  or  two  ;  and  when  he  had  cleared  a 
few  fields,  and  built  something  a  little  better  than  a  cabin,  he  went 
to  Dungeness?  and  brought  home  his  bride,  Jane  Randolph.  To  do 


G  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

her  honor,  ho  named  their  abode  Shadwell.  because  it  was  in  a  Lon 
don  parish    of  that   name    that  she    first    sa\v   tlio   light.      He    \vas 

•led  in  17."»S.  Five  years  after,  —  April  13,  1743,  —  his  third 
child  was  born,  whom  he  named  Thomas,  that  student  who  stands 
at  the  throhold  of  William  and  Mary  College,  waiting  our  conven 
ience  t«>  !>»•  admitted. 

Of  this  adventurous  lady,  who  gave  her  hand  to  Peter  Jefferson 
and  rode  by  his  side  to  their  home  in  the  woods,  we  only  know  that 
.-lie  was  the  child  of  an  intelligent  and  hospitable  father;  and  this 
one  fact  cornea  to  us  by  a  strange  and  pleasant  chance.  There 
was  a  ( >  laki-r  fanner  near  Philadelphia,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
la-;  century,  named  John  Bartram,  who,  while  he  was  resting 
fn>;  11  the  plough  one  day,  under  a  tree,  pulling  a  daisy  to  pieces, 
and  observing  some  of  the  more  obvious  marvels  of  its  construction, 
Middi-nlv  awoke  to  his  pitiful  ignorance  of  the  vegetable  wonders  in 
the  midst  of  which  he  had  lived  and  labored  from  childhood.  He 
resumed  his  toil,  hut  not  with  that  stolid  content  with  his  ignorance 
that  he  hud  enjoyed  so  long.  On  the  fourth  day  after,  raging  for 
knowledge,  he  hired  a  man  to  hold  his  plough,  while  he  rode  to 
Philadelphia,  and  brought  home  a  work  upon  botany  in  Latin,  and 
a  Latin  grammar.  In  three  months,  by  a  teacher's  aid,  he  could 
<:r«»pe  his  way  in  the  Latin  book;  in  a  year  he  had  botanized  all  over 
the  n-Ljion  round  about,  ami  cast  longing  eyes  over  the  border  into 

.-land  and  Virginia.  l>y  good  management  of  his  farm  and 
servants.  —  emancipated  slaves,  —  he  was  able  to  spend  the  rest  of 
h:-  life  in  the  study  of  Nature,  making  wide  excursions  into  neigh 
boring  colonies,  until  he  knew  every  plant  that  grew  between  the 

Jianv  ran^e  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean;  becoming  at  length 
botanist  to  the  kin;_r.  at  iit'ty  miineas  a  year,  and  founding  on  the 
banks  of  the  Schnylkill  the  first  botanical  garden  of  America.  He 
and  hi-  garden  flourished  together  to  a  j^recn  old  age;  and  he  died, 
at  the  approach  of  the  Uritish  army  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 

error  lest  the  pride  of  his  life  should  be  trampled  into  ruin  by 
the  troops.  Amon;^  his  Kurope-an  correspondents  was  that  assidu- 

riend  of  Pennsylvania  ami  of  Franklin.  Peter  Collinson,  with 
whom  for  fifty  yar-  he  exehanp-d  letters,  seeds,  roots,  trees,  slips, 

•  irds,  turtles,  squirrels,  and  other  animals;   and  it 
their  correspondence  that  Kur-tpe  owes  the  profusion  of  American 
trees  and  shrubs  that  adorn  so   many  parks,  gardens,  and  highways. 


THE  MOTHER   OF  JEFFERSON.  7 

To  the  same  interchange  America  was  indebted,  among  other  bene 
fits,  for  those  rare  kinds  of  plums,  cherries,  apricots,  goose! H-, 
and  other  fruits,  that  flourished  for  a. time,  though  the  climate  has 
since  proved  too  harsh  and  exacting  for  them.  In  a  singularly 
quiet,  homely  way,  those  two  excellent  men,  at  the  cost  of"  a  few 
guineas  per  annum,  conferred  solid  and  lasting  benefits  upon  count 
less  generations  of  the  inhabitants  of  two  continents. 

It  is  in  the  letters  of  Peter  Collinson  to  his  American  friend,  that 
we  find  allusions  to  the  father  of  our  Jefferson's  mother.  William 
Bartram  may  have  seen  Peter  Jefferson  and  Jane  Randolph  mar 
ried  ;  for  a  few  months  before  that  event,  when  the  botanist  was 
about  to  make  a  botanical  tour  in  Virginia,  Collinson  sends  him  the 
names  of  three  or  four  gentlemen  of  that  province  who  were  inter 
ested  in  "  our  science,"  one  of  whom  was  Isham  Randolph.  "No 
one,"  lie  remarks,  "will  make  thee  more  welcome;"  and  lie  adds, 
"  I  take  his  house  to  be  a  very  suitable  place  to  make  a  settlement 
at,  for  to  take  several  days'  excursions  all  round,  and  to  return  to  his 
house  at  night."  The  worthy  Quaker  favors  his  somewhat  too  plain 
American  friend,  who  was  also  of  Quaker  family,  with  a  piece  of  ad 
vice,  that  gives  us  some  information.  "One  thing,"  he  says,  "I 
must  desire  of  thee,  and  do  insist  that  thee  oblige  me  therein  :  that 
thou  make  up  that  drugget  clothes  "  (a  present  from  Collinson  to 
Bartram),  "to  go  to  Virginia  in,  and  not  appear  to  disgrace  thyself 
or  me ;  for,  though  I  should  not  esteem  thee  less  to  come  to  me  in 
what  dress  thou  will,  yet  these  Virginians"  (having  in  his  mind's 
eye  his  old  acquaintances,  Isham  Randolph  and  his  young  family) 
"  are  a  very  gentle,  well-dressed  people,  and  look,  perhaps,  more  at  a 
man's  outside  than  his  inside.  For  these  and  other  reasons,  pray  go 
very  clean,  neat,  and  handsomely  dressed,  in  Virginia.  Never  mind 
thy  clothes  :  I  will  send  more  another  time."  The  benevolent  Peter 
was  a  dealer  in  woollens,  and  sent  the  rustic  Bartram  many  a  good 
ell  of  cloth  to  wear  at  the  great  houses  in  the  country. 

The  botanist  visited  Isham  Randolph's  mansion  on  the  James,  in 
and  about  which,  it  is  said,  a  hundred  servants  attended.  There  he 
must  have  seen  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  house  at  the  time  when 
she  was  busy  with  preparations  for  her  marriage  ;  and  he  may  have 
staid  to  the  wedding-feast,  and  cheered  the  bride  and  bridegroom 
as  they  rode  away  on  horseback  to  their  new  home.  He  had  gen 
erous  entertainment,  of  which  he  sent  grateful  accounts  to  his  pa- 


LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

tron  in  London.  Collinson  replies,  that  it  was  no  more  than  he 
expected  of  his  friend  Isham:  "  I  did  not  doubt  his  civility  to  thee. 
I  only  wish  to  have  been  there,  and  shared  it  with  thee."  In  anoth 
er  letter,  the  worthy  merchant  mentions  that  "our  friend,  Isham 
Randolph  (a  generous,  good-natured  gentleman,  and  well  respected 
by  most  who  are  acquainted  with  him)  "  had  agreed  to  correspond 
with  him  on  the,ir  beloved  science.  When  the  news  came  of  Isham 
Randolph's  death,  Collinson  wrote  of  him  as  "the  good  man  "  who 
had  gone  to  his  long  home,  and,  he  doubted  not,  was  happy. 

Tin-so  glimpses  of  the  father  of  Jefferson's  mother  are  slight,  but 
they  are  the  more  interesting  because  they  confirm  the  tradition  that 
it  was  from  his  mother  he  derived  his  temper,  his  disposition,  and 
his  sympathy  with  living  nature. 


CHAPTER  III. 
OUR  JEFFERSON'S  CHILDHOOD. 

THOUGH  his  mother  had  been  the  tenderest  of  women,  his  father 
had  strength  to  match  her  tenderness.  Tradition,  current  in  the 
county  where  he  lived,  and  gathered  by  Mr.  Randall,  whose  exten 
sive  and  sympathetic  work  *  must  remain  the  great  reservoir  of 
information  respecting  the  Jeffersons,  reports  Peter  Jefferson  a 
wonder  of  physical  force  and  .stature.  He  had  the  strength  of 
three  strong  men.  Two  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  each  weighing  a 
thousand  pounds,  he  could  raise  at  once  from  their  sides,  and  stand 
them  upright.  When  surveying  in  the  wilderness,  he  could  tire  out 
his  assistants,  and  tire  out  his  mules ;  then  eat  his  mules,  and  still 
press  on,  sleeping  alone  by  night  in  a  hollow  tree,  to  the  howling  of 
the  wolves,  till  his  task  was  done.  He  loved  mathematics.  He 
managed  his  affairs  so  well,  that,  in  twenty  years,  he  was  master  of 
a  competent  estate,  and  could  assign  a  good  plantation  to  his 
younger  son,  after  leaving  the  bulk  of  his  estate  to  his  eldest.  But 
with  this  strength  of  character  there  was  genuine  intelligence.  He 
relished  Shakspeare  ;  and  Shakspeare  alone  can  be  a  liberal  edu 
cation.'  His  fine  edition  of  Shakspeare,  still  preserved  among  his 
relics,  attests,  by  its  appearance,  that  the  man  whose  property  it  was 
loved  it,  and  repaired  often  to  it  during  many  years  for  solace  and 
delight.  The  Spectator,  a  new  work  in  his  da}-,  and  some  volumes 
of  Swift,  are  among  the  books,  once  his,  that  his  descendants  pos 
sess. 

County  honors,  which  at  that  time  and  place  could  mean  nothing 
but  public  duties,  always  difficult,  often  perilous,  never  compensated, 
made  him  at  length  the  unquestioned  chief  of  the  frontier  region. 

.     *  The  Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  by  Henry  8.  Randall,  LL.D.    Three  vola.    New  York, 
1858. 


10  LITE  OF   THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 

When  the  county  was  set  off  and  named  Albemarle,  Peter  Jefferson 
was  appointed  one  of  its  three  justices  of  the  peace;  afterwards 
countv  surveyor;  then  colonel  of  the  county,  chief  of  provincial 
honors  in  old  Virginia,  in  which  capacity  he  was  the  defender  of 
the  frontier  against  the  Indians  ;  finally  he  was  sent  to  represent 
his  county  in  the  House  of  Burgesses,  which  sat  at  Williamsburg,  the 
capital  of  tho  Province.  In  politics  he  was  a  British  Whig,  like 
of  the  Western  yeomen  of  the  early  day;  the  great  planters 
of  the  lower  country  generally  affecting  Tory  politics.  For  many 

he  was  vestryman  of  his  parish  church. 

1 1  ations  were  recognized  by  the  royal  government.     He 

was  out,  when  his  boy  was  six  years  old,  for  several  weeks,  on  the 
line  between  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  as  joint  commissioner 
with  Joshua  Fry,  professor  of  mathematics  in  William  and  Mary 
College,  completing  the  boundary  between  these  two  Provinces. 
Two  years  utter,  he  was  associated  with  Professor  Fry  in  the  con 
strue  the  first  map  of  Virginia  ever  attempted  since  Captain 
:  Smith's  conjectural  sketch  of  1609.  The  boy  of  eight  must 
have  Been  the  surveys  ami  broad  sheets  spread  upon  the  great  table 
in  the  family  room.  Perhaps  this  honorable  connection  with  one  of 
the  college  professors  may  have  strengthened,  may  have  originated, 
the  f<>nue-t  purpose  of  Peter  Jefferson's  heart,  which  was  to  give  his 
son  the  l>.->t  ehance  for  education  the  colony  afforded. 

From   this  natural  chief  of  men,  Thomas  Jefferson   derived  his 

stature,  his  erectness,  his  bodily  strength,  —  in  which  only  his  father 

lied  him  of  all  the  men  known  or  remembered  in  that  county, 

—  his  self-reliance,  his  habit  of  waiting  upon  himself,  his   aversion 

to  parade  and  ceremony,  his  tendency  to  humane  politics,  his  curious 

in  matters  of  business,  his  strong  bias  toward   inathemat- 

,  and  architecture.      lie  may  have  derived  from   him, 

too,  some  traits  that  limited  his  ability  as  an  executive   chief.     One 

of  his   Father's  maxims  was,  <%  X'-v«-r  ask  another  to  do  for  you  what 

y<m  can  do  for  yourself/'      A  man  who  has  to  direct  extensive  affairs, 

and  contr  '1  many  men,  must  reverse  this  maxim,  and  never  do  any 

thin^  hiiu-elf  which  he  can  properly  get  another  to  do. 

V.'     '  an  hardly  imagine  a  hoy  better  placed  for  the  equal  develop- 

•    of  mind,    body,    and  character,   than    Thomas   J.  Person    was 

•luring  hi-  father's  lifetime.      That  region  combines  both  the  charms 

'Ivantages  of  mountain  and  plain  ;  for  the  heights  are  not 


OUR  JEFFERSON'S  CHILDHOOD.  11 

too  difficult  for  access,  and  the  lowlands  are  not  insalubrious.  He 
could  shoot  wild  turkeys,  deer,  and  all  flying  game,  without  going 
off  his  father's  estate;  and  past  his  native  fields  flowed  a  river,  over 
which  lie  was  early  taught  to  swim  his  horse.  The  primeval  wilder 
ness  covered  the  mountains,  and  waved  luxuriant  in  many  a  valley, 
the  most  conspicuous  fact  of  nature  around  him  till  he  was  long  past 
boyhood.  But  by  the  time  he  was  a  well-grown  lad,  there  were 
neighbors  near  and  numerous  enough  for  society.  His  father's 
official  position  made  him  the  arbiter  between  contentious  men,  and 
the  minister  of  justice.  The  lad  must  have  seen  his  father  try 
many  a  petty  case,  and  settle  many  a  difference,  as  well  between 
white  men  as  between  whites  and  Indians. 

That  liking  for  Indians,  which  we  observe  in  the  writings  of 
Jefferson,  resulted  from  his  early  acquaintance  with  some  of  the  best 
of  the  uncorrupted  chiefs,  who  used 'to  visit  and  stay  with  his  father 
on  their  journeys  to  and  from  the  capital  of  Virginia.  The  Indians 
held  his  father  in  that  entire  respect  which  they  were  apt  to  feel  for 
men  who  never  feared  and  never  deceived  them.  One  of  the  most 
vivid  recollections  of  his  boyhood  was  of  a  famous  chief  of  the 
Cherokees,  named  Ontassete,  who  went  to  England  on  behalf  of  his 
people.  The  boy  was  in  the  camp  of  this  chief  the  evening  before 
his  departure  for  England,  and  heard  him  deliver  his  farewell  ora 
tion  to  his  tribe,  —  a  scene  that  he  used  to  describe  with  animation 
seventy  years  after  its  occurrence.  The  moon  was  in  full  splendor 
that  evening;  and  it  seemed  as  if  it  was  to  that  lustrous  orb  the 
impassioned  orator  addressed  prayers  for  his  own  safety,  and  the 
protection  of  his  people  during  his  absence.  The  powerful  voice  of 
the  speaker,  his  distinct  articulation,  his  animated  gesture,  and  the 
silence  of  the  listening  Indians  sitting  motionless  in  groups  by  their 
several  fires,  filled  him  with  awe  and  veneration,  although  he  did 
not  understand  a  word  that  was  spoken. 

All  the  important  circumstances  of  his  home  come  to  mind  as  we 
brood  over  scattered  indications  in  old  and  new  Virginia  books.  We 
see  that  giant  of  a  father,  steadfast,  reserved,  even  austere,  but  not 
ungentle,  busy  with  official  labors  and, the  details  of  farm  and  barn 
during  the  day,  and  in  the  evening  giving  his  boy  (his  only  son 
for  many  years)  lessons  in  book-keeping  and  arithmetic;  two  elder 
sisters,  perhaps,  taking  their  turn  at  slate  and  pencil,  or  sitting  with 
their  mother  plying  the  needle  :  the  father  not  unfrequently,  treat- 


12  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

in ™  the  group  to  a  favorite  paper  from  the  Spectator.  The  morn 
ing  scene,  t"<>,  with  the  mother  and  her  servants,  we  can  infer  with 
much  probability  from  descriptions  of  similar  interiors  preserved 
from  that  period. 

Deeply  as  Jefferson  came  to  hate  slavery,  clearly  as  he  foretold 
the  ruin  enclosed  in  the  system,  he  saw  it  only  in  its  better  aspects 
at  his  own  home.  He  saw  his  father  patiently  drilling  negroes,  not 
long  from  their  native  Africa,  into  carpenters,  millers,  wheelrights, 
shoemakers,  and  fanners.  He  saw  his  mother  of  a  morning  in  her 
sitting-room,  which  was  well  furnished  with  contrivances  for  facili 
tating  labor,  seated  with  her  daughters  and  her  servants,  like  An 
dromache  surrounded  by  her  maidens,  all  busy  with  household  tasks. 
We  possess  authority  for  the  picture.  Have  we  not  been  favored 
with  a  glimpse  of  Mrs.  Washington's  morning-room  at  Mount  Ver- 
non,  —  that  room  which  was  so  "  nicely  fixed  for  all  sorts  of  work  "  ? 
"  On  one  side  sits  the  chambermaid  with  her  knitting  ;  on  the  other, 
a  little  colored  pet,  learning  to  sew.  An  old,  decent  woman  was 
there  with  her  table  and  shears,  cutting  out  the  negroes'  winter 
clothes,  while  the  good  old  lady  directs  them  all,  incessantly  knit 
ting  herself.  She  points  out  to  me  several  pairs  of  nice  colored 
stockings  and  gloves  she  had  just  finished,  and  presents  me  with  a 
pair  half  done,  which  she  begs  I  will  finish  and  wear  for  her  sake." 
Uishop  Meado,  who  quotes  this  interesting  passage  from  an  old  Vir 
ginia  manuscript,  adds  that,  in  other  houses  (like  the  home  of  the 
.-sons)  less  opulent  and  containing  many  children,  the  mother 
would  have  her  daughters  with  her  in  the  same  apartment,  one  spin 
ning,  another  basting,  another  winding  yarn,  another  churning,— 
all  vigorously  at  work :  for  at  that  day  a  plantation  was  obliged  to 
be  nearly  self-supplying;  and  the  family  at  the  great  house  had  to  do 
the  thinking,  contriving,  cutting,  and  doctoring  for  a  family  of  as 
many  helpless,  improvident  children  as  there  were  slaves. 

In  such  a  busy,  healthy  home  as  this,  with  father,  mother,  two 
elder  sisters,  four  younger  sisters,  and  a  little  brother,  Thomas  Jef 
ferson  lived  in  his  boyhood.  He  was  happy  in  his  eldest  sister, 
Jane,  whose  mind  was  akin  to  his  own.  She  was  his  confidant  and 
companion,  and  shared  his  taste  for  the  arts,  particularly  his  early 
love  of  music.  The  family  were  all  reared  and  baptized  in  the 
Church  of  Kn^land;  and  this  sister  greatly  excelled  in  singing  the 
few  fine  old  psolui-tuncs  which  then  constituted  the  whole  psalmody 


OUR  JEFFERSON'S  CHILDHOOD.  13 

of  the  Protestant  world.  For  a  century,  it  is  said,  there  were  but 
five  tunes  sung  in  the  colonial  churches.  By  the  fireside  in  the 
winter  evenings,  and  on  the  banks  of  their  river  in  the  soft,  summer 
twilight,  there  were  family  singings,  Jane  Jefferson's  melodious 
voice  leading  the  choir  ;  to  which  was  added,  as  the  years  went  on, 
the  accompaniment  of  her  brother's  violin.  There  must  have -been 
much  musical  feeling  in  the  family  to  have  generated  in  this  boy  so 
profound  a  passion  for  music  as  he  exhibited.  He  speaks  of  three 
early  tastes  as  "the  passion  of  his  soul," — music,  mathematics, 
and  architecture ;  and  of  these  the  one  first  developed  was  music. 

The  massive  instruments  with  which  we  are  familiar  —  tjie  piano 
and  the  organ  —  would  have  been  unattainable  in  a  Virginia  farm 
house  at  that  period,  even  if  they  had  been  sufficiently  perfected  to 
warrant  transportation  so  far.  The  violin,  called  by  its  old-fashioned 
name  of  the  fiddle,  king  of  instruments,  was  almost  the  only  one 
generally  known  in  the  back  countries  of  the  colonies.  In  Vir 
ginia,  when  Jefferson  and  Patrick  Henry  were  merry  lads  together, 
both  of  whom  played  the  fiddle,  it  appears  that  almost  every  farm 
house  which  had  a  boy  in  it  could  boast  a  fiddle  also.  Mr.  Rives,  in 
his  "  Life  of  Madison,"  among  many  other  precious  things,  pre 
serves  the  programme  of  the  rustic  festivities  arranged  for  St. 
Andrew's  Day  in  1737,  in  the  next  county  but  one  to  Jefferson's, 
Albemarle.  It  throws  light  on  his  early  violin,4  besides  showing 
how  English  the  tone  of  Virginia  was  at  that  period. 

First,  twenty  horses  were  to  run  round  a  three-mile  course  for  a 
prize  of  five  pounds,  no  one  "  to  put  up  a  horse  unless  he  had  sub 
scribed  for  the  entertainment  and  paid  half  a  pistole."  Next,  a  hat 
of  the  value  of  twenty  shillings  was  to  be  cudgelled  for.  Then,  a 
violin  was  to  be  played  for  by  twenty  fiddlers,  —  "no  person  to  have 
the  liberty  of  playing,  unless  he  bring  a  fiddle  with  kirn."  When 
the  prize  had  been  awarded,  all  the  performers  were  to  play  together, 
each  a  different  tune,  and  to  be  treated  by  the  company.  Next, 
twelve  boys,  twelve  years  of  age,  were  to  run  a  hundred  and  twelve 
yards  for  a  hat  worth  twelve  shillings.  A  "  quire  of  ballads  were  to 
be  sung  for  by  a  number  of  songsters,  all  of  them  to  have  liquor 
sufficient  to  clear  their  windpipes."  A  pair  of  silver  buckles  was  to 
be  wrestled  for  by  "  a  number  of  brisk  young  men."  "  A  pair  of 
handsome  shoes  "  was  to  be  "  danced  for."  A  pair  of  handsome  silk 
stockings  of  one  pistole  value  was  to  be  given  to  "  the  handsomest 


14  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

young  country  maid  that  appears  in  the  field."  A  "handsome 
ontei -tainim-nt '"  was  also  to  be  provided  for  the  subscribers  and  their 
wives;  u  and  such  of  them  as  are  not  so  happy  as  to  have  wives 
mav  treat  any  other  lady."  Drums,  trumpets,  and  hautboys  were 
to  plav;  and,  at  the  feast,  the  healths  of  the  king  and  of  the  gover 
nor  were  to  be  drunk.  The  programme  concluded  by  notifying  the 
public,  that,  "as  this  mirth  is  designed  to  be  purely  innocent  and 
void  of  offence,  all  persons  resorting  to  these  are  desired  to  behave 
themselves  with  decency  and  sobriety;  the  subscribers  being  re 
solved  to  discountenance  all  immorality  with  the  utmost  rigor." 

Tin-  prominence  assigned  to  the  violin  contest  in  these  festivities 
explains  the  frequent  allusions  to  it  in  the  early  memorials  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  lessens  our  surprise  at  Jefferson's  statement,  that,  during 
twelve  years  of  his  early  life,  he  practised  on  the  violin  three  hours 
a  dav.  The  innocent  instrument,  it  appears,  had  an  ill  name  among 
tin-  .-strii-t'T  religious  people  of  the  mountain  counties,  where  "evan 
gelical  "  principles  prevailed.  Our  zealous  young  amateur  may  have 
heard  a  sermon  once  preached  in  a  parish  church  near  his  home  by 
Charles  Clay, — cousin  of  the  eloquent  Kentuckian,  —  in 
which  the  preacher  warned  his  hearers  against  the  "profanation" 
of  Christmas  Day  by  "fiddling,  dancing,  drinking,  and  such  like;" 
.  he  said,  which  were  only  too  common  in  Albemarle. 
Then,  as  now,  it  was  the  drink  that  did  the  mischief,  though  the 
fiddle  and  the  dance  had  to  share  the  blame. 


CHAPTEB  IV. 

JEFFERSON'S  SCHOOL-LIFE. 

PETER  JEFFERSOX  began  early  to  execute  his  heartfelt  intention 
of  educating  his  son.  This  was  not  so  difficult  as  has  been  repre 
sented.  Twenty  years  before  the  child  was  born,  the  Bishop  of 
London,  in  whose  diocese  Virginia  was,  addressed  certain  questions 
to  the  Virginian  clergy.  One  of  the  questions  was,  "  Are  there  any 
schools  in  your  parish  ?  "  All  the  clergymen,  except  two  or  three, 
answered,  "  None ;  "  and  the  two  or  three  who  did  not  make  this 
answer  could  only  claim  that  their  parishes  had  "  a  charity  school." 
Another  question  was,  "  Is  there  any  parish  library  ?"  To  this,  all 
the  clergy,  except  one  man,  answered,  "  None  ; "  and  that  one  man 
made  this  reply,  "We  have  the  Book  of  Homilies,  the  Whole  Duty' 
of  Man,  and  the  Singing  Psalms."  But,  by  the  time  Jefferson  was 
old  enough  to  go  to  school,  there  were  a  few  schools  in  the  more 
densely  peopled  counties  of  Virginia  ;  and  several  of  the  more  learned 
and  decent  of  the  clergy  received  pupils  into  their  houses  for  instruc 
tion  in  Latin  and  Greek.  *  , 

He  was  fortunate  in  his  teachers,  as  in  all  things  else.  At  five 
he  went  to  a  school  where  only  the  English  language  was  employed ; 
at  nine  his  education  seriously  began,  when  he  entered  a  Scottish 
clergyman's  family  as  a  boarding  scholar,  where  he  learned  Latin, 
Greek,  and  French.  Entries  in  Peter  Jefferson's  account-book,  still 
existing,  show  that  he  paid  the  Eev.  William  Douglass  sixteen 
pounds  sterling  a  year  for  his  son's  board  and  tuition.  This  first 
instructor  of  Thomas  Jefferson  came  over  from  Scotland  as  tutor  in 
the  family  of  Colonel  Monroe,  father  of  President  Monroe,  and  set 
tling  on  the  James,  near  Peter  Jefferson's  tobacco  plantation,  spent 
a  long  life  in  teaching  young  and  old.  He  was  of  what  we  now  call 
the  "  evangelical "  school,  and  regarded  Dr.  Doddridge's  works  as 

15 


16  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

more  precious  than  gold,  —  "  the  best  legacy  "  he  could  leave  his  chil 
dren.  Peter  Jefferson  was  a  vestryman  of  his  church.  The  boy 
was  evidently  much  at  home  during  the  five  years  he  spent  at  this 
school,  —  always,  probably,  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays;  and  bis 
father  took  cure  that  the  boy  did  not  neglect  a  child's  first  and  chief 
duty,  which  is  to  grow.  He  also  instructed  him  in  arithmetic  and  the 
rudiments  of  mathematics,  then  generally  neglected  in  classical  schools. 

But  this  excellent  father  was  not  destined  to  experience  the  no 
blest  triumph  parents  know,  —  that  of  seeing  his  child  a  full-formed 
man,  and  better  equipped  for  life's  journey  than  himself  had  been  at 
starting.  IT  is  great  strength  did  not  avail  to  bring  him  to  old  age. 
In  17.w>7,  when  he  was  but  fifty  years  old,  he  died  of  a  disease  not 
record- -«l. 

After  HraiUoek's  defeat,  in  1755,  there  could  have  been  little  rest  for 
such  a  colonel  of  a  frontier  county  as  he  was ;  and,  indeed,  there  are 
indications  —  pay-rolls  and  other  military  documents  and  entries  — 
am  >•,  j  1  Is  i-xi-ting  papers,  showing  that  he  was  active  against  the  ex 
ulting  f.i".  Nothing  was  heard  of  for  a  time  on  the  borders  but  mas 
sacre  and  lire,  and  the  flight  of  whole  counties  of  settlers  to  the  lower 
country.  It  is  of  this  period,  in  the  midst  of  which  Colonel  Jefferson 
died,  that  the  youthful  commander  of  the  Virginian  forces,  Colonel 
Washington,  wrote  that  despatch  from  the  frontier  which  startles  every 
reader  of  his  letters  by  its  burst  of  vehement  pathos.  "  The  sup- 
pi  ieat  in  ^  t'-ars  of  the  women  and  moving  petitions  of  the  men,"  he 
.  ••  melt  me  with  such  deadly  sorrow,  that  I  solemnly  declare, 
if  I  know  my  own  mind,  I  could  offer  myself  a  willing  sacrifice  to 
the  butchering  enemy,  provided  that  would  contribute  to  the  peo 
ple's  ease."  The  county  colonels  were  all  in  arms  during  that  time 
of  terror.  Colonel  John  Madison,  in  Orange,  the  next  county  to 
Albemarle,  and  nearer  the  seme  saw  some  of  the  horrors  of  the  war 
from  hi*  o\\n  front  door.  His  son  James,  four  years  old  at  the  time 
of  I'.raddoek's  defeat,  always  remembered  the  terror  and  desolation 
of  the  two  next  years.  Exposure  and  fatigue  may  have  rendered 
tin-  eolonel  of  Albemarle  County  liable  to  the  attack  of  one  of  the 
summer  diseases,  for  it  was  on  the  17th  of  August  that  he  died. 

His  death  is  spoken  of  as  sudden;  but  this  good  father,  it  seems, 
hail  time  and  strength,  sudden  as  his  death  may  have  been,  to 
render  his  eldest  son  one  last  service.  Dying,  he  left  an  injunction 
that  :i  should  be  completed,  and  enjoined  those  in 


JEFFERSON'S  SCHOOL-LIFE.  17 

whose  charge  he  was  to  be,  not  to  permit  him  to  neglect  the  exor 
cises  requisite  for  his  body's  development.  This  strong  man  valued 
strength.  He  used  to  say  that  the  weakly  in  body  could  not  be  in 
dependent  in  mind ;  and,  therefore,  among  his  dying  thoughts  was 
solicitude  for  his  son's  healthy,  unchecked  growth.  He  died  leaving 
his  wife  still  young,  not  quite  forty  ;  one  daughter  seventeen  ;  an 
other  sixteen  j^-his  son  Thomas  fourteen  •  another  daughter  thir 
teen  ;  another  eleven  ;  another  five  ;  and  a  boy  and  girl,  twins,  aged 
twenty-two  months.  To  the  end  of  his  days,  Jefferson  spoke  of  his 
father,  thus  early  lost,  with  pride  and  veneration ;  and  he  especially 
loved  to  think  that  his  dying  command  was  that  his  son's  mind 
should  not  be  wronged  of  its  due  culture  and  nourishment.  He 
used  to  say,  that,  if  he  had  to  choose  between  the  education  or  the 
estate  his  father  gave  him,  he  would  choose  the  education. 

His  father's  death  left  him  his  own  master ;  for  he  says  in  one  of 
his  later  letters,  that,  "at  fourteen  years  of  age  the  whole  care  and 
direction  of  myself  was  thrown  on  myself  entirely,  without  a  rela 
tion  or  friend  qualified  to  advise  or  guide  me."  The  first  use  he 
made  of  his  liberty  was  to  change  his  school. 

Fourteen  miles  away  was  the  parsonage  of  E/ev.  James  Maury,  a 
man  of  great  note  in  his  time,  and  noted  for  many  things  ;  from 
whose  twelve  children  have  descended  a  great  number  of  estimable 
persons  of  the  name  still  living.  Of  Huguenot  descent  and  gen* 
uine  scholarship,  he  was  free  both  from  the  vices  and  the  bigotry 
which  the  refuse  of  the  young  English  clergy  often  brought  with 
them  to  Virginia  in  the  early  time.  Pamphlets  of  his  remain,  main 
taining  the  right  and  liberal  side  of  questions  bitterly  contested  in 
his  day.  He  was  one  of  the  clergymen  of  the  Established  Church 
in  Virginia  who  opposed,  with  voice  and  pen,  that  senseless  persecu 
tion  of  Dissenters,  which  at  last  brought  the  Church  itself  to  ruin. 
He  went  so  far  as  to  say,  in  a  printed  address,  that  he  should  feel  it 
an  "honor  and  happiness"  to  promote  the  spiritual  good  of  "any 
one  honest  and  well-disposed  person  of  whatever  persuasion  ;  "  and, 
though  he  preferred  his  own  church,  he  thought  he  saw  errors  in  it, 
as  well  as  in  the  other  sects,  and  should  be  glad  to  assist  in  the  cor 
rection  and  improvement  of  loth  ! 

The  coming  of  this  clergyman  into  the  mountain  region,  about 
the  time  of  Jefferson's  birth,  was  evidently  a  welcome  event ;  for  a 
glebe  of  four  hundred  acres  was  at  once  set  off  for  him,  and  so  spa- 

2 


1  ^  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

i'.:"  was  built,  that  lie  was  able  to  add  to  his  own  large 
faniilv  some  ]>npils  from  the  adjacent  counties.  By  the  time  Jef- 
fer-ui  was  fourteen,  an  important  school  had  grown  up  about  him, — 
the  best,  it  is  thought,  thi-ii  existing  in  the  Province;  and  it  con 
tinued  to  flourish,  under  one  of  Mr.  Maury's  sons,  as  late  as  the 
IS! )S,  \\IMMI  one  of  its  pupils  was  President  of  a  nation  which 
tin-  1' Minder  of  the  school  did  not  live  to  see  established. 

\\"e  d-i  not  know  what  .It-ll'-rson  ivad  in  Latin  and  Greek  during 
the  r  j  that  he  remained  at  Mr.  Maury's  school ;  but  we  know 

that  In-  learned  nothing  hut  Latin  and  Greek.     A  classmate  and  an 
•«f  hi-  at  this  school  was  the  second  son  of  the  master,  also 
nam<'d  dame-  :   !;>  whom  Mr.  .Jeiferson.  whe:i  Secretary  of  State  un 
der  I'joid-Mit  \Va-hing?on.  gave  th-  Liver[>ool  consulship,  which- he 
held  for  forty-five  years.     The  consul,  on   his   return   to  Virginia  in 
old  age,  used  to  -ay  tlr.it  Jefferson  was  noted  at   his  father's  school 
for  scholarship,  industry,  and  shyness.      If  a  holiday  was  <]">ired,  it 
was  not  In-  who  could  be  induced  to  usk  it.  though   he   urged    others 
t«»  a-!-;  :    and.  if  the  request  was  granted,  he  would,  first   of  all.  with 
draw    from    ti:  •  •!•,, \v,J    of  his   schoolfellows,    learn   next   day's 
m,  and    t  !>'-n.  rejoining   them,  begin    the  day's  pleasure.      Tin-li 
fe  diversion  was  hunting  on  a   mountain   near  by,  which    then 
and    li".ig   alter  abounded    in    deer,  turkeys,  foxes,   and    other    game. 
l\t>  \\.i-  a  keen  hunter.  a<  ea'jer  after  a  fox   as  Washington  himself, 
and  s.mnd  «-f  wind,  coining   in  fresh  and  alert  after  a 
long  d  iv's  clami'ering  hunt. 

After  two  year.-'  stay  at  this  school,  he  began,  like  other  students, 
to  be  impatient  to  enter  college.  He  had  never  yet  seen  a  town, 
n»r  even  a  village  of  twenty  h-Mi-es.  {or  there  was  none  sii"h  within 
his  i  ibttew  had  the  ,-:;  f  youth  to  behold 

the  g    d        of  the  capital.      He   found   plenty  of  reasons   for   gratify 
ing  his  Wish,  SMinc  of  which  he  laid  before  his  guardian,      lie  lost  a 
ibu:t'.i    of  his   time,  he   said,    by   company   coining   to   Shadwell    and 
detaining  him  from  school,  which  added  very  much   to   the   exp 
of  tl  i'i  housekeeping-      At   the  college,  too,  he  could   i 

"something  of  mathematics."  as  well   as   the  languages  a;id  "could 
i  more  universal  acquaintance,  which   may  hereafter  be    service- 
abb-   to  me."      His    guardian    c"iisenting.   he    bade    farewell    to    his 
ier    and    si>ters,  and    set    otf.  early    in    the    spring  of    17GO,    foe 
Wflliamibargh,  live  days'  long  ride  from  his  home. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HE    GOES    TO    COLLEGE. 

IT  was  not  the  custom  of  this  young  gentleman,  nor  of  Virgini 
ans  generally  then,  to  perform  their  journeys  with  straightforward 
rapidity.  They  took  friends'  houses  on  the  way,  were  easily  per 
suaded  to  remain  over  Friday,  Saturday,  and  Sunday,  and  made  the 
most  of  the  opportunity.  Such  was  eminently  the  habit  of  young 
Jefferson,  related  as  he  was  to  half  the  families  of  the  Province,  and 
seldom  going  far  from  home  without  his  fiddle,  and  perhaps  a  roll 
of  "new  minuets"  from  London,  so  welcome  to  young  ladies  in  the 
remoter  counties.  It  was  always  impressed  on  his  memory,  that  he 
began  this  interesting  journey  before  Christmas,  and  staid  over  for 
the  holidays  at  a  merry  house  in  Hanover  County,  where  he  met,  for 
the  first  time,  a  jovial  blade  named  Patrick  Henry,  only  noted  then 
for  fiddling,  dancing,  mimicry,  and  practical  jokes.  He  was  mis 
taken,  however.  An  existing  letter  of  the  time  shows  that  he  had 
not  thought  of  going  to  college  till  after  Christmas,  and  did  not  con 
sult  his  guardian  on  the  subject  till  January  was  half  gone.  He 
probably  spent  the  holidaj'-s  with  Patrick  Henry,  returned  home, 
and  then  entered  upon  the  project  of  going  to  college.  But  it  was 
alwa_ys  his  custom,  in  his  journeys  to  and  from  Williamsburg,  to 
make  long  visits  to  friends  on  and  near  the  road ;  and  it  was  this, 
perhaps,  that  led  to  the  error.  He  remembered  the  future  orator 
merely  as  the  prime  mover  of  all  the  fun  of  the  younger  circle,  and 
had  not  a  suspicion  of  the  wonderful  talent  that  lay  undeveloped 
within  him.  As  little,  doubtless,  did  Patrick  Henry  see  in  this 
slender,  sandy-haired  lad  a  political  leader  and  associate,  —  the  pen 
of  a  Eevolution  of  which  himself  was  to  be  the  tongue. 

On  reaching  Williamsburg,  we  may  be  sure  he  did  not  see  that 
metropolis  with  our  disparaging  eyes.  In  the  old  letters  and  me- 


20  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

moirs  we  re.id  delusive  accounts  of  its  splendors  and  gayeties,  —  of 
the  "  viceregal  court,''  "  vying  in  elegance  with  that  of  St.  James  ;  " 
of  the  grand  equipages  of  "  the  gentr}T ; "  and  of  all  the  pomp  and 
circum-tance  of  old  Virginia,  gathered  then;  in  the  winter.  It  was 
'•'the  centre  of  taste,  lash  ion,  and  refinement,"  we  are  told;  and  the 
entertainments  given  at  "the  palace  "were  a  blending  of  refine 
ment  and  Bnmptuosity  "  worthy  of  the  representative  of  ro}ralty." 
Such  statements  do  not  prepare  the  cold  investigator  to  discover  that 
the  capital  of  Virginia  was  an  unpaved  village  of  a  thousand 
inhabitants,  surrounded  by  an  expanse  of  dark-green  tobacco-fields 

a-  iV'  eye  <•  >»uld  reach.     Andrew  Burnaby,  an  English  clergy 
man  who  visited  it  eight  months  before  the  arrival  of  our  student, 
I  the  number  of  its  houses  at  "  about  two  hundred,"  and  its 
population  at  "one  thousand  souls,  whites  and  negroes."     He  men- 
.  aNo,  that  "then-  are  ti-n  or  twelve  gentlemen's  families  con- 
stanilv  residing  in  it,  besides  merchants  and  tradesmen."     But  he 
adds  that  in  the  winter,  when  the  legislature  and  the  great  court  of 
'•olony  were  in  session,  the  place  was  "  crowded  with  the  gentry 
of  the   country,"  and   then   there  were  balls  and   gayeties  ;    but,  as 

as  business  is  over,  the  gentry  return  to  their  plantations,  and 
4Mh"  t-iwn  is  in  a  manner  deserted." 

Williamsbnrg,  insignificant  as  it  may  seem  to  us,  furnished  the 
pattern  for  the  city  of  Washington.  It  consisted  chiefly  of  one 

.  a  hundred  feet  broad  and  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  with 
the  Capitol  at  one  end,  the  college  at  the  other,  and  a  ten-acre 
simaiv  with  public  buildings  in  the  middle.  It  was  well  arranged  to 
display  whatever  of  equipage  or  costume  the  town  could  boast.  As 
the  gvat  planters'  families  travelled  in  their  own  huge  coaches, 
which  at  hast  had  /><•/•>*  gorgeous  in  the  fashion  of  the  age, — 
'.•a\vn  of  necessity  by  six  horses,  —  and  as  the  dress  of  the 
period  was  bright  with  color  and  picturesque  in  style,  we  may  well 
b.'li-v.'  that  this  broad  avenue  presented,  during  the  season,  a  strik- 

nd  animated  scene. 

Tin- 'public  building!,  as  they  appeared  to  Jefferson's  maturer 
judgment,  were  of  a  mongrel  description,  generally  unpleasing  and 
inharmonious.  Tin-  Capitol,  in  which  he  was  to  witness  such  thrill 
ing  scenes,  and  take  part  in  such  important  events,  he  thought  "a 
light  and  airy  structure." — •  heavy  an-l  dull  as  it  looks  in  the  old 

iv-;  an-l  the  governor  .  though  not  handsome  without, 


HE  GOES  TO  COLLEGE.  21 

was  large  -and  commodious,  and  surrounded  by  agreeable  grounds ; 
but  the  college  and  the  hospital  he  condemns  utterly.  They  were 
"rude,  misshapen  piles,  which,  but  that  they  have  roofs,  would  be 
taken  for  brick-kilns."  This,  however,  was  the  remark  of  a  con 
noisseur  in  architecture.  The  main  edifice  of  the  college  resembled 
those  brick  barracks  of  Yale  and  Harvard,  built  in  the  same  period  : 
two  stories  high,  with  a  steep  roof  and  a  row  of  windows  in  it,  and  a 
small  belfry  on  its  summit ;  quite  good  enough  for  young  gentlemen 
who  kept  dogs  and  guns  in  their  rooms,  and  considered  it  the  chief 
end  of  students  to  frustrate  the  object  for  which  they  were  sent  to  the 
institution.  This  building,  with  two  solid-looking  professors'  houses 
near  it,  all  standing  in  a  square  of  four  acres,  marked  with  well- 
worn  paths,  and  not  wanting  in  large  trees,  presented  upon  the 
whole  a  respectable  appearance.  The  arriving  student  probably  did 
not  think  it  so  despicable  as  the  author  of  the  "  Notes  on  Virginia." 
The  private  houses  of  Williamsburg,  according  to  Mr.  Burnaby, 
were  "of  woodj  covered  with  shingles,  and  but  indifferently  built." 
The  site  of  the  town,  however,  was  agreeable,  —  an  elevated  plateau, 
midway  between  the  York  and  the  James,  six  miles  from  both. 
Those  breezes  which  swept  across  the  peninsula,  and  raised  the 
clouds  of  dust  in  Williamsburg  streets  that  annoyed  the  English 
traveller,  tempered  the  burning  heat  of  the  summer,  and,  as  he 
records,  kept  the  town  free  from  mosquitoes. 

Such  was  Williamsburg  in  1760,  the  chief  residence  of  Jefferson 
for  the  next  seven  years,  the  most  important  period  of  his  life  ; 
for  it  was  then  that  he  acquired  his  knowledge  and  his  opinions. 
Whatever  Williamsburg  may  have  been  to  others,  it  was  to  him  a 
true  university;  because,  coming  into  familiar  contact  there  with  a 
few  universal  minds,  he  was  capable  of  being  instructed  by  them. 
He  brought  with  him  to  college  the  three  prime  requisites  of  the 
successful  student,  —  perfect  health,  good  habits,  and  an  inquisitive 
intellect.  He  had  come  from  a  pure  and  honest  home,  where  he 
had  learned  nothing  but  what  was  good  and  honorable ;  and  lie  had 
come  in  good  faith,  to  fulfil  his  father's  fond,  intention  of  making 
him  a  scholar. 

It  was  an  ill-starred  institution,  this  College  of  William  and  Mary. 
It  'had  existed  sixty-eight  years,  having  been  founded  in  1692  by 
the  sovereigns  whose  names  it  bore.  They  gave  it  an  endowment, 
as  an  old  historian  records,  of  "  nineteen  hundred  and  eighty-five 


•2'2  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

pounds  fourteen  shillings  and  ten  pence,"  besides  twenty  thousand 
•crea  of  land,  and  certain  taxes  that  yielded  three  hundred  pounds 
a  year.  Other  benefactors  had  bequeathed  and  given  it  property, 
until  it  enjoyed  an  annual  income  of  three  thousand  pounds ;  which 
was  enough,  with  the  tuition  fees,  to  maintain  an  efficient  college. 
J'.ur.  like  Harvard  and  Yale,  the  institution  was  hampered  by  the 
incongruous  conditions  imposed  by  the  donors  of  its  capital.  One 
important  est;,  .iven  for  the  express  purpose  of  maintaining 

Indians  at  the  college;  and  Indians  were  maintained  accordingly. 
But  Indians  cannot  receive  our  civilization.  If  the  college  had  any 
success  with  an  Indian  youth,  he  was  no  sooner  tamed  than  he  sick- 
iMi"d  and  died.  The  rest  may  have  assumed  the  white  man's  habits 
while  they  remained  at  Williamsburg;  but  the  very  day  that  they 
rejoined  their  tribe  they  threw  off  their  college  clothes,  resumed 
their  old  costumes  and  weapons,  and  ran  whooping  into  the  forest, 
irreclaimable  savages.  And  so  this  fondly-cherished  project  of  the. 
benefactors  ended  jn  utter  failure.  But  the  estate  remained  ;  its  in 
come  could  only  be  spent  in  one  way ;  and  hence  the  Indian  nuisance 
still  clung  to  the  college,  wasting  its  resources  and  lessening  its 
attractiveness.  ~ 

A  leading  object  of  the  founders  was  to  provide  learned  ministers 
of  the  Established  Church  ;  and  consequently  there  was  a  professor 
of  "divinity,"  another  of  moral  philosophy;  and  the  only  special 
duty  as>ignrd  to  the  president,  in  return  for  his  t\vo  hundred  pounds 
a  year  and  his  handsome  house,  was  the  delivery  of  four  theological 
lectures  per  annum.  As  if  to  give  still  greater  prominence  to  the 
department  of  theology,  the  reverend  president  usually  held  the  office 
of  commissary,  or  bishop's  representative,  at  a  hundred  pounds  a  year, 
and  had  charge  of  the  parish  church  of  Williamsburg,  which  swelled 
his  income  to  about  six  hundred  a  year,  —  an  official  revenue  only 

•ded  by  that  of  the  governor.     Those  who  know  for  what  kind 

of  reasons  the  fut  things  in  church  and  state  were  usuallv  given  in 

jood  old  times  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  one  of  thec«ni- 

iry-presidents  of  the  college,  in  Jefferson's  youth,  could  not  pro 
ceed  against  the  clergy  for  drunkenness,  because  lie  was  himself  a 
drunkard  ;  nor  will  he  be  at  a  loss  how  to  explain  the  indications  of 
college  riot  that  lurk  in  the  letters  of  the  time. 

over,  the  chief  object  of  the  founders  was  not  accomplished. 
As  the  parishes  were  u.-ually  assigned  to  English   clergymen,  whom 


HE  GOES   TO   COLLEGE.  23 

the  Bishop  of  London  sent  to  Virginia  beccause  there  was  nothing 
for  them  in  England,  few  young  Virginians  entered  the  college  with 
a  view  to  compete  for  a  church-living  of  sixteen  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco  per  annum.  Yet  the  costly  professorships  of  divinity  had 
to  be  kept  up,  and  the  college  was  obliged  to  continue  a  theological 
seminary  without  theologians. 

Dead  branches  are  not  only  merely  inert  and  useless  :  they  injure 
and  disfigure  the  tree.  •  This  college,  which  ought  to  have  attracted 
the  elite  of  Virginia  youth,  and  sent  them  home  strong  and  enlight 
ened  to  save  beautiful  Virginia  from  the -blight  of  tobacco,  repelled 
many  of  them,  and  seldom  regenerated  those  who  came.  Youn<* 
men  whose  fathers  could  afford  the  expense  went  to  English  Eton, 
Oxford,  and  Cambridge,  often  returning  as  ignorant  as  they  went 
out,  and  dissolute  beyond  hope  of  reform.  Of  late  years  the  college 
had  been  filling  up,  more  and  more,  with  boys  who  came  to  learn 
the  rudiments  of  Latin  ;  and  it  was  some  time  before  a  clear  dis 
tinction  was  made  between  these  and  the  students  proper  of  the 
college.  /Jefferson  found  the  institution  a  medley  of  college,  Indian 
mission,  and  grammar-school,  ill-governed,  and  distracted  by  dissen 
sions  among  its  ruling  powers.  The  Bishop  of  London,  who,  as 
chancellor  of  the  institution,  had  the  nomination  of  its  professors, 
sometimes  sent  out  men  so  manifestly  incompetent  or  unfit,  that  the 
trustees  would  not  admit  them  ;  and  others,  being  admitted,  led  scan-, 
dalous  lives,  and  filled  the  college,  as  the  trustees  said,  with  riot, 
contention,  and  dissipation.  Jefferson  in  old  age  wrote  of  "the 
regular  annual  riots  and  battles  between  the  students  and  the  town- 
boys,  before  the  Revolution,  part  of  which  I  was,  and  the  many  and 
more  serious  affrays  of  later  times."  On  Sundays,  we  are  told,  when 
the  divinity  professors  and  reverend  president  were  away  performing 
parochial  duties,  the  more  orderly  students  went  off  shooting,  with 
their  dogs  behind  them,  and  the  others  made  the  village  resound 
with  their  noise.  It  was  not  until  several  years  after  Jefferson's 
time,  that  the  rights  of  the  several  authorities  of  the  college  were 
so  defined  that  the  suppression  of  these  disorders  became  possible. 

But  out  of  this  chaos  Thomas  Jefferson  contrived  to  pick  a  genu 
ine  university  education;  because,  among  the  crowd  of  its  school 
masters,  mission  teachers,  divinity  professors,  and  bishop's  proteges, 
there  was,  by  some  strange  chance,  one  man  of  knowledge  and  abil 
ity,  one  man  who  did  not  "  survey  the  universe  from  his  parish  bel- 


'24  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

fry."  one  skilful  and  sympathetic  teacher.  "  It  was  ray  great  good 
fortune,"  li«-  savs,  in  his  too  brief  autobiography,  "  and  what  probably 
iix-'.l  tlu-  destinies  of  my  life,  that  Dr.  William  Small  of  Scotland 
then  professor  of  mathematics.  A  man  profound  in  most  of  the 
;1  branches  of  science,  with  a  happy  talent  of  communication, 
correct  and  gentlemanly  manners,  and  an  enlarged,  liberal  mind. 
He,  most  happily  for  me,  soon  became  attached  to  me,  and  made  me 
his  duilv  companion  when  not  engaged  in  the  school;  and  from  his 
conversation  I  got  my  first  views  of  the  expansion  of  science,  and 
of  the  system  of  things  ii>  which  we  are  placed.  Fortunately  the 
philosophical  chair  became  vacant  soon  after  my  arrival  in  college, 
and  he  was  appointed  to  fill  it  per  interim ;  and  he  was  the  first 
who  ever  gave,  in  that  college,  regular  lectures  in  ethics,  rhetoric, 
and  belles-lettres."  It  is  a  .pleasure  to  copy  a  passage  like  this, — 
one  more  testimonial  to  add  to  the  long  list  of  similar  ones,  from 
.Man-us  Aurelius  to  Lord  Brougham,  which  attest  the  immeasurable 
value  of  an  enlightened  teacher  of  youth. 

I  wish  we   had   something   more   particular  of    this    gentleman. 

rson's  college   intimate,  John  Page,  governor   of  Virginia   in 

peaks  of  him  as  "my   beloved   professor,"    who   was 

nvanl  the  great  Dr.  Small  of  Birmingham,  the  darling  friend 

of  1  )ar\vin."     And  he  confesses  that  he  did  not  derive  all  the  benefit 

from  his  instruction  that  he  might;  for  he  was  "  too  sociable  to  study 

as  Mr.  .leti'crsmi  did,  who  could  tear  himself  away  from  his   dearest 

friends  to  lly  to  his  studies." 

Another  friend  of  Jefferson,  John  Burk,  author  of  a  "History  of 
Virginia,''  insinuates  that  Dr.  Small  was  not  too  orthodox  in  his  opin 
ions.  The  professors,  he  remarks,  were  usually  chosen  from  '•  the 
licensed  champions  of  orthodoxy ;"  by  which  he  appears  to  mean 
tin-  clergy  :  but,  "  now  and  then,  in  spite  of  the  jealous  scrutiny  of 
the  metropolitan,  some  unbeliever  would  steal  into  the  fold."  This, 
h«-  adds,  wus  part  iciilarly  the  case  with  the  mathematical  department, 
for  which  divines  were  gem-rally  incompetent ;  and  he  illustrates 
this  observation  by  mentioning  "the  friend  and  companion  of  the 
•  and  philosophic  Darwin,"  Professor  Small,  who  had  formed 
the  minds  of  so  many  of  the  youth  of  the  Province.  It  is  certain  the 
QflQegl  was  beginning  to  have  an  ill  name  among  the  religious  peo 
ple,  not  mi  account  of  the  bad  lives  and  inefficient  teaching  of  some  of 
"the  diviiu-/'  connected  with  it,  but  of  the  heretical  opinions  supposed 


HE  GOES   TO   COLLEGE.  25 

to  prevail  among  the  students.  The  true  reason,  it  is  said,  why  James 
Madison  went  to  Princeton  College,  was  the  dread  his  parents  had 
lest  he  should  imbibe  those  opinions  if  he  attended  the  college  nearer 
home.  Edmund  Randolph,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Jefferson  in  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State,  was  a  student  of  William  and  Mary  about  this 
time.  He  used  to  say  that  such  heresies  were  much  in  vogue  at  the 
college,  and  he  had  a  vivid  recollection  of  a  scene  that  followed  his 
utterance  of  something  in  unison  with  the  prevailing  tone.  One  of 
the  leaders  of  the  new  opinions  patted  him  on  the  head,  and  calk-d 
him  a  promising  youth  for  daring  to  express  so  bold  a  thought.  The 
fact  remains,  however,  that  all  the  professors  were  required  by  law 
to  subscribe  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  all  their  pupils  to  say 
the  Church-of-En gland  Catechism.  -  * 


CHAPTER  VI. 

•AT    COLLEGE. 

THE  student  settled  to  his  work.     Without  neglecting  Latin   and 
Greek,  his  chief  employment  since  his  ninth  year,  he  now  became, 
under  Professor  Small's  tuition,  enamoured  of  mathematics.     That 
wrote  in  later  years,  became  "the  passion  of  his  life;" 
and  In-  ri.uM  ivad  off  in  his  youth,  "with  the  facility  of  common 
rarse,"  processes  which  at  seventy  cost  him  "labor  and  time  and 
slow  investigation."     It  is  evident,  from   many  trifling  indications, 
that  In-  Mibdued   mathematics  to  his  will,  and  employed  it  all  his 
day-  as  a  familiar,  obedient  servant.     Part  of  his  travelling  appa- 
:i  on  >liort  journeys,  was  a  box  of  instruments  and  a  book 
of  logarithms,  and  he   always  had    a  rule  in  his  pocket.     Professor 
Small,  who  left  Scotland  about  the  time  (1756)  that  Professor  Black 
wa>  appointed  to  the  chair  of  chemistry  which  he  covered  with  im 
mortal   lustre.  —  James  Watt  and  the  improved  steam-engine  being 
among  its  incidental  results,  —  shared  in  the  new  enthusiasm   for 
applied  science;  and  be  imparted  it  to  his  young  companion.     There 
was   some   apparatus,  it    appears,  at  William   and  Mary.      Doubtless 
Pfcofi  M    C  Small  possessed  the  electrical  tubes,  one  of  which  Benjamin 
Franklin,    printer,    had    rubbed    with    so    mudi    effect    lift  ecu    years 
•;ls  «>f  the  student's  scientific  course  we  do  not  possess; 
but  we  km>w  that  he  derived  from  his  walks  and  talks  with  Professor 
i  the  habit   of  surveying  objects  with   the  eyes  of  science,  and 
subj«-et:.ng  their:  to  scientific  nvts, —  one  of  the  chief  points  of  differ- 
eno-  b etween  th.-  educati-d  and  the  ignorant  mind. 

1  hard  in  c..l!ege,  and  ever  harder,  as  his  circle  widened, 
—  too  hard  at  last,  —  fifteen  hours  a  day.  a-  he  said  himself  when 
talking  of  college  days.  He  kept  a  horse  or  two  at  Williamsburg, 
it  ap]  ad  riding  on  horseback  should  be  part  of  every  college 


AT   COLLEGE.  27 

course) ;  but,  as  his  love  of  knowledge  grew,  his  rides  became  shorter 
and  less  frequent,  until  the  only  exercise  he  allowed  himself  on  a 
regular  working-day  was  a  rapid  run  out  of  town  of  a  mile  while  it 
was  getting  dark  enough  for  candles.  The  beloved  violin  was  never 
quite  laid  aside :  he  snatched  a  kiss  now  and  then, _mstead  of  his 
three  hours'  wooing.  Though  relate^-l^mmgK'Tnrmother,  to  most 
of  the  society  of  the  place,  and  fond  of  society,  he  withdrew  from  it 
more  and  more.  Few  students  could  have  indulged  in  such  excess 
of  mental  exertion  with  impunity;  nor  could  he  for  a  long  period, 
although  "  blessed,"  as  he  once  wrote,,  "  with  organs  of  digestion 
which  accepted  and  concocted,  without  ever  murmuring,  whatever 
the  palate  chose  to  consign  to  them."  His  habits,  too,  were  excel 
lent.  The  simple,  old-fashioned  cookery,  that  gave  the  human  race 
so  many  ages  of  good  digestion,  had  not  yet  become  one  of  the  lost 
arts  in  Virginia ;  and,  like  most  of  the  well-nurtured  young  Vir 
ginians  of  that  period,  he  was  so  happy  as  to  escape  the  servitude  of 
tobacco.  Many  planters  of  the  olden  time,  who  had  grown  rich  by 
the  culture  of  tobacco,  held  the  use  of  it  in  contempt.  One  reason 
assigned,  in  a  letter  of  the  period,  why  the  young  men  of  Virginia 
should  not  be  sent  to  England  for  education,  was,  that  they  were  so 
likely  to  acquire  there  the  horrid  practice  of  smoking. 

The  number  of  persons  much  interested  in  intellectual  affairs  has 
never  been  great  in  any  community,  not  even  in  college-towns. 
In  the  Williamsburg  of  that  day  we  hear  of  but  two  individuals 
who  could  be  associates  of  Dr.  Small.  One  was  Francis  Fauquier, 
the  lieutenant-governor  of  the  Province,  who  inhabited  "  the  palace," 
and  presided  over  the  the  grand  entertainments  given  therein.  Jef 
ferson  speaks  of  him  as  the  ablest  governor  colonial  Virginia  ever  had. 
Perhaps,  in  saying  so,  he  meant  to  damn  him  with  faint  praise.  He 
appears  to  have  been  a  gentleman  of  the  school  of  Louis  XIV., 
translated  into  England  by  Charles  II.,  and  into  English  by  Lord 
Chesterfield:  We  find  him  spoken  of  as  the  most  elegant  gentleman 
Virginia  had  ever  seen,  a  great  patron  of  learning  and  literature, 
himself  an  admirable  scholar,  master  of  an  excellent  style,  both 
spoken  and  written.  It  was  he  who  set  the  fashion  of  importing 
French  literature,  which  filled  so  many  Virginia  libraries,  a  few  years 
later,  with  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  D'Alembert,  and  Diderot.  He  it  was 
also  who  introduced  high  play  into  the  polite  society  of  the  Province, 
or  at  least  made  high  play  reputable ;  which  hastened  the  collapse  of 


28  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

some  showy  Virginia  fortunes,  already  eaten  hollow  by  London  cred 
itors.  Whatever  his  faults,  he  was  a  man  of  high  personal  and 
oflieial  honor.  He  \v;is  one  of  the  few  royal  officers  in  the  colonies 
who  disdained  to  increase  their  revenues  by  conniving  at  illicit  com 
merce.  Archdeacon  Buruaby  reports,  that,  at  a  time  when  other  gov 
ernors  were  not  so  scrupulous,  Governor  Fauquier  refused  an  offer  of 
two  hundivd  p.iunds  for  a  permit  to  trade  with  the  enemy.  He  was 
a  gentleman,  too,  of  eminent  courtesy,  of  agreeable  conversation, 
inteiv-ied  in  knowledge  and  literature,  acquainted  with  the  polite 
world  of  cities,  — a  man  of  the  metropolis  residing  for  a  while  in  a 
province. 

Pr«»f.  Small  being  the  governor's  most  familiar  associate,  our  stu 
dent,  young  as  he  was,  became  intimate  with  him  also,  and  was  thus 
brought  into  communication  with  the  great  world.  The  governor, 
among  his  oilier  accomplishments,  was  a  musical  amateur.  Once  a 
week  he  had  a  musical  party  at  the  palace,  to  which  the  guests 
brought  their  instruments.  Jefferson  was  regularly  present  with  his 
violin  ;  and  at  these  parties,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  perhaps, 
;rd  music  performed  in  concert. 

I '»nt  it  was  the  governors  conversation  that  did  most  to  form  his 
mind.  It  was  during  these  years  that  Great  Britain,  by  the  cou- 
•  of  India,  Canada,  and  many  islands  of  the  sea,  became  impe 
rial  ;  and  when  the  news  of  victory  came,  Fauquier  could  tell  the 
.student  something  of  the  mighty  Chatham,  who  found  his  country  an 
island,  and  l.-fr  it  an  empire.  In  Jefferson's  first  year  at  college, 
••The  Williamsbvrg  Gazette,"  Virginia's  only  newspaper,  published 
tlu-  account  of  the  accession  to  the  throne  of  George  III.,  who  found 
his  country  an  empire,  and  left  it  an  island.  Of  that  young  prince, 
welcomed  to  the  throne  by  acclamations  in  every  quarter  of  the 
•.  llu»  governor  could  doubtless  relate  hopeful  things,  much  to 
the  content  of  his  young  Whig  friend  from  Alhemarle.  The  Jeiler- 
sons,  as  a  Whig  family,  could  not  but  hail  with  joy  the 'accession  of 
the  lir.-t.  king  of  the  Hanover  line  who  was  a  native  of  Knghind. 
They  were  loyal  subjects  ever,  and  none  of  them  more  so  than  this 
youth,  the  present  head  of  the  family.  From  Governor  Faiujuier, 
too,  he  heard,  doubtless,  something  of  the  literary  gossip  of  London, 
fresh  traditions  of  Addison,  Kwifr,  Thomson,  Pope,  and  Boling- 
broke.  All  this  was  education  to  the  young  student.  He  was  get- 
.  •  of  the  world  in  a  very  agreeable  way.  Sitting,  as 


AT   COLLEGE.  29 

he  says,  at  "the  familiar  table"  of  the  governor,  with  Professor 
Small  opposite  him,  he  was  learning  to  estimate  things  by  other 
than  Virginian  standards,  and  saw  more  of  the  universe  than  could 
be  discerned  from  the  parish  belfry.  Most  happily,  too,  he  was  one 
of  those,  who,  as  they  go  their  way  through  life,  get  the  good 
that  chance  companions  have  to  offer  them,  without  imbibing  the 
evil  that  qualifies  it.  He  caught  the  graces  and  escaped  the  vices  of 
the  Chesterfield  period.  In  avoiding  the  governor's  habit  of  gam 
bling,  he  went  even  to  an  extreme ;  for,  it  is  said,  he  never  had  a 
card  in  his  house. 

But  the  daily  familiar  party  at  the  governor's  table  consisted  of 
four  persons.  The  fourth  remains  to  be  mentioned.  It  was  George 
Wythe,  a  rising  member  of  the  bar  of  Virginia,  who  was  destined  to 
a  distinguished  and  long  career  as  lawyer,  statesman,  professor,  and 
judge.  He  is  the  more  interesting  to  us  as  the  benevolent  and  wise 
preceptor  by  whom  three  persons  of  eminent  note  in  the  politics  of 
the  country  were  introduced  to  the  law,  and,  through  the  law,  to 
public  life,  —  Thomas  Jefferson,  John  Marshall,  and  Henry  Clay. 

Virginia,  during  the  hundred  and  twenty  years  of  seeming  pros 
perity  given  it  by  tobacco  grown  in  virgin  soil,  cultivated  by  low- 
priced  slaves,  was  an  illustration  of  Mr.  Buckle's  remark  concerning 
the  connection  between  leisure  and  knowledge.  "Without  leisure," 
he  observes,  <l science  is  impossible;  and,  when  leisure  has  been  won, 
most  of  the  class  possessing  it  will  waste  it  in  the  pursuit  of  pleas 
ure,  but  a  few  will  employ  it  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge."  How 
perfectly  this  describes  the  Virginia  of  1760 !  The  great  majority 
of  the  ruling  class  lived  lives  of  thoughtless  profusion  and  self- 
indulgence,  with  Governor  Fauquier  as  the  accomplished  master  of 
the  revels.  John  Burk,  historian  of  Virginia,  very  friendly  to  the 
memory  of  that  brilliant  personage,  tells  us  that  Fauquier  found 
the  Virginian  gentlemen  quite  to  his  mind,  —  as  profuse  and  fond 
of  pleasure  as  himself;  and,  after  spending  a  winter  of  elegant 
dissipation  at  the  capital,  he  would  enter  upon  a  round  of  visits  to 
the  great  proprietors ;  among  whom,  adds  Burk,  "  the  rage  for  play 
ing  deep,  reckless  of  time,  health,  or  money,  spread  like  a  conta 
gion." 

In  the  midst  of  such  scenes  grew  up  a  few  men  —  a  very  few,  but 
always  a  few  —  who  sought  knowledge  with  disinterested  love,  and 
with  such  success  as  almost  to  redeem  the  character  of  their  Pro- 


30  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

vince  and  period.  Three  of  the  best  educated  gentlemen  America 
Las  prodmv.l  were  young  men  during  Fauquier's  term  of  service, — 
Tlu>in:i-<  .JeiVerson,  James  Madison,  and  George  Wythe, —  all  of 
tin-in  men  of  singular  moral  purity  and  elevation  of  tone,  and  all 
eminently  capable  of  public  spirit.  It  seems  as  if  the  very  preva 
lence  of  tin-  self-indulgent  vices  made  these  golden  hearts  recoil 
fr«m  them  with  the  greater  decision  and  firmness.  Jefferson  wrote 

from  tlie  White  House  in  Washington  to  a  grandson  at  school : 
*  \Vhrn  I  recollect  the  various  sorts  of  bad  company  with  which  I 
•iated  from  time  to  time,  I  am  astonished  I  did  not  turn  off  with 
some  of  them,  and  become  as  worthless  to  society  as  they  were." 
he  adds,  "I  hud  the  good  fortune  to  become  acquainted 
V«TV  early  with  some  characters  of  very  high  standing,  and  to  feel 
the  incessant  wish  that  I  could  ever  become  what  they  were. 
Under  temptations  and  difficulties.  1  would  ask  myself,  What  would 
I);-.  8  tail,  Mr.  Wythe,  Peyton  Randolph,  do  in  this  situation? 
What  r«urse  in  it  will  insure  me  their  approbation?  I  am  certain 
that  this  mode  of  deciding  on  my  conduct  tended  more  to  correct- 

thau  any  iva<"iiing  powers  I  possessed.  Knowing  the  even 
and  digijili-'d  line  they  pursued.  I  never  could  doubt  for  a  moment 
which  of  >\vo  courses  would  be  in  character  for  them.  Whereas, 
seeking  the  same  object  through  a  process  of  much  reasoning,  and 
with  the  jaundiced  eye  of  youth,  I  should  often  have  erred.''  He 
tells  his  grandson  that  he  was  of  necessity  brought  into  contact  with 
the  extremes  of  character, — jockej'S  and  moralists,  racing  men  and 
philosophers,  gamblers  and  statesmen;  and  often,  "in  the  enthu- 
it  of  the  death  of  a  fox,  the  victory  of  a  favorite  horse," 
and  during  a  contest  of  mind  in  court  or  legislature,  he  has  asked 
himself  which  of  these  triumphs  he  should  prefer. 

Vythe  was  thirty-three  years  of  age  at  the  beginning  of 
Jell'  -liege  life.     Though  heir  of  a  competent  estate,  IP-  was 

wholly   sell-educated,   except   that  his  mother,  as  tradition   reports, 
•i-d  him  by  keeping  an  eye   upon  an   English  Testament   while 
he  tran -la;  ed  from  tin-  Greek.      He  became,  as  contemporaries  agree, 
the  ,  k   scholar  Virginia  had   ever  seen;  to  which  Mr.  Jef- 

:i   adds,  the  l>est    Latin  scholar  also.     Young  Henry  Clay,  his 

amanuensis   long    after,   not    knowing  a    <Ir<-ek    letter,  had    trouble 

enough   in   copying  hi  QB,   interspersed   as  they  were   with 

i   Greek   authors.     The    chancellor  was   an    old  man 


AT   COLLEGE.  81 

then,  and  this  habit  of  quoting  Greek  was  an  old  man's  foible;  bat 
when  Jefferson  was  a  student  at  Williamsburg,  he  knew  him  as  an 
able,  vigilant  lawyer,  an  enthusiast  for  all  classical  knowledge,  and 
fond  to  an  extreme  of  Greek  literature  and  Grecian  history.  Jeffer 
son's  preference  would  naturally  have  been  for  Greek  if  he  had 
never  seen  George  Wythe ;  but  doubtless  their  similarity  of  taste 
was  a  bond  of  union  between  them,  and  nerved  him  for  the  supreme 
achievement  of  old-fashioned  scholarship,  —  a  conquest  of  the  Greek 
language.  Wythe  was  a  man  of  nice  conscience.  He  was  among 
the  first  to  perceive  the  incongruous  iniquity  of  slavery  in  our  mod 
ern  world,  and  .he  early  washed  his  hands  of  it  by  emancipating  his 
slaves.  Henry  'Clay  went  straight  from  his  office  and  inspiration  to 
Kentucky,  where  Uis  first  political  act  was  an  attempt  to  induce 
that  young  Commonwealth  to  start  fair  by  abolishing  slavery. 

Such  was  the  party  oftenest  gathered  about  the  governor's  "  fami 
liar  table  :  "  Professor  Small,  the  mathematician  and  man  of  science ; 
George  Wythe,  the  moralist,- learned  in  law  and  Greek;  Francis 
Fauquier,  the  man  of  the  world  of  the  period ;  Thomas  Jefferson,  a 
shy,  inquisitive  young  man,  quick  to  take  in  all  which  these  accom 
plished  men  had  to  give,  and  contributing  his  share  of  the  enter 
tainment  by  the  intelligent  sympathy  with  which  he  listened. 
These  men  were  his  teachers ;  this  table  was  his  university. 

Four  persons  so  formed  to  entertain  and  improve  one  another 
need  never  expect  to  remain  long  together.  The  party  was  broken 
in  1762  by  Professor  Small's  removal  to  Birmingham,  where  he  had 
a  bright  career.  The  young  man  whom  he  aided  to  form  corre 
sponded  with  him  till  the  Revolutionary  War.  They  did  not  agree, 
it  seems,  on  the  topics  of  the  Revolutionary  period ;  but  Jefferson 
not  the  less  revered  him  as  the  person  who  met  him  at  the  thresh 
old  of  life,  and  directed  his  steps  aright,  — who  kept  him  out  of  the 
slough  of  mean  Provincial  pleasures  and  excesses  by  awakening  his 
intelligence,  and  guiding  him  to  the  sources  whence  its  proper 
nourishment  is  drawn.  An  awakened  mind,  a  hearty  interest  in 
intellectual  things,  is  virtue's  strongest  ally ;  and  Jefferson  felt  that 
he  owed  this  unspeakable  boon  to  Professor  Small. 

A  profession  was  necessary  to  the  student.  His  father's  tobacco- 
farm  on  the  James  was  the  portion  of  his  brother  Randolph,  still  a 
child.  The  Shadwell  estate  was  charged  with  the  support  of  his 
mother  and  six  sisters ;  and  Virginia  estates  were  not  apt  to  be  very 


32  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

pr  i  lu. -live  when  the  eye  of  the  master  was  wanting.  He  can 
scarcely  he  said  to  have  had  a  choice  of  vocations.  He  was  the  la-r 
-ii  in  the  world  to  think  of  the  army  or  navy  as  a  career;  and, 
if  he  had,  it  would  not  have  been  possible,  perhaps,  for  him  to  get  a 
commission.  It  was  not  a>  a  "midshipman"  that  Washington's 
mother  'height  of  sending  her  son  to  sea,  but  as  a  sailor  before  the 
mast :  su.-h  was  the  narrow  choice  a  parent  had  then  in  Virginia  for 
VOUDJ:  -  sons.  The  very  letter  which  discloses  this  unexpected 
pi. -re  of  information  shows  how  few  employments  were  exercised  in 
the  .Province..  Mrs.  Washington  mentioned  the  scheme  of  sending 
Geor  .  to  her  brother,  Joseph  Ball,  in  London.  That  gen 

tleman  replied,  that  she  had  better  put  him  an  apprentice  to  a 
tinker;  *•  for."  said  he,  "  a  common  sailor  before  the  mast  has  by  no 
means  the  common  liberty  of  the  subject;  for  they  will  press  him 
fr«.m  a  >hip  where  he  has  fifty  shillings  a  month,  and  make  him 
take  twenty-three,  and  cut  and  slash  him,  and  use  him  like  a  negro, 
or  rather  like  a  dog."  And  even  (he  proceeds  to  say)  if  the  lad 
should  work  his  way  to  the  top  of  the  ladder,  and  become  the  mas 
ter  of  a  Virginia  ship,  a  "  very  difficult  thing  to  do,"  a  planter  that 
has  three  ..r  four  hundred  acres  of  land  and  three  or  four  slaves,  if  he 
be  ii  dustriotis,  may  live  more  comfortably,  and  leave  his  family  in 
better  bread,  than  such  a  captain  can.*  And  so  the  mother  thought 
bette.*  of  her  project,  and  ( reor^e  Washington  did  not  attempt  the 
dillic  ilt  achievement  of  rising  to  be  master  of  a  tobacco-ship.  . 

There  were  no  manufactures  in  the  Province,  except  the  very 
rudest  and  enidest.  People  sent  to  London  for  every  thing  that 
s  c.nild  not  make,  even  window-sashes  and  the  commoner 
implement.  The  commerce  was  in  British  hands.  There  was,  of 
course,  no  art,  no  literature,  no  journalism,  and  nothing  that  could 
tempt  intelligence  or  ambition  in  the  medical  profession.  If 
Th'>:i  rson  had  been  reared  in  a  European  capital,  the  first 

wi>h  of  his  heart  would  have  been  to  be  an  artist  of  some  kind. 
After  ti»ying  with  music  for  a  while,  he  would  perhaps  have  fixed 
upon  aivhiteeture  a-  hi-  profession.  In  Virginia,  at  Williamsburg, 
with  •  \Vythe  for  a  daily  associate,  he  mu>t  needs  become  a 

lawyer:  and  accordingly,  in  17i '»:>,  after  two  years' residence  at  the 
college,  he  lu-gaii,  under  Mr.  \Vytlie's  direction,  the  study  of  the 
law. 

*  Mcade'B  Old  Churches,  Ministers,  and  Families  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii.  p.  123. 


AT  COLLEGE.  83 

Perhaps  the  example  of  his  jovial  young  acquaintance,  Patrick 
Henry,  first  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  legal  profession.  In  1760, 
a  few  days  after  his  arrival  in  Williamsburg,  who  should  present 
himself  at  his  room  in  the  college  but  the  merry  Patrick  !  But  he 
had  come  on  a  serious  errand.  He  was  bent  on  a  change  in  his 
mode  of  life,  that  had  important  consequences  for  his  country  as 
well  as  himself.  He  told  the  student,  that  since  they  had  parted, 
after  the  Christmas  holidays,  two  or  three  months  before,  he  had 
studied  law  !  He  had  studied  it,  in  fact,  six  weeks  ;  and  h^  had  now 
come  to  Williamsburg  to  get  a  license  to  practise.  And  he  got  it ! 
Of  the  four  examiners,  only  one,  George  Wythe,  persisted  in  refus 
ing  his  signature ;  and  the  three  names  sufficing,  he  went  off 
triumphant,  to  tend  his'father-in-law's  tavern  for  four  years  longer, 
until  his  opportunity  came.  Our  student  made  110  such  haste.  It 
was  not  in  his  nature  to  slight  his  work,  and  he  prepared  himself 
for  a  four  years'  course  of  reading. 
8 


CHAPTER  VII. 

JEFFERSOX    IN    LOVE. 

IT  is  college  days  were  over  when  lie  had  been  two  years  a  student 
at  William  and  Mary ;  and  he  went  home  HI  December,  l~r>2,  with 
Coke  upon  Ly  ttleton  in  his  trunk,  to  spend  the  winter  in  reading  law. 
Hi-  made  tin*  journey  in  his  usual  leisurely  way,  visiting  friends  near 
tlie  n>ad.  and  found  himself,  about  Christmas  time,  at  a  friend's  house 
half  a  day's  ride  from  his  own  Shad  well.  There  he  staid  for  two 

or  tltr lays,  taking  part  in  the  festivities  of  the   season,  to  which 

he  could  always  eontrihute  his  violin.  On  this  occasion  he  had 
brought  with  him  a  roll  of  new  minuets  for  the  young  ladies;  and 
d"Ui>lless  he  did  his  part  toward  tl\£  entertainment  of  the  company. 

Hut  he  had  left  his  heart  behind  him  at  Williamsburg.  lie  had 
danced  too  many  minui't-  in  the  Apollo  —  the  great  room  of  the  old 
Kalei^-h  taveni  —  with  Miss  Keheeca  Harwell,  one  of  the  orphan 
daughters  of  a  great  house  near  the  capital ;  and  she  had  given  him 
a  watch-paper,  cut  and  painted  with  her  own  lovely  hands;  and  he 
found  his  mind  dwelling  night  and  day  upon  her  sweet  image.  He 
had  parked  his  Coke  at  Williamsburg,  with  the  most  virtuous  reso 
lutions  of  n-ading  him.  even  amid  the  gayeties  of  the  holiday  time; 
but  the  work  lay  in  his  trunk  untouched.  He  even  wrote  to  his 
college  friend,  John  Page,  that  he  wished  the  Devil  had  old  Coke, 
for  In-  was  sure  he  never  was  >«>  tired  of  an  old  dull  scoundr  1  in  his 

life.    -What!"  he  says, "  are  there  so  few  inquietudes  tacked  to  this 

momentary  life  of   ours,  thai  we    must    n Is    be    loading   ourselves 

with  a  thousand  more?"  Ho\v  different  this  from  the  tone  of  fond 
regard  with  which  he  speaks,  in  the  grave  letters  of  his  matmvr 
years,  of  Coke  and  \\l<  work's.  Hut  he  was  in  love;  and  he  was  writ 
ing  "n  a  Christmas  Day,  a  hundred  miles  from  the  object  of  his 
affection. 

34 


JEFFERSON  IN  LOVE. 

He  had  risen  on  that  joyful  morning  to  face  what  must  have  been, 
to  a  young  fellow  in  love  for  the,  first  time,  a  dreadful  catastrophe. 
He  told  his  friend  Page  that  he  was  in  a  house  surrounded  by  ene 
mies,  who  took  counsel  together  against  his  soul ;  who,  when  he  lay 
down  to  rest,  said,  Come,  let  us  destroy  him  !  In  the  night  the 
"  cursed  rats,"  at  the  instigation  of  the  Devil,  if  there  was  a  Devil, 
had  eaten  hi$>  pocket-book  within  a  foot  of  his  head,  carried  off  his 
"jemmy-wotfked  silk  garters,"  and  all  those  new  minuets.  But 
these  were  trifles.  It  had  rained  in  the  night;  and  in  the  morning 
he  found  his, watch  all  afloat  in  a  pool  of  water,  and  as  silent  as  the 
rats  that  had  eaten  his  pocket-book.  But  this  was  not  the  catastro 
phe.  "'The  subtle  particles  of  the  water  with  which  the  case  was 
filled,  had,  by  their  penetration,  so  overcome  the  cohesion  of  the 
particles  of  the  paper  of  which  my  dear  picture  and  watch-paper 
were  composed,  that,  in  attempting  to  take  them  out  to  dry  them  — 
good  God  !  Mens  horret  referre!  —  my  fingers  gave  them  such  a 
rent,  as  I  fear  /never  shall  get  over."  He  is  so  overcome  by  the 
recollection,  that  he  cannot  keep  up  the  jocular  strain,  but  breaks 
into  a  serious  invocation.  Whatever  misfortunes  may  attend  the 
picture  or  the  lover,  his  hearty  prayers  shall  be,  that  all  the  health 
and  happiness  which  Heaven  can  send  may  be  the  portion  of  the 
original,  and  that  so  much  goodness  may  ever  meet  with  what  is 
most  agreeable  in  this  world,  as  he  is  sure  it  must  in  the  next.  "And 
now,"  he  adds,  "  although  the  picture  may  be  defaced,  there  is  so 
lively  an  image  of  her  imprinted  in  my  mind,  that  I  shall  think  of 
her  too  often,  I  fear,  for  my  peace  of  mind,  and  too  often,  I  am  sure, 
to  get  through  old  Coke  this  winter." 

Message  upon  message  he  sends  to  the  young  ladies  at  Williams- 
burg,  with  whom,  he  says,  the  better  part  of  him,  his  soul,  ever  is, 
though  that  heavy,  earthly  part,  his  body,  may  be  absent.  With 
one  he  has  a  bet  pending  of  a  pair  of  silk  garters ;  which  the  rats 
knew  he  was  destined  to  win,  else  they  never  could  have  been  so 
cruel  as  to  carry  off  the  pair  he  had.  And  oh,  would  Miss  Bunveil 
give  him  another  watch-paper  of  her  own  cutting  ?  What  does  dear 
Page  think  ?  Would  he  ask  her  ?  A  watch-paper  cut  by  her  fin 
gers,  though  it  were  only  "  a  plain  round  one,"  he  should  esteem 
much  more  than  the  nicest  one  in  the  world  cut  by  other  hands. 
Another  young  lady,  he  had  heard,  was  offended  with  him.  What 
could  it  be  for  ?  Neither  in  word  nor  deed  had  he  ever,  in  all  his 


36  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

beeQ  guilty  of  the  least  disrespect  to  her;  and,  no  matter  what 
she  mi^lit  say  or  do,  lie  was  determined  ever  to  look  upon  her  as 
"tin*  same  honest-hearted,  good-humored,  agreeable  lady "  he  had 
always  thought  her.  So  full  was  he  of  Williamsburg  and  its  lovely 
gir]s.'  —  ••  Suk.-y  Potter,"  "  Betsy  Moore,"  "Judy  Burwell,"  "Nancy," 
and,  above  all,  "  Becca  Burwell,"  otherwise  Ci  Belinda,"  the  adored 

—  that,  on  this  Christmas  Day,  17G2,  he  wrote  a  letter  about  them 
that  would  have  filled  a  dozen  of  our  trivial  modern  sheets  of  paper. 
It  well  became  him  to  write  such  an  epistle  on  his'nineteenth  Christ 
mas.  Young  nu'ii  of  nineteen  still  write  such  who  have  preserved 
their  innocence. 

II.-  was  at  home  soon  after  Christmas.  Absence  only  made  his 
heart  -row  fender,  lie  missed  the  gayety  and  variety,  the  friends 
and  stir  of  life  and  business  at  the  capital.  He  found  the  old  farin- 
housf  dull.  There  must  have  been  something  uncongenial  there, 
nate  a  youth,  the  head  of  the  family,  would  not  have 
spent  his  Chri>!ma>es  away  from  home.  Perhaps  his  mother  was 
oppivssi-d  by  the  care  of  a  family  of  eight  children  and  thirty  slaves ; 
or  she  may  have  agreed  with  that  small  portion  of  the  clergy  who 

.ded  the  fiddle  and  the  minuet  as  a  "profanation  "  of  Christmas. 
However  that  may  ho,  thi-*  sudden  change  from  the  Apollo  and  the 
palace,  from  college  friends  and  employments,  to  a  farm-house  on 
the  frontier  and  (Joke's  digest  of  law,  was  almost  too  much  for  his 
philosophy.  He  could  hardly  muster  spirits  to  write  to  his  friend 
When  ho  had  been  at  home  three  weeks,  he  wrote  a  short 

ir,  wjiich  shows  him  reduced  to  a  sorry  plight  indeed.  He  was 
torn  with  the  contest  raging  in  his  soul  between  his  passion  and  his 
judgment;  ami  he  plunges  into  a  letter,  as  it  were  fee^d-foremosr, 
seeking  relief  in  converse  with  his  friend,  with  whom  he  had  been 
accust»nied  to  exchange  such  confidences:  "Dear  Page,  to  tell  \<>n 
the  plain  truth.  I  have  not  a  syllable  to  write  to  you  about;  "  which 
was  a  lover's  wav  of  stating  that  his  heart  was  full  to  bursting.  "I 
do  not  conceive,"  he  continues,  "that  any  thing  can  happen  in  my 
world  which  you  would  give  a  curse  to  know."  The  tr,n-l,!$  of  these 
two  friends  were  indeed  unlike;  for  John  I'a-je.  heir  to  one  of  the 
laruv-t  estates,  lived  in  the  large.-t  man-ion  of  all  Virginia, —  Koswell, 
—  which  stands  to  this  day  near  the  banks  of  the  York  liiver,  a 
s'luaiv  harraclc,  treele>s,  fencelc.-s.  dismantled,  a  pile  without 
inhabitant,  a  picture  of  desolation.  "All  things  here,"  the  dis- 


JEFFEKSOX  IN   LOVE.  37 

tracted  lover  went  on,  "  appear  to  me  to  trudge  on  in  one  and  the 
same  round:  we  rise  in  the  morning  that  we  may  eat  breakfast,  din 
ner,  and  supper,  and  go  to  bed  again  that  we  may  get  up  the  next 
morning  and  do  the  same ;  so  that  you  never  saw  two  peas  more 
alike  than  our  yesterday  and  to-day." 

If  he  had  nothing  to  tell,  he  had  plenty  to  ask.  A  jury  of  lovers 
would  have  pronounced  his  situation  serious  in  the  extreme.  He 
was  enamoured  of  a  beauty  and  an  heiress:  she  in  the  full  lustre 
of  her  charms  ;  he  a  youth  not  twenty,  of  small  estate  heavily  bur 
dened,  reading  the  elementary  book  of  a  profession  requiring  years 
of  preparation.  Moreover,  he  had  the  usual  dream  of  foreign  travel. 
Before  settling  to  the  business  of  life,  he  meant  to  visit  England, 
Holland,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  —  where  he  would  buy  "  a  good  fiddle," 
—  and  then  cross  to  Egypt,  returning  home  by  the  way  of  the  St. 
Lawrencb  and  Canada.  Such  a  tour  would  require  two  or  three 
years.  Would  she  wait  ?  Could  he  ask  her  to  wait  ?  She  must 
love  him  very  much  to  do  that,  and  he  did  not  know  that  she  loved 
him  at  all;  for  the  watch-paper  meant  nothing  particular,  — indicat 
ing  friendly  feeling,  nothing  more.  What  would  dear  Page  advise  ? 
Should  he  go  at  once  to  town,  receive  his  sentence,  and  end  this 
awful  suspense  ?  Inclination  prompted  this  course ;  but,  if  she 
rejected  him,  he  would  be  "  ten  times  more  wretched  than  ever." 
In  this  dilemma,  he  had  some  thoughts  of  going  to  Petersburg,  "if 
the  actors  go  there  in  May,"  and  keeping  on  to  Williamsburg  for  the 
birth-night  ball  at  the  Apollo,  which  of  course  she  would  attend. 
But,  after  all,  had  not  he  and  Page  better  go  abroad  at  once  for  a 
two  or  three  years'  tour  ?  "  If  we  should  not  both  be  cured  of  love 
in  that  time,  I  think  the  devil  would  be  in  it." 

He  remained  at  home,  however,  all  that  winter  and  all  the  ensu 
ing  summer,  wrestling  with  love  and  Coke,  writing  long  letters  to 
Page  on  the  one,  and  long  notes  on  the  other  in  his  blank-books. 
Page,  though  he  was  as  far  gone  in  love  as  Jefferson,  tried  to  act 
as  his  friend's  attorney  in  love  ;  and  Jefferson,  on  his  part,  reflected 
much  on  Page's  "  case,"  and  favored  him  with  sage  advice.  And 
so  the  affair  went  on  nearly  all  that  year. 

"  The  test  of  a  woman  is  gold,"  says  poor  Richard,  "and  the  test 
of  a  man  is  woman."  This  young  man  bore  the  test  well.  He 
was  not  carried  away,  even  by  this  first  yearning  passion,  but  held 
firmly  to  his  purposes,  making  his  love  subordinate  to  them. 


38  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

After  viewing  the  subject  in  every  light,  he  could  only  come  to  this 
wNe  conclusion  :  If  slu-  said  Yes,  lie  should  be  happy;  hut,  "if  she 
does  not,  I  in  -vorto  be  as  much  so  as  possible."  He  then 

be-t<>ws  upon  his  fellow-sufferer  a  discourse  upon  the  necessity  of 
fortifying  the  mind  against  inevitable  strokes  of  ill-fortune,  "The 
only  method  of  doing  this,"  he  remarks,  "is  to  assume  a  perfect 
resignation  to  the  Divine  Will ;  to  consider  that  whatever  does 
happen  must  happen,  and  that  by  our  uneasiness  we  cannot  pre 
vent  the  blow  before  it  does  fall,  but  we  may  add  to  its  force  after 
it  has  fallen."  This  attitude  of  mind,  which  he  recommends  to  his 
friend  in  several  rotund  and  solemn  sentences,  will  enable  a  man  to 

i  the  thorny  path  of  life  with  "  a  pious  and  unshaken  resigna 
tion.''  He  ends  this  discourse  with  a  sentence  which  reminds  us 
that  Dr.  Johnson  was  then  a  power  in  the  world  :  "  Few  things  will 
disturb  him  at  all;  nothing  will  disturb  him  much."  •-. 

The  lover  had  occasion  for  all  his  philosophy.     In  October,  when 

the  General  Court  convened,  he  must  needs  be  in  Williamsburg,  to 

,  and   submit  knotty  questions  to  his  friend 

Wythe.  1 1 1-  flew  thither  on  the  wings  of  love.  There  was  a  ball 
at  the  Apollo.  lie  met  her  there.  Who  so  happy  as  he  when  he 
led  her  out  to  the  dance?  He  had  made  up  his  mind  to  speak,  if 
opportunity  favored;  and  he  had  meditated  some  moving  passages, 
which  he  hoped  would  touch  her  heart,  and  call  forth  the  response 
he  dc>iivd.  l»ut,  alas!  when  at  length,  after  so  many  months  of 
longing,  the  moment  arrived,  and  he  had  her  tet<:-u-tct<-t  he  could 
only  stammer  a  few  broken  sentences,  with  dreadful  pauses  between 
them  ;  which  elicited  no  explicit  reply,  and  had  no  result  except  to 
plunge  him  into  the  depths  of  shame  and  despair.  "For  God's 

.  COME,"  he  writes  to  Page,  who  had  not  yet  arrived.  lie  met 
her  again.  The  fearful  subject  was  again  approached.  This  time 
he  got  on  a  little  better;  explained  his  projects;  did  not  put  the 
question,  but  gave  her  to  understand  that  he  slioulil  do  so  in  duo 
time.  Girls  ot'  spirit  are  n<>t  won  in  that  manner,  and  we  may  pre 
sume  she  did  not  Hatter  his  hopes;  for  when  next  he  wrote  to  his 
frii-nd.  he  calls  the  capital  of  Virginia,  the  scene  of  his  disaster,  by 
the  name  of  "  Devilsburg."  The  probability  is,  that  the  young 
lady  wa>  engaged  at  the  time,  since,  a  few  months  after  the 
-•'-fi'fi-.  in  the  Apollo,  she  was  married  to  that  dread  being  — 

i<  r!     I'.ig'-,  too,  seems  to  have  bet-ii   crosse'd  in  love-  but  he 


JEFFERSON   IN   LOVE.  39 

immediately  consoled  himself  by  courting  —  another.  Poor  love-sick 
Jefferson  declared  he  would  not  believe  the  tale  till  he  had  heard  it 
from  Page  himself.  For  his  own  part,  he  had  been  perfectly  sure, 
during  the  whole  course  of  his  love,  that,  if  Belinda  rejected  him, 
his  heart  was  dead  to  love  forever;  and  he  wanted  to  know  his  fate 
as  soon  as  possible,  that,  if  doomed  to  disappointment,  he  might 
have  "  more  of  life  to  wear  it  off." 

How  captivating  to  lovers  is  the  poetry  of  love  !  It  was  during 
these  two  or  three  years  of  longing  that  London  ships  were  bringing 
to  Virginia,  among  the  other  new  publications,  volumes  of  the 
poems  of  Ossian,  invested  with  the  halo  of  a  London  celebrity,  soon 
to  become  European.  Burly  Johnson,  tyrant  of  Great  Britain,  had 
not  yet  denounced  them  as  forgeries ;  and  all  the  reading  world 
accepted  them  as  genuine  relics  of  antiquity.  In  these  poems  there 
is  much  which  could  not  but  have  impressed  a  youth  who  had 
listened  spell-bound  to  the  melodious  oratory  of  an  Indian  chief, 
of  which  he  understood  not  a  word,  and  gazed  with  such  interest 
upon  the  scene  of  the  various  groups  of  listeners,  each  group  by  its 
own  fire,  and  the  full-orbed  moon  shining  over  all.  It  was  an 
Ossian  scene.  But  he  was  now  a  lovelorn  young  man  ;  and  Ossian 
contains  on  almost  every  page  some  picture  of  beauty  in  distress, 
some  utterance  of  passion  or  tenderness,  which  lovers  can  easily 
make  their  own.  "  Daura,  my  daughter,  thou  wert  fair,  — fair  as  the 
moon  on  Fara,  white  as  the  driven  snow,  sweet  as  the  breathing 
gale."  So  was  Belinda.  "  Her  fair  bosom  is  seen  from  her  robe, 
as  the  moon  from  the  clouds  of  night,  when  its  edge  heaves  white 
on  the  view  from  the  darkness  which  covers  its  orb."  He  had  often 
observed  this  fine  effect  when  dancing  at  the  Apollo  with  Belinda, 
arrayed  in  the  bodice  of  the  period.  "Fair  was  she,  the  daughter 
of  the  mighty  Conlock.  She  appeared  like  a  sunbeam  among 
women."  Precisely  the  observation  he  had  frequently  made  to  Page, 
when  glorious  Belinda  appeared,  surrounded  by  her  excellent  but 
commonplace  friends.  "  Often  met  their  eyes  of  love."  Rapturous 
thought!  Would  it  ever  be  any  thing  more  than  a  thought? 
Tradition  has  not  recorded  the  color  of  Belinda's  hair;  but  whether 
it  were  of  the  hue  of  the  "raven's  wing,"  or  "dark  brown,"  or 
of  some  lighter  shade;  whether  she  wore  her  hair  "flowing,"  or 
"wandering,"  or  in  some  other  touching  style,  he  had  not  far  to 
go  in  Ossiaii  without  meeting  a  damsel  similarly  adorned,  with  the 
additional  resemblance  of  white  hands  and  snowy  arms. 


40  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

It  belongs  to  youth  to  abandon  itself  to  these  literary  raptures  ; 
but  there  has  seldom  been  a  case  of  such  lasting  fascination  as  this. 
He  could  not  get  over  it.  His  passion  for  Ossian  long  outlived  his 
love  for  IJelinda.  The  fulmimitions  of  Dr.  Johnson,  if  they  were 
heard  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  could  not  shake  his  faith.  It 
chanced  that  Charles  MacPherson,  a  relative  of  the  translator, 
visited  Virginia  a  few  years  after,  when  Jefferson  made  his  ac 
quaintance,  and,  we  may  be  sure,  gave  utterance  to  his  enthusiasm. 
Tin-  longer  he  read  the  ancient  poet,  the  more  interested  he  became  4 
and  for  ten  years  of  his  life,  at  least,  he  thought  "this  rude  bard 
of  the  North  the  greatest  poet  that  ever  existed."  His  friends  had 
but  to  start  that  topic  to  call  from  him  the  most  animated  discourse, 
interspersed  with  many  a  favorite  passage,  delivered  with  his  best 
elocution. 

Ossian  had  other  American  admirers.  Some  enthusiast,  perhaps, 
it  was  who  t«n.lv  the  name  of  Selina  from  Ossian,  and  gave  it  to 
a  town  in  Alabama,  since  become  important,  as  another  reader  of 
poetry  jam-led  the  pretty  name  of  Goldsmith's  ''Deserted  Village," 
and  railed  a  village  in  New  York,  Auburn.  With  regard  to  other 
familiar  authors,  the  student's  preferences  were  such  as  we  should 
t.  —  Shakspeare,  Homer,  Moliere,  Cervantes,  and  the  old  Eng 
lish  songs  and  ballads.  Copies  of  songs  in  his  youthful  hand  are 
still  prrsrn-rd,  —  simple  old  love-ditties  that  pleased  the  simple  old 
generations.  Fiction  had  not  then  become  one  of  the  fine  arts,  and 
he  had  little  relish  for  any  but  the  few  immortal  tales.  Don 
Quixote,  his  descendants  think,  was  the  only  fiction  he.  ever  read 
twice. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COMESTG   OF   AGE. 

FORTUXATELY  for  love-sick  swains,  the  affairs  of  this  vulgar 
world  go  on,  little  as  they  may  regard  them;  and,  indeed,  there  is 
reason  to  surmise  that  our  lover  recovered  his  serenity  very  soon 
after  he  knew  his  fate.  In  his  long  letters  to  Page  on  their  affairs 
of  the  heart,  there  is  generally  a  saving  clause  like  this,  "  The  court 
is  at  hand,  which  I  must  attend  constantly;  "  or  this,  "As  I  suppose 
you  do  not  use  your  '  Statutes  of  Britain/  if  you  can  lend  them  to 
nie  till  I  can  provide  myself  with  a  copy,  it  will  infinitely  oblige 
me."  During  the  period  of  his  preparation  for  the  har,  he  usually 
spent  the  winter  at  the  capital  and  the  summer  at  home  ;  working 
at  both  places,  as  he  did  everywhere  and  always,  with  a  constancy, 
system,  and  cheerfulness,  of  which  there  have  been  few  examples 
among  the  toiling  sons  of  men.  It  was  this  that  soon  enabled  him 
to  play  groomsman  for  happier  friends  with  so  much  gayety,  and 
contemplate  John  Page's  fortunate  suit  without  a  sigh.  If  we  pos 
sessed  nothing  of  this  part  of  his  life  but  these  familiar  letters  to 
John  Page,  wherein  love  and  the  Apollo  are  every  thing  to  him,  and 
Coke  appears  as  an  "  old  dull  scoundrel/'  lying  snugly  packed  in  a 
trunk,  we  should  be  utterly  deceived. 

Letters,  indeed,  though  of  eminent  value  as  biographical  material, 
are  most  misleading,  unless  we  employ  other  means  of  information. 
In  this  respect  they  are  like  newspapers,  which  are  a  kind  of  digest 
of  the  letters  of  the  time,  and  valnable  as  showing,  not  what 
occurred  at  a  given  period,  but  what  was  then  thought  to  have 
occurred.  The  very  exhaustion  which  results  from  long  mental  toil 
may  cause  a  student  to  write  in  a  strain  of  reckless  audacity  or  rol 
licking  merriment  very  unlike  his  habitual  tone, —  as  people  who 
find  themselves  in  extremely  dismal  circumstances  sometimes  aban- 

41 


42  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFEESON. 

don  themselves  to  hilarity.  As  to  the  letters  of  public  or  famous 
persons,  are  they  not  generally  written  under  the  expectation  or 
dread  of  ultimate  publication?  Happily  we  have  other  means  than 
the-e  ff\v  epistles  about  Belinda  and  the  girls,  of  knowing  how  this 
student  of  law  passed  his  time,  both  at  the  capital  and  at  home. 

1  la  came  of  age  in  April,  1764.  According  to  an  old  British 
in,  he  signalized  the  year  by  causing  an  avenue  of  trees  to  be 
planti-d  near  his  house.  Time  has  dealt  harshly  with  it;  for,  after  a 
hundred  and  ten  years,  there  are  only  a  few  battered,  decaying 
trees  left,  locusts  and  sycamores.  He  did  not  spend  this  birth 
day  at  home,  but  at  Williamsburg,'  where  he  and  all  the  other 
mathematical  heads  of  the  place  were  intent  upon  a  grand  opera 
tion  of  measurement.  "Every  thing,"  he  writes  to  Page,  "is  now 
iva.ly  for  taking  the  height  of  this  place  above  the  water  of  the 
creeks,"'  —  two  streams,  one  a  tributary  of  tho  James,  and  the  other 
of  the  York,  both  navigable  to  within  a  mile  of  Williamsbttrg  j 
and  he  hopes  Tage  will  come  to  take  part  in  the  interesting  affair, 
"if  his  mistivss  van  spare  him." 

He  did  not  delay  in  accepting  the  responsibilities  of  his  position 
i'-ading  gentleman  of  his  county.  We  find  him  soon  in  two  of 
his  father's  oflices, — justice  of  the  peace  and  vestryman  of  the 
pari.»h.  Not  long  after  coming  of  age  lie  set  on  foot  a  public  im 
provement  of  importance  to  his  neighborhood.  The  river  Rivanna, 
that  flowed  by  his  land,  although  a  considerable  stream,  was  so 
obstructed  as  to  he  useless  for  purposes  of  navigation.  Scarcely  an 
empty  canoe  hud  ever  floated  on  it  to  the  James.  Upon  reaching 
home  he  examined  its  channel;  and,  perceiving  that  it  could  be 
cleared  for  twenty-two  miles  without  too  great  exp«-n<",  he  set  on 
foot  a  subscription  for  the  purpose,  which  was  successful;  and,  after 
procuring  an  act  of  the  legislature  authorizing  the  work,  he  caused 
it  to  be  done.  The  result  was,  that  ho  and  his  neighbors  used  the 
river  thenceforth  for  carrying  down  all  the  produce  of  their  farms. 
Tims  did  this  colonial  squire  announce  and  celebrate  his  coming  of 

The  vi »ung  man  took  hold  of  his  business  as  a  farmer  in   a   man 
ner  \\hich  .-bowed  that  the  genuine  culture  of  the  mind  is  the   best 
preparation  lor  the  common  as  well  as  for  the  higher  duties    of  life. 
rery  thing  he  did  he  was  the  educated  bein;^.     Was  there  ever  a 
mortal  BO  exact,  go  punctual,  so  indefatigaj>kfas  he,  in  recording  and 


COMING  OF  AGE.  43 

tabularizing  details  ?  He  may  be  said  to  have  lived  pen  in  hand. 
He  kept  a  garden-book,  a  farm-book,  a  weather-book,  a  receipt-book, 
a  pocket-exp3nditure  book,  and,  later,  a  fee-book;  and  there  was 
nothing  too  trivial  to  be  entered  in  one  of  them,  provided  it  really 
had  any  relation  to  matters  of  importance.  In  the  small,  neat 
hand  then  common  in  Virginia,  he  would  record  in  his  pocket-book 
such  items  as  these :  "  Put  into  the  church-box,  Id. ;  "  "  Paid  a  barber, 
lid. ;  "  "  Paid  for  pins,  4/2  ;  "  "  Paid  for  whetting  penknife,  4d. ;  " 
"  Paid  my  part  for  an  express  to  Williamsburg,  10s. ;  "  "  Paid  Bell 
for  books,  35s. ;  "  "Paid  postage,  8/3."  In  his  garden-book,  for  some 
pages  of  which  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Randall,  may  be  read  count 
less  entries  like  the  following :  "  March  30,  sowed  a  patch  of  later 
peas ;  "  "  July  15,  planted  out  celery  ; "  "  July  22,  had  the  last 
dish  of  our  spring  peas  ;  "  "  March  31,  grafted  five  French  chestnuts 
into  two  stocks  of  common  chestnut."  His  garden-books  show 
that  he  was  a  bold  and  constant  experimenter,  always  eager  to  try 
foreign  seeds  and  roots,  of  which  he  introduced  a  great  number  in 
the  course  of  his  life.  They  show,  also,  that  he  was  a  close 
observer  and  calculator.  His  weather-book,  of  which  I  possess  a 
few  pages,  given  to  me  by  Mr.  Randall,  is  a  wonder  of  neatness  and 
minuteness,  —  fifty-nine  days'  weather  history  on  one  small  page. 
This  is  one  day's  record:  "March  24,  at  6.30,  A.M.,  ther.,  27°; 
barom.  25°,  wind  1ST.  W.  (force  of  wind  not  stated)  ;  weather,  clear 
after  rain,  Blue  Ridge  and  higher  parts  of  S.  W.,  mountain  covered 
with  snow.  No  snow  here,  but  much  ice ;  black  frost."  Multiply 
this  by  fifty-nine,  and  you  have  the  contents  of-  one  page  of  his 
weather-book,  every  word  of  which,  after  the  lapse  of  a  century,  is 
as  clear  and  legible  as  diamond  type.  It  is  ruled  in  ten  columns, 
one  for  each  class  of  entries.  This  practice  of  minute  record,  which 
remained  with  him  to  the  end  of  his  days,  he  began  while  he  was  still 
a  student.  Nor  did  he  ever  content  himself  with  the  mere  records 
of  items.  These  were  regularly  reviewed,  added,  compared,  and 
utilized  in  every'possible  way.  It  was  the  most  remarkable  of  all 
his  habits. 

Interesting  events  were  occurring  in  the  family  at  the  Shadwell 
farm-house.  During  his  first  year  in  college  one  of  his  sisters  was 
married  ;  and  now,  soon  after  his  coming  of  age,  another  marriage  in 
the  family,  and  one  that  proved  of  far  more  importance  to  the  head 
of  the  house,  became  probable. 


44  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Among  the  most  beloved  of  his  schoolfellows  was  Dabney  Carr,  a 
youth  destined  like  himself  to  the  bar.  It  was  that  Dabney  Carr 
who  fills  the  place  in  the  annals  and  the  hearts  of  Virginia  which 
young  Josiah  Quincy  occupies  in  those  of  Massachusetts ;  both 
baring  died  in  the  prime  of  early  manhood,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
!:  v..lution,  after  figuring  honorably  in  its  opening  scenes.  At  this 
time,  when  Jefferson  was  coming  into  his  duties  as  head  of  his 
family,  clearing  out  his  river,  and  watching  his  early  peas,  Dabney 
Carr  was  getting  into  practice  as  a  country  lawyer ;  and  when  Jef 
ferson  was  at  home,  during  the  long  summers,  the  two  friends  and 
felloVr-studenta  were  inseparable.  Two  miles  from  Jefferson's  home 
was  an  isolated  mountain,  five  hundred  and  eighty  feet  high,  which 
he  afterwards  named  Monticello,  or  The  Little  Mount,  covered  then 
to  the  summit  with  the  primeval  forest.  High  up  on  this  mountain, 
in  the  de»- j»,->!  shade  of  the  luxuriant  woods,  under  an  ancient  oak 
of  vast  size,  the  young  friends  constructed  a  rustic  seat;  and  thither, 
in  the  summer  mornings,  they  would  ride  with  their  law-books,  and 
pass  peaceful  days  there  in  study  and  conversation.  Both  of  them 
ne  strongly  attached  to  the  spot.  They  made  a  compact,  that 
whichever  of  them  died  first  should  be  buried  by  the  other  under 
that  i:ran<l  old  tree.  The  compact  was  fulfilled;  and  the  place  was. 
long  after,  enclosed  and  made  the  burial-place  of  the  Jeffersons  ;  so 
that  botli  the  friends  now  repose  on  the  spot  where  they  studied 
together  in  their  youth.  It  was  these  happy  visits  to  the  mountain 
that  led  to  its  selection,  by  and  by,  as  the  site  of  Jefferson's  abode. 

\Vhen  the  young  men  returned  to  Shadwell  at  the  close  of  the  day, 
they  returned  to  a  house  full  of  sisters,  three  of  whom  were  young 
ladies,  twenty-live,  twenty-one,  nineteen  years  of  age;  the  work  of 
the  day  done,  the  costume  of  the  evening  assumed,  the  evening  meal 
ready,  the  violin  and  music  in  the  next  room.  It  was  the  beautiful 
and  Billed  Martha,  in  her  nintccntli  year,  upon  whom  Dabney  Carr 
fixed  bis  affections ; 'and  in  the  summer  vacation  of  17(J.~>  JetitT-on 
had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  them  married.  The  bridegroom  had  still 
his  fortune  to  make;  and  they  went  away  to  live,  a  few  miles  off.  in 
the  next  county  of  Louisa,  in  a  house  amusing  to  them  all  forks 
smallness  and  simplicity.  It  was  one  of  the  triumphant  marriages. 
"This  friend  of  ours,  Page,"  wrote  Jefferson,  when  they  had  been 
live  years  married,  "in  a  very  small  house,  \viili  a  table,  half  a  dozen 
chairs,  and  one  or  two  servants,  is  the  happiest  man  in  the  universe. 


COMING  OF   AGE.  45 

Every  incident  in  life  he  so  takes  as  to  render  it  a  source  of  pleas 
ure.  With  as  much  benevolence  as  the  heart  of  man  will  hold,  but 
with  an  utter  neglect  of  the  costly  apparatus  of  life,  he  exhibits  to 
the  world  a  new  phenomenon  in  philosophy,  —  the  Samian  sage  in 
the  tub  of  the  cynic."  To  this  pleasing  picture,  Mr.  Wirt  adds, 
from  tradition  current  in  Virginia,  that  Dabney  Carr  was  the  most 
formidable  rival  in  oratory  that  Patrick  Henry  had  among  the  law 
yers  of  his  own  age  ;  and  that  his  person  was  of  engaging  elegance, 
and  his  voice  finely  toned.  In  old  age  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  of  him  as 
the  man  who  united  inflexible  firmness  of  principle  to  the  most  per 
fect  amiability. 

But  on  this  happy  wedding-day  in  July  the  shadow  of  death 
already  rested  upon  the  young  student's  home.  His  eldest  sister, 
Jane,  the  best  of  all  his  friends  hitherto,  was  approaching  her  end. 
She  died  in  October,  leaving  a  void  in  the  home  and  the  heart  of  her 
brother  that  was  never  quite  filled.  From  the  funeral  of  this  beloved 
sister  he  was  summoned  soon,  by  the  opening  of  the  General  Court, 
to  resume -his  law-studies  at  Willianisburg, 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   LAW-STUDENT. 

NOT  that  lie  discontinued  those  studies  at  home.  Pie  used,  in 
after  years,  to  tell  his  grandchildren,  that,  when  he  was  a  law-student, 
IK-  kept  a  clock  in  his  bedroom  at  Shadwell,  on  a  shelf  opposite  his 
hi-d  ;  and  his  rule  was  to  get  up  in  the  summer  mornings  as  soon 
as  hi-  could  see  what  o'clock  it  was,  and  begin  his  day's  work' at  once. 
In  the  winter  he  rose  at  five,  and  went  to  bed  at  nine.  lie  did  a 
fair  day's  w.>rk  at  his  law-books  every  day,  even  at  home,  besides 
attending  to  company,  besides  his  vigorous  gallop  on  horseback, 
1  s  walking  to  the  top  of  Monticello,  besides  looking  closely  to  his 
garden  and  farm,  besides  caressing  his  violin,  besides  keeping  up  his 
Latin,  Greek,  French,  and  an  extensive  system  of  other  reading. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude  that  at  the  capital  he  gave 
himself  to  study  more  completely  than  at  home  ;  and  it  is  there  that 
we  can  best  observe  him  as  a  student. 

The  law  is  not  an  easy  nut  to  crack,  even  in  these  days,  after  so  much 
of  its  lui>k  lias  been  cut  away  by  the  Broughams  and  the  Dudley 
Fields  of  the  legal  profession.  It  will  never  be  easy  to  apply  the 
eternal  principles  of  right  to  the  "cases"  that  arise  in  our  com  pi  i- 
1  human  life.  Jhit.  when  Jefferson  studied  law,  generations  of 
ingenious  men  had  spent  their  lives  in  investing  the  science  of  jus 
tice  with  difficulties,  artificial  and  needless.  They  had  wrought  with 
such  success,  thai  if  our  young  justice  of  the  peace  had  been  required 
to  record  that  John  Jones  had  hanged  himself  at  Williamsbnrg,  he 
would  have  heen  nlilig.-d  to  say,  —  and  I  now  copy  from  a  Virginia 
justice's  own  hook,  in  which  his  name  appears  as  a  subscriber,  —  that 
"John  Jones,  not  having  the  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes,  but  being 
moved  and  seduced  by  the  instigation  of  the  Devil,  at  Williamsburg, 
in  a  certain  wood  as  aforesaid,  standing  and  being,  the  said  John 

40 


THE  LAW-STUDENT.  47 

Jones,  being  then  and  there  alone,  with  a  certain  hempen  cord,  of  the 
value  of  three  pence,  which  he  then  and  there  had  and  held  in  his 
hands,  and  one  end  thereof  then  and  there  put  about  his  neck,  and 
the  other  end  thereof  tied  about  a  bough  of  a  certain  oak-tree,  him 
self  then  and  there,  with  the  cord  aforesaid,  voluntarily  and  feloni 
ously,  and  of  his  malice  aforethought,  hanged  and  suffocated." 
This  is  a  specimen  of  the  law  jargon  of  that  day,  for  the  retention 
of  which  lawyers  strove  so  long.  It  was  the  confused,  bewildering 
element  in  which  lawyers  worked  for  centuries. 

When  the  love-sick  student  opened  that  "old  dull  scoundrel,  Coke," 
he  opened  a  work  printed  in  black-letter,  and  offering  as  little  prom 
ise  of  entertainment  or  instruction  as  the  outside  of  a  gold-mine  does 
of  the  wealth  within  it.  The  author  himself,  in  his  Preface,  does 
not  flatter  his  readers  with  any  hope  of  pleasure  in  .the  perusal. 

"  I  shall  desire,"  he  says,  "  that  the  learned  reader  will  not  con 
ceive  any  opinion  against  any  part  of  this  painful  and  large  volume 
until  he  shall  have  advisedly  read  over  the  whole,  and  diligently 
searched  out  and  well  considered  of  the  several  authorities,  proofs, 
and  reasons,  which  we  have  cited  and  set  down  for  warrant  and  con 
formation  of  our  opinions  throughout  this  whole  work." 

To  add  to  a  student's  perplexity,  the  passages  from  Lyttleton,  the 
ancient  lawyer  whom  Coke  is  "upon,"  are  written  in  the  law-French 
of  Edward  III.'s  time,  plentifully  interspersed  with  Latin  equiva 
lents  and  illustrations.  But,  fortunately,  these  passages  are  short, 
being  mere  texts  for  old  Coke's  long  discourses.  In  the  edition  of 
1789  Lyttleton's  observations  on  "  Fee  Simple  "  occupy  a  third  of 
a  page ;  but  Coke's  quaint  and  subtle  treatment  of  the  topic  fills 
thirty-three  pages,  with  a  thick-set  hedge  of  references  down  each 
page.  It  would  be  an  excellent  month's  work  for  a  student  to  master 
that  one  chapter.  Tedious  and  repulsive  as  all  this  must  have  been 
to  a  youth  the  morning  after  dancing  with  Belinda  at  the  Apollo, 
Jefferson  learned  in  due  time  to  value  old  Coke  aright.  When,  in 
the  midst  of  his  law-studies,  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  called  at 
tention  to  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  he  turned  with  responsive  mind 
to  Coke's  learned  and'  cordial  comments  upon  Magna  Charta,  and 
recognized  a  master.  He  probably  did  not  know  that  one  Koger 
Williams  served  Lord  Coke  as  clerk  and  amanuensis  in  his  youth, 
and  went  from  his  inspiring  influence  to  convey  to  New  England  the 
first  notion  it  ever  had  of  the  rights  of  conscience.  What  Coke  did 


48  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

in  per- on  for  Roger  Williams  and  Rhode  Island,  Jefferson  thought 
lie  did  l>v  his  book  for  himself,  for  Madison,  for  Henry,  for  Dabney 
Carr.  for  Virginia,  for  the  United  States. 

'•  C"ke  Lvttleton,"  he  once  wrote,  "was  the  universal  elementary 
h  of  law-students;  and  a  sounder  Whig  never  wrote,  nor  of  pro- 
founder  learning  in  the  orthodox  doctrines  of  the  British  Constitu 
tion,  or  in  what  were  called  British  liberties.  Our  lawyers  were  then 
all  Whigs.  But  when  his  black-letter  text,  and  uncouth  but  cun 
ning  learning,  got  out  of  fashion,  and  the  honeyed  Mansfieldism  of 
]51ack->-o;ie  became  the  student's  horn-book,  from  that  moment  that 
profession  (the  nursery  of  our  Congress)  began  to  slide  into  Toryism, 
and  nearly  all  the  young  brood  of  lawyers  are  now  of  that  line.  They 
.suppos"  themselves  indeed  to  be  Whigs,  because  they  no  longer  know 
what  Whig-isin.or  Republicanism  means." 

When  hf  had  made  a  conquest  of  Coke,  he  was  desirous  of 
amending  to  the  sources  of  English  law  in  the  ages  preceding  the 
Norman  invasion ;  for,  as  one  of  his  old  friends  remarked,  he 
'•  Jtntr.l  Miporficial  knowledge."  He  perceived  that  law,  like  the 
other  sciences,  is  progressive  ;  and  that  Coke  merely  marked  a  stage 
of  its  progress.  He  used  to  compare  the  laws  of  England,  in  their 
course  down  the  ages,  with  the  journey  of  a  traveller,  who,  when  he 
has  accomplished  a  certain  distance,  stops,  looks  back  over  the  route 
he  has  punned,  recalls  the  business  he  has  done,  and,  before  going 
farther,  makes  a  record  of  the  whole.  The  most  ancient  digest  of 
this  nature  is  not  Coke,  but  Bracton,  an  ecclesiastic  of  Richard  I. '3 
reign,  who  wrote  in  law-Latin,  more  puzzling  than  Lyttleton's  law- 
Frendi,  to  read  whom  the  most  learned  lawyers  of  Jefferson's  time 
required  a  glossary.  This  work,  too,  he  read  and  loved,  because  it 
was  al>le  and  luminous,  and  because  it  interpreted  Magna  Charta  in 
the  spirit  and  lifetime  of  the  men  who  wrote  and  extorted  it.  He 
went  even  farther  back,  and  conned  with  keenest  scrutiny  the  book 
of  Alfred's  laws,  the  abrogation  of  which,  by  the  Conqueror,  the 
!'.  .:li-h  so  bitterly  lamented.  He  did  not  fail  to  note  the  "  pious 
fraud  "  of  ; he  ancient  clergy  in  prefixing  to  Alfred's  laws  live  chap 
ters  df  the  Book  of  Exodus,  the  twentieth -to  the  twenty-fourth 
incln-ive.  though  they  contained  laws  at  direct  variance  witli  those 
of  the  king.  For  a  young  vestryman,  he  seems  to  have  had  a  sharp 
scent  for  pious  frauds. 

Already  we  observe,  in  the  few  relics  of  his  student  life  which 


THE  LAW-STUDENT.  49 

have  come  down  to  us,  indications  of  the  coming  Jefferson,  the 
Thomas  Jefferson  of  American  history.  The  most  interesting  of  all 
those  relics  is  an  extract,  which  lie  made  for  a  friend  in  1814,  from 
a  hook  in  which,  when  he  was  plodding  through  Bracton  and  the 
older  law-books,  he  was  accustomed  to  enter  abstracts.  "  When  I 
was  a  student  of  the  law,"  he  wrote  to  this  friend,  "  not  half  a  cen 
tury  ago,  after  getting  through  Coke  Lyttleton,  whose  matter  can 
not  be  abridged,  I  was  in  the  habit  of  abridging  and  commonplacing 
what  I  read  meriting  it,  and  of  sometimes  mixing  my  own  reflec 
tions  on  the  subject."  The  abstract  which  is  thus  introduced  is 
a  complete  exhibition  of  Jefferson's  mind  and  mental  habits  as  a 
student  of  law.  We  notice,  first  of  all,  that  it  is  numbered  "  873," 
which  shows  us  that  he  studied,  as  well  as  lived,  pen  in  hand.  Com 
pact  as  it  is  with  abbreviations  ("  pi."  for  plaintiff.  "  def."  for  de 
fendant,  "  v."  for  versus,  "  Blackst."  for  Blackstone),  it  fills  seven 
and  a  half  octave  pages,  bristling  all  over  with  references,  old 
French  and  law-Latin,  which  attest  his  industry  and  knowledge. 
There  is  a  maturity  of  tone  and  completeness  of  execution  in  the 
work  which  would  surprise  us  if  it  had  been  done  by  a  lawyer  of 
many  years'  standing  at  the  bar.  But  the  most  remarkable  and 
rare  quality  which  it  exhibits  is  an  absolute  fearlessness  of  mind,  a 
loyalty  to  truth,  no  matter  to  what  conclusion  the  evidence  may- 
lead,  and  no  matter  what  array  of  authorities  may  have  'maintained 
the  contrary.  In  a  mind  that  is  immature  or  unformed,  a  dis 
regard  for  authorities  may  be  mere  vanity  and  presumption  ;  but 
when  the  intelligence  is  superior,  trained  to  investigation,  and 
patient  of  labor,  it  is  the  quality  to  which  the  whole  of  the  progress 
of  our  race  is  due.  An  independent,  superior  mind  is  the  most 
precious  thing  that  human  nature  possesses. 

This  young  man  found  it  an  axiom  of  the  courts,  that  the  Bible 
was  a  part  of  the  common  law  of  the  realm  ;  and  it  was  in  accord 
ance  with  this  principle  that  witches  were  hanged,  tithes  exacted, 
and  labor  forbidden  on  Sunday.  In  the  long  document  before  us  he 
denied  the  fact,  and  traced  the  error  up  to  its  source  in  one  of  the 
ancient  law-books,  the  author  of  which  had  converted  the  words 
ancien  scripture  (employed  in  a  work  still  older)  into  "  Holy  Scrip 
ture."  The  student  proved  that  the  words  ancien  scripture,  as 
employed  in  the  original,  meant  precisely  what  they  seem  to  mean, 
that  is,  ancient  writings,  the  old  records  of  the  Church.  Having 
4 


\    ;>0  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

\thus  detected  tlie  source  of  the  error,  he  follows  it  down  through  the 
\aw-1  K)oks.  until  he  finds  it  stated  with  bluntest  simpliciry  l>y  Sir 
Matthew  Il;ile,  thus:  "Christianity  is  parcel  of  the  laws  of  Eng 
land."  "Sir  Matthew  Hale/'  observes  this  relentless  pursuer  of 
error,  "quotes  no  authority.  Lut  rests  the  statement  on  his  own; 
which  was  good  in  all  cases  in  which  his  mind  received  no  bias  from 
his  bi,'.. try,  his  superstitions,  his  visions  about  sorceries,  demons, 
«!v:c.  Tli«  power  of  these  over  him,"  continues  the  student,  "is  ex 
emplified  in  his  hanging  of  the  witches."  From  this  dictum  of  Sir 
thew  Hale  he  proceeded  to  the  time  when  it  bore  fruit  in  laws 
making  it  criminal  to  write  against  Christianity,  or  to  utter  words 
implying  disbelief  in  it.  Blackstone  incorporated  the  doctrine  into 
his  commentaries,  and  Manslield  into  his  decisions.  "The  essen 
tial  principles  of  revealed  religion,"  Lord  Mansfield  had  just  said 
on  the  bench,  "are  part  of  the  common  law;"''  which  carried  the 
doctrine  still  farther,  while  leaving  the  public,  as  Jefferson  indig- 
nantlv  iv, narked,  "to  find  out,  at  our  peril,  what,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  judge,  and  according  to  the  measure  of  his  foot  or  his  faith,  are 
tlmse  essential  principles  of  revealed  religion  obligatory  on  us  as 
part  of  the  common  law.''  And  all  this  without  authority  to  sup 
port  it  ;  for  "this  string  of  authorities,"  resumes  the  wraihi'ul  stu 
dent,  "  all  hang  on  the  same  hook,  a  perverted  expression  of 
Prisot's."  '  * 

I'.it  this  was  not  enough.  He  goes  back  into  antiquity,  as  far  as 
the  seventh  century,  when  Christianity  was  introduced  into  England, 
and  examines  every  source  of  information,  from  Alfred  to  Bracton, 
and  can  lind  no  trace  of  formal  or  informal  adoption  of  Christianity 
as  part  of  the  common  law  ;  dwelling  particularly  upon  the  obvious 
fact,  that  the  insertion  of  the  chapters  of  Exodus  among  the  laws 
of  Alfred  was  "an  awkward  monkish  fabrication;"  and  showing 
that  the  adoption  by  Alfred  of  the  Ten  Commandments  was  an 
express  exclusion  of  the  laws  in  Exodus,  which  were  suited  only  to 
the  .Irws.  "  The  adoption  of  a  part  proves  the  rejection  of  the  rest, 
as  municipal  law.'' 

~\\Y  abtenre  further,  in  this  curious  paper,  a  certain  aversion  to 
the  clergy  as  an  order,  joined  to  a  veneration  for  the  Christian 
religion.  The  fact  that  Christianity  is  truth,  he  remarks.  ,1  ,rs  not 
make  it  part  of  the  law  of  England.  The  Newtonian  phiio.--«phy  is 
truth,  but  it  is  not  common  law.  "  Christianity  and  JScwlunianism 


THE  LAW-STUDENT.  51 

being  reason  and  verity  itself,  in  the  opinion  of  all  but  infidels  and 
Cartesians,  they  are  protected  under  the  wings  of  the  common  law 
from  the  dominion  of  other  sects,  but  not  erected  into  dominion  over 
them."  He  illustrates  the  point  farther  by  an  allusion  to  the  con 
troversy  concerning  the  use  of  the  lancet  in  medical  practice.  He 
was  among  the  first  to  reject  bleeding  as  a  common  remedy,  and 
early  forbade  his  overseers  to  bleed  a  negro.  An  eminent  Spanish 
doctor,  he  says,  affirms  that  the  lancet  had  slain  more  than  the 
sword  ;  but  Dr.  Sangredo  maintains,  that,  with  plentiful  bleedings  and 
draughts  of  warm  water,  every  disease  can  be  cured.  Both  these 
opinions  the  common  law  protected;  but  neither  of  them  was  com 
mon  law.  How  palpable  all  this,  he  remarks;  but  "  the  English 
judges  have  piously  avoided  lifting  the  veil  under  which  it  was 
shrouded,"  since  "  the  alliance  between  Church  and  State  in  Eng 
land  has  ever  made  their  judges  accomplicss  in  the  frauds  of  the 
clergy,  and  even  bolder  than  they  are."  The  precepts  of  the  gospel, 
he  adds,  were  designed,  by  "  their  benevolent  Author,"  to  bear  sway 
in  the  realm  of  conscience,  and  only  there. 

Old  Virginia  had  had  a  world  of  trouble  with  matters  ecclesias 
tical  and  religious  ;  and  this  is  among  the  reasons  why  so  large  a 
number  of  young  men  of  Jefferson's  day  were  on  ill  terms  with  the 
Church.  Of  New-England  intolerance  the  world  has  heard  enough  ; 
but  few  persons  of  the  present  day  seem  to  be  aware,  that,  for  every 
outrage  committed  on  the  human  intellect  in  New  England,  a  case 
equally  atrocious  can  be  found  in  the  annals  of  Virginia.  The  Blue 
Laws  of  Connecticut  were  a  forgery ;  but  Virginia  once  had  a  code 
of  Blue  Laws  that  were  all  too  real. 

When  Virginia  was  settled  in  1607,  let  us  remember,  nothing  was 
known  of  the  art  of  colonization.  Shiploads  of  worthless  adven 
turers  were  poured  out  upon  the  banks  of  the  James,  and  deprived  of 
the  usual  motives  to  exertion  by  being  fed  from  the  common  stock. 
During  the  first  five  years,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  private  prop 
erty  in  Virginia.  Many  of  the  settlers  were  men  of  loose  character, 
unused  to  labor,  unacquainted  with  any  useful  occupation,  —  dis 
charged  soldiers,  and  men  released  from  prison,  and  sent  to  Virginia 
to  get  rid  of  them.  Hence  the  colony  often  presented  a  scene  of  idle 
ness,  waste,  and  disorder.  No  returns  of  value  were  made  to  the 
company  at  home  ;  and  the  enterprise,  from  being  highly  popular, 
sunk  into  disrepute,  and  became  the  theme  of  ridicule  and  burlesque. 


LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

It  was  long  before  the  company  in  London  attributed  the  ill- 
success  of  the  colony  to  its  true  causes.  The  soil  was  fertile,  the 
•.limate  was  healthy-,  the  rivers  abounded  in  fish,  and  the  forests  in 
game :  why  could  not  a  few  hundred  Englishmen,  in  the  prime  and 
of  their  days,  without  women  and  children  to  support,  main 
tain  themselves  in  a  country  for  which  Nature  had  done  so  much? 
They  cast  the  whole  blame  upon  the  colonists  themselves,  whom 
they  had  so  unwisely  selected,  and  then  deprived  of  the  great  natural 
motive  to  exertion.  Accordingly,  in  the  year  1011,  the  fourth  year 
of  the  colony's  existence,  they  sent  over  a  code  of  laws  for  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  people,  as  severe,  bloody,  and  inquisitorial,  as  any 
on  record. 

l.y  this  code  it  was  death  to  speak  disrespectfully  of  the  king,  of 
the  Trinity,  "or  against  the  known  articles  of  the  Christian  faith." 
;ng  was  punished  with' death.  If  any  man  uttered  an  oath, 
'•  taking  the  name  of  God  in  vain,"  the  punishment  for  the  first 
otYen.-e  \vas  to  be  "severe; "  for  the  second,  he  was  to  have  a  "bod 
kin"'  (stiletto)  thrust  through  his  tongue;  and,  for  the  third,  he  was 
to  be  tried  by  court-martial,  and,  if  found  guilty,  sentenced  to  death. 
If  any  man  treated  a  clergyman  with  disrespect,  he  was  to  be  pub 
licly  whipped  three"  times,  and  ask  pardon  in  church  before  the 
whole  congregation  on  three  successive  Sundays.  Every  one  was 
obliged  to  go  to  church  both  Sunday  morning  and  afternoon,  and 
attend  the  Sunday  exercise  in  the  Catechism  ;  the  penalty  for  neglect 
being,  for  the  first  offence,  the  loss  of  a  week's  provisions;  for  the 
second,  whipping,  and  the  loss  of  provision  as  well;  and,  for  the 
third.  ift'-tfJi  !  A  washerwoman  who  should  purposely  keep  back  or 
change  the  linen  intrusted  to  her  was  to  be  publicly  whipped  :  and 
a  baker  \\lio  should  cheat  in  the  weight  of  his  bread,  for  the  first 
ofVem-e.  had  his  ears  out  off;  and,  for  the  second,  was  >.-nt  to  the 
galley  <  for  a  year.  To  give  a  better  idea  of  this  astounding  code,  I 
will  eopy  the  thirty-third  law  entire,  as  a  fair  specimen  of  its  form 
and  spirit :  — 

"33.  There  is  not  one  man  nor  woman  in  this  colony,  now  pre 
sent,  or  hen-alter  t •)  arrive,  but  shall  give  up  an  account  of  his  and 
their  faith  and  religion,  and  repair  unto  the  minister,  that,  by  his 
eonferenee  with  them,  he  may  understand  and  gather  whether  hereto 
fore  they  have  been  sullioiently  instructed  and  cateehi>ed  in  the  priii- 


THE   LAW-STUDENT.  53 

ciples  and  grounds  of  religion  ;  whose  weakness  and  ignorance  herein 
the  minister  finding,  and  advising  them,  in  all  love  and  charity,  to 
repair  often  unto  him,  to  receive  therein  a  greater  measure  of  knowl 
edge  ;  if  they  shall  refuse  so  to  repair  unto  him,  and  he,  the  minis 
ter,  give  notice  thereof  unto  the  governor,  the  governor  shall  cause 
the  offender,  for  his  first  time  of  refusal,  to  be  whipped  ;  for  the 
second  time,  to  be  whipped  twice,  and  to  acknowledge  his  fault 
upon  the  sabbath  day,  in  the  assembly  of  the  congregation;  and,  for 
the  third  time,  to  be  whipped  every  day  until  he  hath  made  this 
same  acknowledgment,  and  asked  forgiveness  for  the  same  ;  and 
shall  repair  unto  the  minister  to  be  further  instructed  as  aforesaid; 
and  upon  the  sabbath,  when  the  minister  shall  catechise,  and  of 
him  demand  any  question  concerning  his  faith  and  knowledge,  he 
shall  not  refuse  to  make  answer,  upon  the  same  peril." 

The  punishments  for  military  offences  were  extremely  cruel ;  such 
as  cutting  off  the  right  hand,  and  having  neck  and  heels  bound  to 
gether  for  thirty  successive  nights.  Not  only  were  the  laws  severe, 
but  there  was  ordained  a  complete  and  effective  system  for  their 
enforcement,  and  for  the  detection  of  offences.  Take  this  rule,  for 
example: —  "tj>^ 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  captain  of  the  watch,  half  an  hour 
before  the  divine  service  morning  and  evening,  to  shut  the  ports 
and  place  sentinels  :  and  the  bells  having  tolled  the  last  time,  he 
shall  search  all  the  houses  of  the  town,  to  command  every  one,  of 
what  quality  soever, — the  sick  and  hurt  excepted,  —  to  repair  to 
church ;  after  which,  he  shall  accompany  all  the  guards  with  their 
arms  —  himself  being  last  —  into  the  church,  and  lay  the  keys 
before  the  governor." 

And,  as  if  all  this  were  not  enough,  a  prayer  of  surprising  length 
—  it  fills  more  than  five  octavo  pages,  closely  printed  —  was  sent 
over  from  England,  and  required  to  be  said,  morning  and  evening, 
by  the  captain  of  the  guard,  or  one  of  his  principal  officers.  This 
prayer  is  unique,  as  I  think  the  reader  will  allow  when  he  reads 
the  following  sentence  from  it :  — 

"  And  whereas  we  have,  by  undertaking  this  plantation,  under- 


;"4  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

me  the  reproofs  of  the  base  world,  inasmuch  as  many  of  our  owr 
Hvtlnvn  laugh  us  to  scorn,  0  Lord !  we  pray  thee,  fortify  u; 

jain^t  this  temptation  :  let  Sanballat  and  Tobias,  Papists  and  play- 
and  such  other  Amonits  and  Horonits" —  so  in  the  original  — 
"  the  scum  and  dregs  of  the  earth,  let  them  mock  sucli  as  help  tc 
build  up  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  and  they  that  be  filthy  let  them  be 
filthy  still,  and'let  such  swine  still  wallow  in  the  mire;  but  let  not 
thf  rod  of  the  wicked  fall  upon  the  lot  of  the  righteous;  let  not 
th.'-.n  put  forth  their  hands  to  such  vanity;  but  let  them  that  fear 
t h.-.'  r.'joice  and  be  glad  in  thee,  and  let  them  know  that  it  is  thou, 
0  Lord  !  that  reignest  in  England,  and  unto  the  ends  of  the  world." 

In  this  strange  way  the  prayer  rambles  on,  pa^e  after  page,  until 
at  length  it  ends  with  an  outburst  of  mingled  patriotic  and  sectarian 
feeling  :  — 

"  Lord,  bless  England,  our  sweet,  native  country ;  save  it  from 
Popery,  this  land  from  heathenism,  and  both  from  Atheism." 

This  cruel  code,  which  combined  the  harshest  features  of  the 
Spartan  and  Mosaic  laws,  was  translated  from  the  martial  law  of 
Holland,  with  the  addition  of  some  rules  which  originated  in  Puritan 
England.  It  does  not  appear  that  it  made  the  colonists  more  provi- 
.  or  the  colony  more  profitable ;  for  we  still  read  in  the  old  rec 
ords  of  the  neglect  to  plant  corn,  and  of  the  propensity  of  many 
settlers  to  pass  their  time,  in  sport.  One  of  the  best  men  in  the 
colony,  an  old  soldier  and  a  good  citizen,  entered  into  a  conspiracy 
with  some  of  the  earliest  comers  to  overthrow  the  government,  and 
abrogate  these  cruel  laws.  The  plot  was  detected,  and  the  ringleader 
itcd.  On  another  occasion,  five  men,  unable  to  endure  the  sys 
tem,  formed  a  plan  for  running  away  to  the  Spanish  colony  in 
Florida,  which  they  supposed  they  could  reach  in  five  days.  This, 
als«i.  was  a  capital  offence  by  the  new  code,  and  I  presume  it  was 
capitally  piuiisln-d. 

.Nor  did  Virginia  escape  the  witchcraft  mania  of  a  later  day.  In 
fact,  the  history  of  the  Province  contains  abundant  explanation  of 
the  peculiar,  tin-  intense,  the  unappeasable  hatred  of  ecclesiastical 
domination  which  raged  in  the  souls  of  her  more  thoughtful  sons  of 
Jefferson's  generation.  Young  as  he  was,  it  could  not  have  been 


THE  LAW-STUDENT.  55 

difficult  for  him  to  discover  the  imsuitableness  of  a  union  of  Church 
and  State  to  the  circumstances  of  modern  communities  ;  for  the  evil 
results  of  the  union  in  Virginia  were  never  so  apparent  as  just  then, 
when  he  was  studying  law,  from  1762  to  1767.  The  clergy,  indeed, 
had  fallen  into  contempt ;  or,  as  Bishop  Meade  expresses  it,  had  be 
come  "  the  laughing-stock  "  of  the  colony.  Nor  does  the  bishop 
fall  into  the  usual  error  of  attributing  this  to  the  "  Twopenny  Quar 
rel  "  between  the  clergy  and  the  vestrymen,  of  which  Mr.  Wirt  gives 
us  so  interesting  an  account  in  his  Lffe  of  Patrick  Henry.  In 
that  dispute,  the  clergy  had  both  law  and  justice  on  their  side,  as 
Mr.  Wirt  avows,  while  exulting  in  his  orator's  victory  over  both. 
As  Patrick  Henry  was  always  Jefferson's  guest  when  he  came  to 
Williamsburg,  doubtless  our  student  heard  his  merry  friend's  own 
version  of  that  affair;  and,  being  himself  a  vestryman  and  a  young 
man,  may  have  shared  the  general  joy  at  the  defeat  of  the  clergy. 

The  clergymen  of  Virginia  were  in  a  position  so  false  and  demor 
alizing,  that,  as  a  body,  they  could  not  but  become  indolent  and  disso 
lute.  The  law  gave  them  sixteen  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  per 
annum  ;  which  might  be  worth  two  hundred  pounds  a  year,  if  the 
quality  were  high,  and  the  incumbent  lucky  and  skilful  in  selling  it ; 
or  it  might  be  worth  sixty  pounds  a  year,  if  the  quality  were  low  and 
the  crop  superabundant.  They  were  further  allowed  by  law  four 
hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  or  forty  shillings,  for  preaching  a  funeral 
sermon;  two  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco  for  a  marriage  by  license; 
fifty  for  a  marriage  by  banns ;  and  a  fee  for  baptism,  which  custom 
appears  to  have  fixed  at  a  guinea  for,  the  rich,  and  five  shillings  for 
others.  To  these  revenues  was  added  a  glebe  sufficient  for  a  good 
farm,  which  a  liberal  vestry,  we  are  told,  were  sometimes  kind  enough 
to  "stock"  with  one  or  two  families  of  slaves.  The  clergy,  ap 
pointed  without  much  regard  to  their  fitness,  were  subjected  to  little 
supervision.  The  parishes  were  of  great  extent,  stretching  some 
times  as  much  as  thirty  miles  along  a  river,  and  yet  so  thinly  inhab 
ited  that  they  could  scarcely  furnish  a  congregation ;  and  such  was 
the  scarcity  of  candidates,  that  a  commissary  hesitated  to  suspend 
a  clergyman,  even  for  notorious  vice,  because  the  parish  might  remain 
vacant  for  two  or  three  years. 

Thus  circumstanced,  each  clergyman  behaved  according  to  his  dis 
position.  A  few  of  them,  men  of  learning  and  virtue,  did  their  duty, 
and  eked  out  their  slender  and  changing  incomes  by  taking  pupils  ; 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

an<\  it  was  these  few  who  saved  civilization  in  the  colony.  Others, 
mem  of  rude  nu-p-ry  and  executive  force,  pushed  the  cultivation  of 
th«-i\  glebes,  bought  more  slaves,  raised  more  tobacco,  speculated 
sometime  in  but/i,  grew  rich,  reduced  their  parish  duty  to  the  mini 
mum,  and  performed  that  minimum  with  haste  and  formality.  I  Jut 
tin-  greater  number  lived  as  idle  hangers-on  of  the  wealthier  houses, 

•  in-jf  their  fellow-idlers,  the  planters,  to  kill  time  and  run  through 
their  estates,  not  always  dissolute,  but  easy-going,  self-indulgent,  good- 
natured  men  of  the  world.  It  was  not  very  uncommon  for  the  clergy 
man  of  a  parish  to  be  president  of  its  jockey-club,  and  personally 
in  the  details  of  the  race-course,  such  as  weighing  the  men  and 
timing  the  horses.  It  was  common  for  clergymen  to  ride  after  the 
h-iunds  in  fox-huntirig;  and  they  were  as  apt  to  nail  the  trophy  of 

lay's  cliase  to  their  stable-door  as  any  other  men.     The  names 

of  clergymen  figured    among   the  patrons  of  balls,  and  they  were 

rather  noted  for  their  skill  at  cards.     All  of  which  was  just  as  proper 

fur  i-h-rgymi'n  as  lor  planters,  and  more  necessary.     But  in  those  days 

was  the  vitiating  accompaniment  of  every  innocent  delight. 

•  must  end  in  a  dinner,  and  the  dinner  must  end  under  the 

taUe.     The  day's  hunt  must  be  followed  by  a  night's  debauch.     The 

'•iiing  of  a  child  must  be  the  pretext  for  a  day's  revel.     This 

singl'-  clement  of  mischief  converted  all  festal  days,  all  honest  mirth, 

all  joyous  recreation,  into  injury,  shame,  and  ruin.     Nothing  can 

make  any  headway  against  the  potency  of  wine;  for  it  su>priids  the 

o]»«-raiion  of  that  within  us  which   enables  us  to  resist,  and  finally 

.  oys  it.     It  vitiates  the  texture  of  the  brain  itself,  the  seat  of  life, 

and  the  citadel  of  all  the  superior  forces.    And  the  wine  which  flowed 

•ly  at  the  planters'  tables  was  Madeira,  strongest  of  wines,  so 

enriched  by  time  and  two  long  voyages,  that  the  uncorking  of  one 

bottle  filled  a  large  house  with  fragrance. 

The  tales  we  read  of  the  clergy  of  Old  Virginia  stagger  belief, 
though  it  is  clergymen  who  report  them.  The  reverend  rector 
of  \Yicomi ».  wr  read,  not  approving  the  bread  placed  upon  the  com- 
nmnion-tahlr,  cried  out  from  the  altar,  in  the  midst  of  the  service,  to 
one  of  his  church-wardens,  "  George,  this  hivad  is  not  fit  for  a  dog." 

:vad  of  another  who  was   invited   after  church   to  dinner  at   a 

planter's  hoinr.  \vheiv  he  drank  so  much  that  he  had  to  be  tied  in  his 

•  ;id   a  servant  sent  to  lead  his  horse  home.     One  jolly  panson 

comes  down  to  us  reeling  up  and  down  the  porch  of  a  tavern,  bawling 


THE  LAW-STUDENT.  57 

to  the  passers-by  to  come  and  drink  with  him.  Another  lives  in  the 
memory  of  his  county  because  he  fought  a  duel  within  sight  of  the 
church  in  which  he  had  formerly  officiated.  Another  is  remembered 
as  the  jovial  hunter  who  died  cheering  on  the  hounds  to  the  chase. 
One  is  spoken  of  as  pocketing  annually  a  hundred  dollars,  the  reve 
nue  of  a  legacy,  for  preaching  four  sermons  a  year  against  atheism, 
gambling,  racing,  and  swearing,  though  himself  a  notorious  swearer, 
racer,  and  gambler.  Another  is  the  hero  of  a  story,  that,  one  day,  par 
son  and  vestry  differed  in  opinion,  quarrelled,  and  came  to  blows. 
The  parson,  a  giant  in  strength,  put  them  to  flight.  Not  content 
with  his  victory,  he  renewed  the  battle  on  Sunday  morning  in  church, 
when,  from  the  vantage-ground  of  the  pulpit,  he  hurled  at  them  this 
text  from  Nehemiah  :  "And  I  contended  with  them,  and  cursed 
them,  and  smote  certain  of  them,  and  plucked  off  their  hair ;  "  which 
had  the  keen  sting  of  literal  truth. 

One  old  clergyman  is  remembered  as  staggering  towards  the  altar 
at  the  time  of  communion,  when  the  rector,  who  was  officiating, 
ordered  him  back  to  his  seat.  The  monthly  dinners  of  the  clergy 
have  not  yet  passed  out  of  mind,  to  which  men  would  ride  for  thirty 
or  forty  miles,  and  revel  far  into  the  night.  The  court  records  of 
Hampton  show  that  a  clergyman  of  that  parish  was  presented  by  the 
grand  jury  for  drunkenness,  and  on  another  occasion  for  slander  ;  and' 
that,  when  before  the  court,  he  behaved  with  such  insolence  as  to  be 
committed  to  prison  for  contempt.  Bishop  Meade  of  Virginia,  to 
whom  the  reader  is  indebted  for  several  of  these  incidents,  relates 
that  a  lady  once  came  to  one  of  his  clergymen,  asking  re-baptism,  as 
she  had  doubts  whether  the  christening  of  her  infancy  was  valid. 
The  clergyman  who  performed  the  ceremony,  she  said,  dined  with 
her  father  that  day ;  and,  after  dinner,  her  father  won  back  from  the 
priest  at  cards  the  very  guinea  he  had  paid  him  before  dinner  as  his 
baptismal  fee. 

The  Bishop  of  London,  hearing  of  these  scandals,  would  sometimes 
urge  his  commissary,  the  president  of  William  and  Mary  College, 
to  proceed  against  the  clergy  known  to  be  drunkards.  The  difficulty 
of  proof  was  submitted  to  the  bishop  as  an  excuse  for  not  complying 
with  his  commands.  At  what  point  of  intoxication  does  it  become  a 
scandal?  How  shall  we  decide  when  a  clergyman  has  been  drunk 
enough  for  ecclesiastical  censure  ?  The  Bishop  of  London  sent  over 
directions  on  this  point.  He  thought  that  if  a  clergyman  sat  an 


58  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

hour  or  more  with  a  company  that  were  drinking  strong  drink,  — 
not  wine,  — and  took  the  cup  as  it  went  the  rounds  of  the  table,  and 
drank  the  healths  proposed,  like  the  rest  of  the  company,  there  was 
ground  of  proceedings.  He  was  also  of  opinion,  that  "striking  and 
challenging,  or  threatening  to  fight,  or  laying  aside  any  of  his  gar 
ments  for  that  purpose,  staggering,  reeling,  vomiting,  incoherent, 
impertinent,  obscene,  or  rude  talking,"  was  sufficient  to  justify 
judges  in  deciding  that  "the  minister's  behavior  at  such  a  time 
was  M-andalous,  indecent,  unbecoming  the  gravity  .of  a  minister." 
For  many  years,  too,  as  before  observed,  the  commissary-president 
was  himself  too  fond  of  the  bottle  to  prosecute  a  drunken  clergyman 
without  calling  attention  to  his  own  habits. 

Old  Virginia  was  a  kind  of  caricature  of  Old  England  in  every 
thing.  As  in  England  this  state  of  things  in  the  Church  called 
forth  Wesley  and  Whitefield ;  so  in  Virginia,  says  John  Burk, 
"swarms  of  Methodists,  Moravians,  and  New-Light  Presbyterians" 
came  over  the  border  from  Pennsylvania,  and  pervaded  the  colony, 
"  propagating  their  doctrines  with  all  the  ardor  and  vehemency  of 
gesture  and  boldness  of  denunciation  which  mark  the  first  move 
ments  of  a  new  sect  in  religion."  It  was  during  the  boyhood  of 
Jefferson  that  these  "  swarms "  are  represented  to  have  darkened 
the  air;  and  he  was  old  enough  to  observe  the  beginnings  of  the 
bitter  r< mflict  between  the  New  Lights  (Henry  Clay's  father  was 
one  of  them)  and  the  royal  government.  Burk,  who  was  a  new 
light  of  another  description,  and  in  full  accord  with  Jefferson  in  his 
Btablishment "  measures  of  a  later  day,  informs  posterity,  that 
when  thes.- swarms  descended  upon  Virginia,  "government  had  not 
yet  learned  the  secret  of  subduing  the  frenzy  of  religious  bigotry  by 
suffering  it  to  waste  its  powers,  and  perish  by  convulsions  of  its  own 
ing."  N.»r  was  the  government  alone  in  fault.  Many  of 
's  stanehest  supporters  in  the  measures  by  which  the 
domination  of  one  sect  was  terminated  gave  the  governor  at 
this  period  moral  and  official  support  in  silencing  the  dissenting 
minit 

His  o\\-ii  mind,  we  maybe  sure,  did  not  arrive  at  the  simple 
solution  of  this  problem  all  at  once.  Possibly  the  young  vestryman 
may  have  himself  regarded  the  swarms  as  furnishing  occasion  for 
the  interference  «»f  a  y.ning  justice  of  the  peace.  The  vestryman's 
oath;  then  u.M'l  in  Virginia,  was  stringent  euough  :  — 


THE  LAW-STUDENT.  59 

"  I,  Thomas  Jefferson,  as  I  do  acknowledge  myself  a  true  son  of 
tlie  Church  of  England,  so  I  do  believe  the  articles  of  faith  therein 
professed,  and  do  oblige  myself  to  be  conformable  to  the  doctrine 
and  discipline  therein  taught  and  established ;  and  that,  as  a 
vestryman  of  this  church,  I  will  well  and  truly  perform  my  duty 
therein,  being  directed  by  the  laws  and  customs  of  this  country  and 
the  canons  of  the  Church  of  England,  so  far  as  they  will  suit  our 
present  capacity ;  and  this  I  shall  sincerely  do,  according  to  the 
best  of  my  knowledge,  skill,  and  cunning,  without  fear,  favor,  or 
partiality  ;  and  so  help  me  God." 

The  time  came,  as  most  readers  know,  -when  he  could  not  have 
taken  this  oath,  though  he  never  ceased  to  perform  the  duties 
which  it  indicates.  As  his  mind  matured,  his  religion  reduced 
itself  to  two  articles,  —  belief  in  God,  and  veneration  for  the  char 
acter  and  precepts  of  Jesus  Christ ;  which  has  been,  during  the  last 
century  and  a  half,  a  kind  of  established  religion  with  minds  of 
the  cast  and  grade  of  his.  But  he  ever  lived  in  the  most  perfect 
accord  with  neighbors  who  believed  more  than  he  could,  giving 
freely  of  his  time,  money,  and  skill  to  promote  their  religious 
objects.  It  was  long  before  Charlottesville  became  village  enough 
to  have  a  church  ;  and  every  preacher  that  came  along  occupied 
the  court-house,  a  small,  rude  edifice,  without  seats  for  auditors. 
Old  men  of  the  neighborhood  used  to  remember  young  Jefferson 
riding  over  to  the  service  on  Sunday  morning,  with  a  small  folding 
chair  of  his  own  contriving  hung  to  his  saddle,  upon  which  he  sat 
in  the  court-room.  By  and  by,  when  the  Episcopalians  were  ready 
to  build  their  church,  he  drew  the  plan  ;  and  the  edifice  which  re 
sulted,  Bishop  Meade  testifies,  was  better  adapted  to  the  purposes 
of  a  church  than  many  modern  buildings  much  more  costly.  This 
church  still  stands. 

We  may  say,  therefore,  that  if  the  church  of  his  youth  and 
early  manhood  did  not  materially  assist  in  the  formation  of  his  char 
acter,  it  did  not  place  obstacles  in  the  way  of  his  mental  growth. 
He  was  unrestricted  in  his  reading.  It  would  not  have  been  so  if 
he  had  come  to  college  twenty  years  sooner.  Bishop  Meade  men 
tions  that  when,  about  1740,  "  the  first  infidel  book  was  imported 
into  Virginia,"  it  created  such  excitement  that  the  governor  and 
president  of  the  college  wrote  to  the  authorities  in  England  about 


GO  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

it.  Governor  Fauquier  would  not  have  taken  so  much  trouble. 
They  had  such  works  in  Boston  as  early  as  1720,  as  Franklin 
records,  who  read  and  was  convinced  by  them.  Jefferson,  when  a 
law-student,  could  not  have  had  many  books  at  Williamsburg ;  but 
we  know  that  among  his  books  was  an  edition  of  Hume's  Essays, 
because  In1  speaks  of  having  lent  two  of  the  volumes  to  Patrick 
Henrv.  1'Vw  young  men  of  Jefferson's  cast  of  mind  have  ever  read 
Hume's  "Essay  on  Miracles  "  without  being  much  influenced  by  it, 
at  least  for  a  time. 

Meanwhile  he  continued  his  study  of  the  law  with  excessive 
ardor,  including  in  his  preparation  for  the  bar  a  vast  range  of  sub- 
Indccd,  he  went  to  a  rash  and  perilous  excess  in  study.  He 
bore  it  with  impunity,  because  he  inherited  a  constitution  exception 
ally  strong,  because  he  had  horses  at  command,  because,  during  his 
long  vacations  at  home,  he  was  obliged  to  attend  to  his  farms  and 
improvements.  But  his  friend  Madison,  led  astray  by  his  example 
and  pn-ivpts,  and  pursuing  his  education  at  Princeton,  far  from 
horse  and  home,  nearly  killed  himself  with  study,  and  could  not 
rer  his  health  for  many  years.  Indeed,  though  among  the  very 
l>r.-i  of  American  citizens,  and  of  infinite  value  to  his  country  when 
his  country  most  needed  its  best  citizens,  James  Madison  was  never 
(juite  the  iiKin  he  might  have  been  if  he  had  studied  less  and 
played  more  at  college.  The  only  fault  Jefferson  could  ever  see  in 
this  most-honored  and  most-trusted  of  all  the  friends  of  his  life, 
was  a  certain  lack  of  power  to  stand  firm  against  vehement  oppo>i- 
tion,  —  a  certain  lack  of  stanch,  indomitable  manhood, — caused, 
perhaps,  by  the  waste  of  the  capital  stock  of  his  vitality  at  Prince 
ton.  Thus  IVel  was  made  sensitive  to  the  shallow  saiva.-m  of 
Disraeli.  Thus  valedictory  men  pass  from  the  Commencement  plat 
form  into  oblivion.  Thus  to-day,  throughout  Christendom,  Igno 
rance  is  master,  and  Knowledge  is  its  hireling;  Ignorance  controls 
capital,  and  Knowledge  lives  on  wages ;  Ignorance  rides  in  a  car 
riage,  and  Knowledge  trudges  on  foot;  Ignorance  edits,  and 
Knowledge  writes;  the  Counting-room  orders,  and  the  Sanctum 

:'ore  Jefferson    had    finished    his   law-studies,   his    devotion   to 

study  dicw  admiring  eyes  upon  him.     Young  men  asked  his  advice 

•  what  they  should  read,  and  parents  consulted  him   concerning 

the  education  of  their  sons.     He  was  asked  to  suggest  a  course  for 


THE  LAW-STUDENT.  61 

Madison,  when  Madison  was  seventeen  and  himself  twenty-three. 
He  had  already  written  an  outline  for  a  young  man  about  to  enter 
upon  the  study  of  the  law;  and  we  may  learn  from  that  both  what 
he  practised  himself,  and  what  he  laid  down  for  Madison,  Monroe, 
and  other  friends. 

The  student,  duly  prepared  for  the  study  of  the  law  by  mastering 
Latin  and  French,  and  by  a  course  of  those  "peculiarly  engaging 
and  delightful "  branches,  natural  philosophy  and  mathematics, 
must  divide  each  day  into  portions,  and  assign  to  each  portion  the 
studies  most  proper  for  it.  Until  eight  in  the  morning  he  should 
confine  himself  to  natural  philosophy,  morals, 'and  religion;  reading 
treatises  on  astronomy,  chemistry,  anatomy,  agriculture,  botany, 
international  law,  moral  philosophy,  and  metaphysics.  Religion, 
during  these  early  morning  hours,  was  to  be  considered  under  two 
heads,  —  "  natural  religion  "  and  "  religion  sectarian."  For  informa 
tion  concerning  sectarian  religion,  the  student  was  advised  to  apply 
to  the  following  sources:  "Bible;  New  Testament ;  commentaries 
on  them  by  Mid  die  ton  in  his  works,  and  by  Priestley  in  his  '  Corrup 
tion  of  Christianity,'  and  'Early  Opinions  of  Christ;'  the  sermons 
of  Sterne,  Massillon,  and  Bourdaloue."  From  eight  to  twelve  he 
was  to  read  law,  and  condense  cases,  "never  using  two  words  where 
one  will  do."  From  twelve  to  one,  he  was  advised  to  "read  poli 
tics,"  in  Montesquieu,  Locke,  Priestley,  Malthus,  and  the  Par 
liamentary  Debates.  In  the  afternoon  he  was  to  relieve  his  mind 
with  history;  and,  when  evening  closed  in,  he  might  regale  him 
self  with  literature,  criticism,  rhetoric,  and  oratory.  No,  not  regale 
himself,  but  sit  down  to  a  hard  and  long  evening's  work,  as  Jeffer 
son  did  himself,  keeping  it  up  sometimes  till  two  in  the  morning. 
The  student  was  recommended  in  the  evening  to  write  criticisms 
of  the  books  he  read,  to  analyze  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  and 
Cicero,  to- read  good  English  orations  and  pleadings  with  closest 
attention  to  the  secrets  of  their  excellence,  to  compose  original 
essays,  and  to  plead  imaginary  causes  with  a  friend. 

This  was  cram,  not  education.  It  might  make  a  perfect  chief 
clerk,  but  not  a  great  minister.  It  would  have  diminished  Jefferson, 
but  for  his  fiddle,  his  horses,  his  farms,  his  journeys,  and  his  minu- 
'ets  at  the  Apollo.  Perhaps,  however,  as  he  knew  his  young  friends 
better  than  we  do,  he  was  aware  that  most  of  them  required  no  ur 
ging  to  take  rest  and  recreation.  Madison  read  this  paper  too  liter- 


* 

f)2  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

ally,  without  putting  in  the  saving  clauses;  and  Monroe  was  saved 
l»y  tin?  summons  to  arms,  which,  in  1775,  drew  him  and  most  of  his 
fellow-students  from  William  and  Mary  to  the  sterner  discipline  of 
Cambridge,  where  man  could  not,  just  then,  be  regarded  as  a  crea 
ture  composed  of  intellect  alone. 


CHAPTER  X. 

STAMP-ACT   SCENES. 

PASSING  events  are  an  important  educating  force  to  attentive 
minds.  Perhaps  they  educate  us  more  than  all  things  else,  for  we 
cannot  easily  get  off  our  lesson  for  a  single  day  ;  and,  once  in  a 
generation,  occur  electric  events  which  rouse  and  inform  the  minds 
of  whole  nations  at  once.  What  person  in  the  United  States  so 
unteachably  dull  as  to  have  been  no  more  of  a  human  being  in  1865 
than  he  was  in  1861 !  But,  in  all  recent  history,  I  know  of  no  example 
more  striking  of  the  greater  good  that  results  from  great  evil,  than 
the  Stamp-act  agitation  of  1764  to  1766,  which  began  the  de-colo 
nization  —  the  independent  public  life  —  of  North  America.  It  so 
chanced  that  our  student  was  in  the  thick  of  events  at  the  time,  fit 
was  the  Stamp  Act  which  changed  old  Coke's  comments  on  Magna 
Charta  from  dead  law  into  living  gospel ;  and,  wha't  the  Stamp  Act 
did  for  Jefferson's  mind,  it  did  for  the  mind  of  his  country.  It 
converted  the  fundamental  principles  of  right  into  the  familiar 
things  of  daily  speech,  and  infused  the  essence  of  old  Coke  into  a 
million  minds  that  never  heard  his  name.  He  had  watched  with 
interest,  as  he  himself  records,  the  series  of  events  by  which  impe 
rial  Chatham  had  given  Great  Britain  her  opportunity  of  empire  by 
making  her  supreme  in  North  America;  and  he  was  now  to  follow, 
with  interest  more  intense  and  more  intelligent,  the  events  by  which 
an-  ignorant  king  and  a  corrupt  ruling  class  threw  England's 
magnificent  chance  away,  and  caused  her  to  lapse  into  an  island 
again. 

His  friend,  Patrick  Henry,  had  been  coming  and  going  during 
these  student  years ;  dropping  in  when  the  General  Court  met  in 
the  autumn,  and  riding  homeward,  with  a  book  or  two  of  Jefferson's 
in  his  saddle-bags,  when  the  court  adjourned  over  till  the  spring; 

63 


G4  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

then  returning  with  the  hooks  unread.  The  wondrous  eloquence 
whi'-h  li«-  had  displayed  in  the  Parsons  Case  in  December,  17(>,">,  docs 
not  seem  to  have  been  generally  known  in  Williumsburg  in  1704; 
for  he  moved  about  the  streets  and  public  places  unrecognized,  though 
not  unmarked.  It  would  not  have  been  extraordinary  if  our  young 
student  had  been  a  little  ashamed  of  his  oddity  of  a  guest  as  they 
walk.- 1  toother  towards  the  Capitol,  at  the  time  when  the  .young 
ladies  were  abroad,  —  Sukey  Potter,  Betsy  Moore,  Judy  Burwell,  and 
the  rest  ;  for  Henry's  dress  was  coarse,  worn,  and  countrified,  and 
he  walked  with  such  an  air  of  thoughtless  unconcern,  that  he  was 
taken  by  some  for  an  idiot.  But  he  had  a  cause  to  plead  that  winter ; 
and  when  he  sat  down  lie  had  become  "  Mr.  Henry  "  to  all  Williams- 
burg.  You  will  observe  in  the  memorials  of  Old  Virginia,  from  17G5 
to  1800,  that,  whoever  else  may  be  named  without  a  prefix  of  honor, 
this  '•  i'uvM-horn  Demosthenes,"  as  Byron  styled  him,  is  generally 
stvled  Mr.  H'Miry.  To  Washington,  to  Jefferson,  to  Madison,  to  all 
that  circle  of  eminent  men,  he  ever  remained  "Mr.  Henry."  On 
that  day  in  17(H  he  gave  such  an  exhibition  of  his  power,  that,  dur 
ing  the  next  session  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  a  vacancy  was  made 
fi>r  him.  and  he  was  elected  to  a  seat.  The  up-country  yeomen, 
wln»se  idol  he  had  become,  gladly  gave  their  votes  to  such  a  man, 
when  the  Stamp  Act  was  expected  to  be  a  topic  of  debate. 

And  so,  in  May,  1705.  the  new  member  was  in  Williamsburg  to 
take  hi-;  seat,  a  guest  again  of  his  young  friend  Jefferson.  He  sat, 
dav  after  dav,  waiting  for. some  of  the  older  members  to  open  the 
subject.  But  no  one  seemed  to  know  just  what  to  do.  A  year  be 
fore  the  House  had  gently  denied  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the 
colonies,  and  softly  remonstrated  against  the  threatened  measure; 
but  as  the  art  had  been  passed,  in  spite  of  their  objections,  what 
more  could  a  loyal  colony  do  ?  No  one  thought  of  formal  resistance, 
and  remonstrance  had  failed.  What  else  ?  What  next  ?  However 
frequently  the  two  friends  may  have  conversed  upon  this  perplexity, 
it  was  Patrick  Henry,  who,  to  use  his  own  words,  "alone,  unadvised, 
and  una-M-ted/'  hit  upon  the  proper  expedient. 

Only  three  days  of  the  session  remained.  On  the  blank  leaf  of 
an  old  <'<>ke  upon  Lyttleton  —  perhaps  Jeiferson's  own  copy  — 
the  new  member  wrote  his  celebrated  five  resolutions,  of  this  purport  : 
We,  Englishmen, living  in  America,  have  all  the  rights  of  English 
men  living  in  England;  the  chief  of  which  is,  that  we  can  only  be 


STAMP- ACT   SCENES.  65 

taxed  by  our  own  representatives ;  and  any  attempt  to  tax  us  other 
wise  menaces  British  liberty  on  both  continents.  In  all  probability, 
Jefferson  knew  that  something  of  the  kind  was  intended  on  that 
memorable  day,  for  he  was  present  in  the  House.  There  was  no  gal 
lery  then,  nor  any  other  provision  for  spectators  ;  but  there  could  be 
no  objection  to  the  friend  and  relative  of  so  many  members  standing 
in  the  doorway  between  the  lobby  and  the  chamber ;  and  there  he 
took  his  stand.  He  saw  his  tall,  gaunt,  coarsely-attired  guest  rise  in 
his  awkward  way,  and  break  with  stammering  tongue  the  SILENCE 
which  had  brooded  over  the  loudest  debates,  as  week  after  week  of 
the  session  had  passed.  He  observed,  and  felt  too,  the  thrill  which 
ran  through  the  House  at  the  mere  introduction  of  a  subject  with 
which  every  mind  was  surcharged,  and  marked  the  rising  tide  of 
feeling  as  the  reading  of  the  resolutions  went  on,  until  the  climax  of 
audacity  was  reached  in  the  last  clause  of  the  last.  How  moderate, 
how  tame,  the  words  seem  to  us  !  "  Every  attempt  to  invest  such 
power  (of  taxation)  in  any  person  or  persons  whatever,  other  than 
the  General  Assembly  aforesaid,  has  a  manifest  tendency  to  destroy 
British  and  American  freedom."  Ravishing  words  to  the  Whig 
members  from  Albemarle  and  the  other  western  counties.  Sound 
as  old  Coke  himself,  in  the  judgment  of  our  spell-bound  listener  in 
the  doorway.  Words  of  fearful  import  to  the  Tory  lords  of  the 
eastern  counties.  Not  approved,  as  yet,  by  George  Wythe,  nor  by 
Pej^ton  Randolph,  whom  the  student  held  in  so  much  honor. 

When  the  reading  was  finished,  he  heard  his  friend  utter  the 
opening  sentences  of  his  speech,  with  faltering  tongue  as  usual,  and 
giving  little  promise  of  the  strains  that  were  to  follow.  But  it  was 
the  nature  of  this  great  genius,  as  of  all  genius,  to  rise  to  the  occa 
sion.  Soon  Jefferson  saw  him  stand  erect,  and,  swinging  free  of  all 
impediments,  launch  into  the  tide  of  his  oration;  every  eye  capti 
vated  by  the  large  and  sweeping  grace  of  his  gesticulation;  every 
ear  charmed  with  the  swelling  music  of  his  voice ;  every  mind 
thrilled  or  stung  by  the  vivid  epigrams  into  which  he  condensed  his 
opinions.  He  never  had  a  listener  so  formed  to  be  held  captive  by 
him  as  the  student  at  the  lobby  door,  who,  as  a  boy,  had  found  the 
oratory  of  the  Indian  chief  so  impressive,  and  could  not  now  resist  a 
slurring  translation  of  Ossian's  majestic  phrases.  After  the  lapse  of 
fifty-nine  years,  he  still  spoke  of  this  great  day  with  enthusiasm,  and 
described  anew  the  closing  moment  of  Henry's  speech,  when  the 
6 


66  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

orator,  interrupted  by  cries  of  treason,  uttered  the  well-known  words 
of  defiance,  "  If  this  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it ! " 

Tin-  debate  which  followed  Mr.  Henry's  opening  speech,  was,  as 
Jefferson  has  recorded,  '''most  bloody."  It  is  impossible  for  a  reader 
of  this  generation  to  conceive  the  mixture  of  fondness,  pride,  and 
vein-ration  with  which  these  colonists  regarded  the  mother  country, 
its  parliament  and  king,  its  church  and  its  literature,  and  all  the 
glorious  names  and  events  of  its  history.  Whig  as  Jefferson  was  by 
nature  and  conviction,  he  could  not  give  up  England  as  long  as  there 
was  any  hope  of  a  just  union  with  her.  What,  then,  must  have 
been  the  feelings  of  the  Tories  of  the  House,  —  Tories  by  nature 
and  by  party,  —  upon  hearing  this  yeoman  from  the  west  speak  of 
tin-  natural  rights  of  man  in  the  spirit  of  a  Sidney,  and  use  language 
in  reference  to  the  king  which  sounded  to  them  like  the  prelude  to 
an  assassin's  stab?  They  had  to  make  a  stand,  too,  for  their  posi 
tion  as  leaders  of  the  House,  unquestioned  for  a  century.  To  the 
matter  of  the  resolutions  no  one  objected.  All  that  Wythe,  Pendle- 
ton,  I'l and,  and  Peyton  Randolph  could  urge  against  them  was,  that 
they  were  unbecoming  and  unnecessary.  The  House  had  already 
remonstrated  without  effect,  and  it  became  a  loyal  people  to  submit. 
"Torrents  of  sublime  eloquence"  from  Patrick  Henry,  as  Jefferson 
observes,  swept  away  their  arguments ;  and  the  resolutions  were  car 
ried  ;  the  last  one,  however,  by  only  a  single  voice.  Standing  in  the 
door-way,  the  student  watched  the  taking  of  the  vote  on  the  last 
reflation,  upon  which  the  contest  had  been  hottest.  When  the 
result  had  been  declared,  Peyton  Randolph,  the  king's  attorney- 
general,  brushed  past  him,  saying,  as  he  entered  the  lobby,  "By 
God!  I  would  have  given  five  hundred  guineas  for  a  single  vote." 

Doubtless  the  young  gentlemen  went  home  exulting.  Patrick 
Henry,  unused  to  the  artifices  of  legislation,  and  always  impatient 
of  detail,  supposing  now  that  the  work  for  which  he  had  come  to 
Williameburg  was  done,  mounted  that  very  evening  and  rode  away. 
Jeflfe.r-oii.  perhap-.  was  not  too  sure  of  this;  for  the  next  morning, 
some  time  before  the  hour  of  meeting,  he  was  again  at  the  Capitol, 
and  in  the  Burgesses'  Chamber.  1 1  is  uncle,  Colonel  Peter  Randolph, 
one  of  the  Tory  members,  came  in,  and.  sitting  down  at  the  clerk's 
table,  began  to  turn  over  the  journals  of  the  House.  He  had  a  dim 
recollection,  lie  said,  of  a  resolution  of  the  House,  many  years  ago, 
having  been  r.^/////y/v/  /  He  was  trying  to  find  the  record  of  the 


STAMP-ACT  SCENES.  67 

transaction.  He  wanted  a  precedent.  The  student  of  law  looked 
over  his  shoulder,  as  he  turned  the  leaves;  a  group  of  members 
standing  near,  in  trepidation  at  the  thought  of  yesterday's  doings. 
The  House-bell  rang;  the  House  convened;  the  student  resumed 
his  stand  in  the  doorway.  A  motion  was  made  to  expunge  the  last 
resolution  of  yesterday's  series ;  and,  in  the  absence  of  the  mighty 
orator  whose  eloquence  had  yesterday  made  the  dull  intelligent  and 
the  timid  brave,  the  motion  was  carried,  and  the  resolution  was 
expunged. 

We  hear  no  more  from  Jefferson  of  his  making  the  tour  of  Europe, 
after  the  Stamp  Act.  Perhaps,  although  the  odious  measure  was 
repealed  a  year  after  its  passage,  to  the  boundless  joy  of  the  people, 
these  events  lessened  his  desire  to  visit  the  land  of  his  forefathers. 
He  begins  now  to  speak  with  some  asperity  of  the  Tory  leaders  in 
England.  In  abstracting  cases,  he  detects  the  political  bias  of  the 
judge  in  his  rulings.  As  Braddock's  defeat  revealed  to  the  colonists 
that  red-coats  were  not  invincible,  so  did  the  Stamp  Act  break  the 
enchantment  of  distance,  and  show  some  of  them  that  British  judges 
and  law-makers  could  be  subservient  to  power.  Nor  was  he  rich 
enough  for  such  a  luxury  as  foreign  travel,  and  by  this  time  he  must 
have  discovered  the  fact.  His  farms  did  not  yield  an  income  of 
more  than  four  hundred  pounds  sterling  per  annum. 

But  a  young  gentleman  may  take  a  little  recreation  in  trav/el,  with 
out  going  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  system  of  inoculation  for 
the  small-pox  was  still  a  topic  with  physicians  and  persons,  inter 
ested  in  medical  science.  Jefferson  was,  all  his  life,  a  curious  inquirer 
in  such  subjects  ;  and  he  became,  by  and  by,  a  not  unskilful  sur 
geon,  —  one  who  could,  upon  an  emergency,  sew  up  an  ugly  wound, 
or  set  a  negro's  broken  leg.  The  delicacy  of  touch,  and  dexterity  of 
hand,  that  he  possessed,  joined  to  his  patience  in  investigation  and 
fearlessness  of  precedent,  could  have  made  him  a  master  in  surgery. 
Convinced  of  the  utility  of  inoculation,  then  performed  by  Dr.  Ship- 
pen  of  Philadelphia,  he  availed  himself  of  this  pretext,  in  the  spring 
of  1766,  to  take  a  journey  northward,  and  see  something  of  the  world 
that  lay  beyond  the  boundaries  of  Virginia.  At  twenty-three  he 
had  never  been  out  of  his  native  Province. 

This  journey  he  made,  not  on  horseback,  but  in  a  one-horse  chaise. 
Readers  familiar  with  the  road  will  not  be  at  a  loss  to  imagine  the 
time  he  must  have  had  in  crossing  so  many  wide  and  brimming 


68  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

rivers  over  which  we  now  thunder  with  so  much  ease,  —  the  York, 
Pamunkey,  Rappahannock,  Potomac,  Pawtuxent,  Patapsco,  Susque- 
hanna,  ]  Vlawaiv,  1'ussaic,  Hackensack,  and  Hudson,  without  count 
ing  fifty  smaller  streams,  and  those  wide  shallows  that  indent  the 
shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  —  all  to  he  forded,  or  crossed  in  a  ferry 
boat  propelled  by  poles  or  oars.  It  argues  ill  for  his  habits  that  his 
horse  ran  away  with  him  twice  the  first  day,  for  the  animal  evidently 
wanted  exercise.  The  second  he  rode  in  a  drenching  rain  from 
morning  till  nighj:,  without  coming  to  a  habitation  in  which  he  could 
take  shelter.  The  third  day,  in  fording  the  swollen  Pamunkey,  he 
was  nearly  drowned.  After  getting  beyond  this  river,  he  came  to 
a  more  inhabited  region,  where  he  visited  old  college  friends  at  their 
homes,  to  his  great  content.  At  Annapolis,  the  capital  of  Maryland, 
then  a  town  of  a  thousand  inhabitants,  and  of  somewhat  more  im 
portance  than  Williamsburg,  he  found  the  people  in  the  midst  of 
public  rejoicings  aver  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  The  Maryland 
Assembly  was  in  session.  It  was  no  such  courteous  and  dignified 
body,  he  told  his  friend  Page,  as  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia. 
Business  was  conducted  in  a  more  informal  manner ;  so  loosely,  in 
fact,  as  to  move  the  young  Virginian  to  laughter.  He  was  struck, 
however,  with  the  beauty  and  convenience  of  the  situation,  —  '•  the 
largest  vessels,  those  of  four  hundred  hogsheads,  being  able  to  brush 
against  the  sides  of  the  dock." 

At  Philadelphia  the  inoculation  was  performed.  When  he  recov 
ered,  he  continued  his  journey  to  the  clean,  crooked,  little,  cobble- 
stoned,  half-Dutch  city,  so  green  and  shady,  that  covered  the  last  mile 
of  beautiful  Manhattan  Island,  —  a  place  then  of  nearly  twenty  thou 
sand  inhabitants.  Of  his  stay  in  New  York  we  know  only  one  trifling 
fact.  He  chanced  to  take  lodgings  in  a  house  where  a  young  gen 
tleman  of  his  own  age  from  Massachusetts,  named  Elbridgi-  Gerry, 
was  staying.  They  became  acquainted  with  one  another  well  enough 
to  remember  the  chance  meeting,  when,  nine  years  after,  they  met 
in  "the  Congress"  at  Philadelphia.  They  remained  friends  and 
political  allies  for  fifty  years.  It  was  perhaps  on  his  return  from 
this  journey  that  an  incident  occurred,  which,  in  his  old  at^e.  he  used 
to  relate  with  so  much  glee.  On  his  way  through  Virginia  he 
stopped  at  a  tavern,  the  landlady  of  which  had  just  returned  from 
'uneral  of  a  young  man  of  that  neighborhood,  whom  she  extolled 
lamented  with  much  feeling.  "But,  Mr.  Jefferson,"  said  she, 


STAMP-ACT   SCENES.  69 

"we  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  every  thing  was  done  for 
him  that  could  be  done.  He  was  bled  no  less  than  six  and  twenty 
times." 

And  so  sped  these  happy,  laborious  years  of  preparation  for  the 
bar.  Early  in  the  year  1767,  about  the  time  of  his  twenty-fourth 
birthday,  he  was  admitted;  and  he  began  at  once  the  practice  of  his 
profession.  He  had  not  to  wait  for  business.  One  of  his  existing 
account-books  shows,  that,  in  this  first  year  of  his  practice,  he  was 
employed  in  sixty-eight  cases  before  the  General  Court  of  the  Prov 
ince,  besides  county  and  office  business. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

LAWYERS    IN    OLD    VIRGINIA. 

HE  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  a  fortunate  time  for  a  profession 
that  thrives  most  when  the  community  has  ceased  to  thrive. 

During  the  flush  period,  when  Virginia  seemed  to  be  so  flourish 
ing  because  she  was  living  on  her  capital,  —  the  virgin  soil  of  the 
river  valleys,  —  the  people  indulged  to  the  full  that  antipathy  to 
lawyers  which  appears  natural  to  the  rustic  mind.  Far  back  in 
Charles  I.'s  reign,  in  1642,  the  Assembly  had  passed  a  law,  that 
"  all  mercenary  attorneys  be  wholly  expelled  "  from  the  courts  of 
Virginia;  meaning  by  "mercenary  attorneys,"  paid  attorneys. 
The  reason  assigned  for  this  act  was,  that  "many  troublesome  suits 
are  multiplied  by  the  unskilfulness  and  covetousness  of  attorneys, 
who  have  more  intended  their  own  profit  and  their  inordinate  lucre 
than  the  good  and  benefit  of  their  clients."  The  very  tautologies  of 
this  law  seem  to  betray  the  trembling  eagerness  of  the  honest  bur 
gess  \vlio  drew  it. 

For  nearly  eleven  years  not  a  lawyer  in  Virginia  could  lawfully 
take  a  fee  for  serving  a  client  in  court.  But,  of  course,  the  rogues 
evaded  the  act ;  and  this  the  Assembly  tried  to  prevent  by  enacting 
a  supplement,  to  the  effect  that  no  attorney  should  "  take  any  rec 
ompense,  directly  or  indirectly,"  for  a??i/ legal  service;  but,  in  case 
a  judge  should  perceive  that  a  man  was  likely  to  lose  his  cause 
merely  by  his  inability  to  plead  it,  he  was  "  to  appoint  some  fitt  man 
out  of  the  people  "  to  plead  it  for  him,  who  was  to  be  paid  such  a 
fee  as  the  court  should  deem  just.  The  plan  was  plausible,  but  it 
did  not  answer.  The  act  was  repealed ;  and  such  attorneys  as  were 
licensed  were  bound  by  a  stringent  oath  not  to  oppress  clients  nor 
foment  suits.  But  no  sooner  were  the  lawyers  in  the  courts  again, 
than  they  behaved  in  such  a  way  as  to  become  more  odious  than 
70 


LAWYERS  IN  OLD   VIRGINIA.*  71 

ever.  Then  the  House  of  Burgesses —  in  1657,  his  Highness, 
Oliver  Cromwell,  being  Lord  Protector — took  up  the  subject  anew, 
and  debated  this  question  :  "  Shall  we  attempt  a  regulation  or  totall 
ejection  of  lawyers  ?  "  The  House  decided  for  "  totall  ejection,"  and 
framed  a  law  which  they  thought  would  be  too  much  even  for  a 
lawyer's  cunning  to  evade:  "Noe  person  or  persons  within  this 
collony,  either  lawyers  or  any  other,"  shall  plead  for  pay  in  a  court, 
nor  give  counsel  in  any  cause  or  controversy,  for  any  kind  of  com 
pensation,  under  a  penalty  of  five  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  for 
every  offence  ;  "  and  because  the  breakers  thereof,  through  their 
subtillit}'-  cannot  easily  be  discerned,"  every  man  pleading  for  another 
must  take  an  oath  that  he  is  not  "  a  breaker  of  the  act." 

But  the  governor  and  council  had  a  veto  on  the  acts  of  the 
Assembly.  It  reveals  to  us  the  intensity  of  the  odium  in  which  law 
yers  were  held,  that  the  governor  and  council  did  not  directly  veto 
so  preposterous  a  law,  but  attempted  to  parry  it  by  sending  this 
message  :  "  The  governor  and  council  will  consent  to  this  proposi 
tion  so  farr  as  it  shall  be  agreeable  to  Magna  Charta.",  The  Assem 
bly  made  "  humble  reply,"  that  they  had  considered  Magna  Charta, 
but  found  nothing  therein  applicable  to  the  case  ;  and  as  lawyers  had 
been  kept  out  of  the  courts  for  more  than  ten  years,  by  the  act  of  a  for 
mer  House,  "wee  humbly  conceive  that  wee  have  no  less  power"  to 
eject  them  again.  The  humble  reply  seems  to  have  convinced  the 
governor  and  council ;  for  the  law  appears  in  the  statutes,  and 
remained  in  force  for  twenty-three  years  ! 

But  our  complicated  modern  world  cannot  do  without  lawyers,  not 
even  simple,  rustic  Old  Virginia.  And  accordingly  in  1080,  thirty- 
second  of  Charles  II.,  we  find  a  House  of  Burgesses  —  farmers  to  a 
a  man  —  enacting  the  lawyers  back  again,  and  giving  good  reasons 
therefore  :  "  Whereas  all  courts  in  this  country  are  many  tymes  hin 
dered  and  troubled  in  their  judicial  proceedings  by  the  impertinent 
discourses  of  many  busy  and  ignorant  men,  who  will  pretend  to  as 
sist  their  friend  in  the  business,  and  to  clear  the  matter  more  plainly 
to  the  court,  although  never  desired  or  requested  thereunto  by 
the  person  whome  they  pretended  to  assist,  and  many  tymes  to  the 
destruction  of  his  cause,  and  the  great  trouble  and  hindrance  of  the 
court ;  for  prevention  whereof  to  the  future,  Bee  it  enacted,"  that  no 
one  shall  in  future  presume  to  plead  in  any  court  of  this  colony 
without  license  "first  obtained  and  had,"  under  penalties  of  six 


72  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

hundred  or  of  two  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco,  according  to  the 
dignity  of  the  court  in  which  the  offence  shall  have  been  committed. 

This  act  terminated  a  controversy  which  had  lasted  thirty-eight 
years  ;  and  the  Assembly,  having  admitted  lawj*ers,  fixed  their  com 
pensation  at  rates  which  were  meant  to  be  liberal.  For  conducting 
a  cause  in  the  chief  court  of  the  colony  an  attorney  was  allowed  to 
charge  five  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  and,  in  the  county  courts, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds, — splendid  compensation,  if  tobacco 
could  only  have  been  kept  up  to  a  shilling  a  pound. 

When  John  Kolfe,  not  yet  husband  of  Pocahontas,  planted  the 
iir.-t  tobacco  seed  in  Jamestown,  in  1G12,  good  tobacco  sold  in  Lon 
don  docks  at  live  shillings  a  pound,  or  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
sin-ling  for  a  hogshead  of  a  thousand  pounds'  weight.  Fatal  facility 
of  money-making!  It  was  this  that  diverted  all  labor,  capital,  and 
enterprise  into  one  channel,  and  caused  that  first  shipload  of 
roes  in  the  James  River  to  be  so  welcome.  The  planter  could 
have  but  one  object,  —  to  get  more  slaves  in  order  to  raise  more 
tobacco.  I lenct \  the  price  was  ever  on  the  decline,  drooping  first 
from  shillings  to  pence,  and  then  going  down  the  scale  of  pence, 
until  it  remained  for  some  years  at  an  average  of  about  two  pence  a 
pound  in  Virginia,  and  three  pence  in  London.  In  Virginia,  it 
df; «-n  fell  below  two  pence;  as,  during  brief  periods  of  scarcity,  it 
would  rise  to  six  pence  and  seven  pence.  A  fee  of  five  hundred 
pounds  of  tobacco,  from  ^680  to  1750,  might  average  about  three 
guineas;  and  a  fee  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco, 
something  less  than  one  guinea.  These  sums,  small  as  they  seem 
to  us,  sufficed  to  create  the  profession  of  the  law  in  Virginia,  and  to 
draw  into  it  a  few  of  the  younger  sons  of  great  planters,  and  the 
eldest  sons  of  western  }-eomen. 

I'.ut  these  fees  were  the  highest  that,  could  be  charged.  It  is  evi 
dent  from  Jefferson's  own  books,  that  his  usual  compensation  was 
what  less;  for  he  records  that,  during  his  first  year  at  the  bar, 
17«'»7.  In-  wa-  employed  in  sixty-eight  cases  before  the  General 
Court,  —  business  that  mu>t  have  brought  with  it  many  cases  in 
county  courts ;  but  his  entire  emolument  for  the  year  was  a  little 
more  than  two  hundred  pounds  sterling;  or  in  the  currency  of 
Virginia,  as  set  down  by  himself  with  Jeffersonian  exactness, 
'-.  -1.S-.  5J(Z.  From  the  accounts  <.f  later  years,  I  should  conclude 
,  one  with  another,  yielded  him  about  one  pound  ster- 


LAWYERS  IN  OLD   VIRGINIA.  73 

ling  profit ;  for  the  number  of  his  cases  and  the  number  of  pounds  of 
his  law  income  are  never  far  from  equal,  in  the  busier  years  of  his 
practice.  Translating  the  pounds  of  that  period  into  the  dollars  of 
this,  it  was  as  though  a  lawyer  of  the  present  day  should  receive 
fifty  dollars  for  arguing  a  cause  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  ten  dollars  for  a  cause  before  a  local  court,  two  dol 
lars  for  a  verbal  opinion,  and  five  for  a  written  one.  As  late<as  1702, 
when  lawyers'  fees  were  again  fixed  by  law  in  Virginia,  the  most 
eminent  lawyer  in  the  State  could  not  legally  charge,  for  the  most 
elaborate  written  opinion  on  the  most  abstruse  question  relating  to 
real  estate,  more  than  sixteen  dollars  and  sixty-six  cents ;  and 
when  lawyers  attended  at  a  distance  from  their  homes,  they  could 
charge  for  their  time  not  more  than  three  dollars  and  fifty-eight 
cents  per  day.  Well  might  Mr.  Webster  say,  that,  in  that  age, 
la  wye  "  wor^^^}3^jj[ix^  well,  and  died  poor." 

Nevertheless,  it  was  a  good  time  for  a  lawyer  when  Jefferson 
began  to  practise  ;  for  he  could  make  up  for  the  smallness  of  his 
fees  by  tli e  number  of  his  cases.  Everybody  "almost  was  in  law. 
After  a  hundred  years  of  profusion,  pay-day,  postponed  by  mort 
gage  and  other  devices,  was  at  hand ;  and  the  shadow  of  coming 
ruin  darkened  many  a  stately  house. 

Old  Virginia  is  a  pathetic  chapter  in  Political  Economy.  ^Old 
Virginia,  indeed!  She  reached  decrepitude  while  contemporary 
communities  were  enjoying  tiie_  first  vigor  of  youth ;  while  New 
York  was  executing  the  task  which  Virginia's  George  Washington 
had  suggested  and  foretold,  that  of  connecting  the  waters  of  the 
great  West  with  the  ocean  ;  while  New  England  was  careering 
gayly  over  the  sea,  following  the  whale  to  his  most  distant  retreat, 
and  feeding  belligerent  nations  with  her  superabundance.  One 
little  century  of  seeming  prosperit}^ ;  three  generations  of  spend- 
t^rifts  j  then  the  lawyer  and  the__sheriff !  Nothing  was  invested, 
nothing  was  saved  for  the  future.  There  were  no  manufacturau  no 
commerce,  no  towns,  no  internal  trade,  no  great  middle  class.  Asiast 
as  that  virgin  richness  of  soil  could  be  converted  into  tobacco,  and  sold 
in  London  docks,  the  proceeds  were  expended  in  vast,  ugly  man 
sions,  heavy  furniture,  costly  apparel,  Madeira  wine,  fine  horses, 
huge  coaches,  and  more  slaves.  The  planters  lived  as  though 
virgin  soil  were  revenue,  not  capital.  They  tried  to  maintain  in 
Virginia  the  lordly  style  of  English  grandees,  without  any  Birming- 


74  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

ham,  Staffordshire,  Sheffield,  or  London  docks,  to  pay  for  it.  Their 
short-lived  prosperity  consisted  of  three  elements,  — virgin  soil,  low- 
priced  slaves,  high-priced  tobacco.  The  virgin  soil  was  rapidly 
exhausted  ;  the  price  of  negroes  was  always  on  the  increase  ;  and  the 
price  of  tobacco  was  always  tending  downward.  Their  sole  chance 
of  founding  a  stable  commonwealth  was  to  invest  the  proceeds  of 
their  tobacco  in  something  that  would  absorb  their  labor  and  yield 
tin-in  profit  when  the  soil  would  no  longer  produce  tobacco. 

But  their  laborers  were  ignorant  slaves,  the  possession  of  whom 
destroyed  their  energy,  swelled  their  pride,  and  dulled  their  under 
standings.  Virginia's  case  was  hopeless  from  the  day  on  which  that 
Dutch  ship  landed  the  first  twenty  slaves;  and,  when  the  time  of 
reckoning  came,  the  people  had  nothing  to  show  for  their  long  occu 
pation  of  one  of  the  finest  estates  in  the  world,  except  great  hordes 
of  negroes,  breeding  with  the  rapidity  of  rabbits ;  upon  whose 
annual  increase  Virginia  subsisted,  until  the  most  glorious  and 
beiieiicial  of  all  wars  set  the  white  race  free,  and  gave  Virginia  her 
second  opportunity. 

All  this  was  nobody's  fault.  It  was  a  combination  of  circum 
stances  against  which  the  unenlightened  human  naturToTtKaFperiod 
could  not  possibly  have  made  head.  Eoac-in^ensaw  anything  wrong 
in  slavery.  Xu  inun  knew  much  about  thelaws  that  control  the 
prosperity  of  States.  No  man  understood  the  scieirce-ef  agriculture. 
Every  one  with  whom  those  proud  and  thoughTIess" planters  dealt 
plundered  them;  and  the  mother  country  discouraged  every  attempt 
of  the  colonists  to  manufacture  their  own  supplies.  There  were  so 
many  charges  upon  tobacco,  in  its  course  from  the  planter's  packing 
house  to  the  consumer's  pipe,  that  it  was  no  very  uncommon  thing, 
in  dull  years,  for  the  planter  to  receive  from  his  agent  in  London,  in 
return  tor  his  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  not  a  pleasant  sum  of  money, 
nor  even  a  box  of  clothes,  but  a  bill  of  charges  which  the  price  of 
thglfcbacco  had  not  covered.  One  of  the  hardships  of  which  the 
'•.nplained  was,  that  they  did  not  ''dare"  to  send  their 
tobacco  to  London,  for  fear  of  being  brought  in  debt  by  it,  but  had 
to  M-il  it  on  the  .-pot  to  speculators  much  In-low  the  London  price. 
The  old  Virginia  laws  and  records  so  abound  in  tobacco  information, 
that  we  can  follow  a  hogshead  of  tobacco  from  its  native  plantation 
on  the  dailies  to  the  shop  of  the  tobacconist  in  London. 

In  the  absence  of  iann  vehicles,  —  many  planters  who  kept  a  coach 


LAWYERS  IN  OLD  VIRGINIA.  75 

had  no  wagons,  —  each  hogshead  was  attached  to  a  pair  of  shafts 
with  a  horse  between  them,  and  "rolled"  to  a  shed  on  the  bank  of 
the  stream.  When  a  ship  arrived  in  the  river  from  London,  it 
anchored  opposite  each  plantation  which  it  served,  and  set  ashore 
the  portion  of  the  cargo  belonging  to  it;  continuing  its  upward 
course  until  the  hold  was  empty.  Then,  descending  the  river,  it 
stopped  at  the  different  plantations,  taking  in  from  each  its  hogs 
heads  of  tobacco  ;  and  the  captain  receiving  long  lists  of  articles  to 
be  bought  in  London  with  the  proceeds  of  the  tobacco.  The  rivers 
of  Virginia,  particularly  the  Potomac  and  the  James,  are  wide  and 
shallow,  with  a  deep  channel  far  from  either  shore  ;  so  that  the 
transfer  of  the  tobacco  from  the  shore  to  the  ship,  in  the  general 
absence  of  landings,  was  troublesome^  and  costly.  To  this  day,  as 
readers  remember,  the  piers  on  the  James  present  to  the  wondering 
passenger  from  the  North  a  stretch  of  pine  planks,  from  an  eighth  to 
half  a  mile  long.  The  ship  is  full  at  length,  drops  down  past 
Newport  News,  salutes  the  fort  upon  Old  Point  Comfort,  and  glides 
out  between  the  capes  into  the  ocean. 

Suppose  her  now  safe  in  London  docks,  say  about  the  year  172^ 
the  middle  of  the  prosperous,  period,  when  the  great  houses  were 
building  irTVirgmTa,  with  stabling  for  "  a  hundred  horses,"  and  pre 
text  of  work  for  "  a  hundred  servants."  By  the  time  she  is  fast  at 
her  berth,  the  vultures  have  alighted  upon  her  deck.  Two  "  laud- 
waiters"  represent  the  authorities  of  the  custom-house,  and  are 
sworn  to  see  that  the  king  gets  his  own.  A  personage  called  the 
"  ship's  husband  "  is  not  long  behind  them.  He,  representing  the 
merchant  to  whom  the  tobacco  is  consigned,  would  naturally  be 
the  antagonist  of  the  land-waiters  ;  but  he  is  only  too  glad  to  establish 
an  understanding  with  them.  And  behind  each  of  these  two  powers 
there  is  a  train  of  hangers-on,  hungry  for  a  morsel  of  the  prey. 
There  is  already  a  charge  of  two  pounds  for  freight  upon  each  hogs 
head.  AS  soon  as  the  ship  is  reported  at  the  custom-housjHtoe 
king  demands  his  "  old  subsidy  "  of  three  farthings  upon  every 
board,  —  more  than  three  pounds  sterling  on  a 


hogshead  of  a  thousand  pounds  weight.  The  "duty"  of  five  and 
one-third  pence  per  pound  has  next  to  be  calculated,  and  a  bond 
given  for  its  payment  when  the  tobacco  is  sold  for  home  consump- 
tionT~""~The  purchaser,  it  is  true,  pays  these  duties  ;  but  the  planter  is 
responsible  and  bound  for  the  payment. 


76  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFEKSOX. 

Then  there  is  a  continuous  fire  of  petty  charges  at  each  unfor 
tunate  hothead,  some  of  which  it  is  difficult  now  to  explain. 
I  copy  the  following  items  from  an  agent's  bill  of  1733:  "  primage, 
Gd.;"  "wharfage  and  lighterage,  Gd.;"  "Mr.  Perry,  3d.;"  "hus 
banding  the  ship,  4c/.;"  "watching  and  drink,  3d,;"  "entry  in 
wards  and  bonds,  Gd.;"  "land-waiters'  fees,  3d.;"  "dinners,  break 
fasts  to  -the  husband  and  officers  while  landing  the  ship,  with  other 
incident  expenses,  9e/.y"  "entry  outwards  and  searchers,  Sd.;" 
"cocket*  money,  etc.,  3d.;"  "debentures  one  with  another,  13c?.;" 
"cooperage  on  board,  2d.;"  "ditto,  landing,  Is.;"  "ditto  outwards, 
9c?.;"  "refusing  and  hoops,  Id.;"  "porterage,  rehousing,  and 
extraordinary  rummaging,  Gd.;"  "weighing  and  shipping,  Gd.;" 
"wharfage  and  lighterage  outwards,  Gd.;"  "cartage,  Is.;"  "ware 
house  rent  for  three  months,  Is.  Gd.;"  "brokerage,  2s.;"  "postage, 
as  charged  by  the  post-office;"  "agent's  commission,  2J  per  cent." 
In  other  bills  I  observe  such  words  as  "  suttle,"  f  and  the  old  famil 
iar  "  tare  "  and  «  tret." 

Besides  these  vexatious  charges,  each  of  which  could  be  a  pretext 
for  fraud,  the  London  agent  had  other  mooes  of  despoiling  the 
planter  who  was  quaffing  his  Madeira,  or  chasing  the  fox,  three 
thousand  miles  away.  Two  pounds  oi"  tobacco  were  allowed  to  be 
taken  from  each  hogshead  for  a  sample;  but  a  cooper  who  knew 
what  was  due  to  a  British  merchant  and  to  himself  could  draw  eight 
pounds  as  well  as  two;  and  a  weigher  who  had  been  previously 
"seen  "could  mark  down  the  weight  of  a  hogshead  two  hundred 
pounds  or  ten  pounds,  according  to  thp  size  of  the  hogshead;  leaving 
the  planter  to  decide  whether  his  scales,  or  those  of  the  London 
custom-house,  were  untrustworthy.  In  a  word,  all  those  fraudulent 
devices  complained  of  by  honest  merchants  in  the  bad  days  of  the 
Nev,  York  custom-house  were  familiar  in  the  custom-house  of  Lon 
don  in  1733;  and  the  frauds  were  concealed  by  precisely  the  same 
!i  the  arrival  of  a  ship,  the  merchant  to  whom  the 
was  consigned  would  apply  for  the  services  of  certain  land- 
waiters,  "  whose  friendship  he  could  rely  upon"  to  superintend  tho 
landing  of  his  tobacco.  Perhaps  they  were  engaged  at  the  time. 

*  COCKET.  —  A  scroll  of  parchment,  scaled  and  delivered  hy  the  officers  of  the  custom- 

:  ha:.'-,  Bl  H  warrant  that  their  mrn-liamline  i*  entered.  —  \\"i:n*Ti  K. 

t  8l  TTi.i:.—  SiiMle-weLiit,  in  i  'inim-rce,  is  the  weight  when  the  tare  has  been  deducted, 
and  trei  lias  yet  to  be  allowed. — 


LAWYERS   IN   OLD   VIRGINIA.  77 

Then  he  delayed  landing  his  tobacco  till  they  were  at  leisure.  The 
rest  can  be  imagined.  The  weighers,  the  coopers,  and  the  "ship's 
husband "  understand  one  another ;  and  "  if,"  as  an  old  remon 
strance  has  it,  "  any  two  of  them  agree  in  their  account,  the  third 
alters  his  book  to  make  it  agree  with  theirs."  *  We  read,  besides, 
of  British  merchants  sweeping  the  j:efuse_jo£  their  warehouses  into 
casks,  putting  a  little  good  tobacco  at  the  top  and  .bottom  ;  and,  after 
getting  a  drawback  of  duty  from  their  own  government,  sending 
this  mass  of  dust  and  stalks  to  defraud  a  foreign  country.  In  1750, 
when  tobacco  yielded  the  British  government  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  pounds  sterling  per  annum,  it  gave  the  planter  an  average 
profit  of  one  pound  sterling  per  hogshead. 

The  same  factors  who  sold  the  Virginia  tobacco  were  usually 
charged  to  purchase  the  merchandise  which  the  planters  required. 
Doubtless  many  of  them  performed  both  duties  with  sufficient  cor 
rectness  ;  but,  down  to  the  Revolution,  it  was  a  standing  complaint 
with  the  planters,  that  their  tobacco  brought  them  less,  and  their 
merchandise  cost  them  more,  than  they  ~7Tacr~expected.  Readers 
remember  the  emphatic  expostulations  of  General  Washington  on 
both  these  points.  The  very  ships  that  carried  the  tobacco,  and 
brought  back  the  merchandise,  were  nearly  all  owned  in  London. 
When  a  Yankee  merchant  had  a  prosperous  year,  or  made  a  lucky 
voyage,  he  built  another  schooner ;  so  that,  when  Jefferson  made  his 
first  bow  to  a  jury,  in  1767,  New  England  owflgjl  seven-eighths  of  the 
shipping  that  frequented  I^ew-England  ports.  But  of  all  the  great 
,fleet  trading  with  Virginia,  — about  three  hundred  vessels  in  1767, — 
seven-eighths  belonged  to  British  merchants.  The  Yankee's  new 
schoo~ner  proved  a  better  investment  than  the  Virginian's  "  likely 
negro  wenches,"  whom  the  Yankee's  schooner  brought  for  him  from 
the  coast  of  Guinea;  and  the  Virginian's  pipes  of  Madeira  con 
sumed  his  acres,  while  the  Yankee,  with  his  New-England  rum, 
added  acres  to  his  estate. 

How  little  the  planters  foresaw  the  desolation  of  their  Province  is 
affectingly  attested  by  many  of  the  relics  of  their  brief  affluence. 
They  built  their  parish  churches  to  last  centuries,  like  the  churches 
to  which  they  were  accustomed  ""at  home."  "  In  neighborhoods 

i 

*  Case  of  the  Tobacco-Planters  of  Virginia,  as  represented  by  themselves :  signed  by  the 
President  of  the  Council  and  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses.  London.  1733. 


78  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

where  now  a  congregation  of  fifty  persons  could  not  be  collected, 
there  are  the  ruins  of  churches  that  wore  evidently  built  for  the 
accommodation  of  numerous  and  wealthy  communities;  a  forest,  in 
•  instance's,  has  grown  up  all  around  them,  making  it  difficult  to 
get  near  the  imperishable  walls.  Sometimes  the  wooden  roof  has 
fallen  in,  and  one  huge  tree,  rooted  among  the  monumental  slabs  of 
the  middle  aisle,  has  filled  all"  the  interior.  Other  old  churches  long 
stood  solitary  in  old  fields,  the  roof  sound,  but  the  door  standing 
open,  in  which  the  beasts  found  nightly  shelter,  and  into  which  the 
passing  horseman  rode  and  sat  on  his  horse  before  the  altar  till  the 
storm  passe  1.  Others  have  been  used  by  the  fanners  as  wagon- 
houses,  l>y  fishermen  to  hang  their  seines  in,  by  gatherers  of  turpen 
tine  as  storehouses.  One  was  a  distillery,  and  another  was  a  barn. 
A  poor  drunken  wretch  reeled  for  shelter  into  an  abandoned  church 
of  Chesterfield  County,  —  the  county  of  the  first  Jefferson s ;  and 
he  died  in  a  drunken  sleep  at  the  foot  of  the  reading-desk,  where  he 
lay  undiscovered  until  his  face  was  devoured  by  rats.  An  ancient 
font  was  found  doing  duty  as  a  tavern  punch-bowl ;  and  a  tomb 
stone,  which  served  as  the  floor  of  an  oven,  used  to  print  memorial 
words  upon  loaves  of  bread.  Fragments  of  richly-colored  altar- 
pieces,  fine  pulpit-cloths,  and  pieces  of  old  carving,  used  to  be 
preserved  in  farm-houses,  and  shown  to  visitors.  When  the  late 
]>ishop  .M"'-ade  began  his  rounds,  forty  years  ago,  elderly  people 
would  bring  to  him  sets  of  communion  plate  and  single  vessels, 
which  had  once  belonged  to  the  parish  church,  long  deserted,  and 
be.xr  him  to  take  charge  of  them. 

Those  pretty  girls  of  the  Apollo,  who  turned  young  Jefferson's  head 
in  1702,  and  most  of  the  other  bright  spirits  of  that  generation,  — 
where  does  their  dust  repose  ?  In  cemeteries  so  densely  covered 
with  tree-;  and  tangled  shrubbery,  that  no  traces  of  their  tombstones 
can  be  discovered;  in  cemeteries  over  which  the  plough  and  the  har- 
pass;  in  cemeteries  through  the  walls  of  which  some  stream 
has  broken,  and  where  the  bones  and  skulls  of  the  dead  may  be 
seen  afloat  upon  the  slime. 

The  s^udlennessj)f  the  ^collapse  was  most  remarkable.  Westmore 
land  (.'"iinty.  the  birthplace  of  Washington,  Madison,  Monroe,  and 
Mar-hall,  called  absurdly  enough  "the  Athens  of  Virginia,"  was 
still  the  most  polite  and  wealthy  region  of  Virginia  when  Thomas 
Jeffer>  >:i  was  a  young  lawyer.  In  thirty  years  it  became  waste  and 


LAWYERS   IN   OLD  VIRGINIA.  79 

desolate.  A  picket-guard  in  1813,  posted  on  the  Potomac  to  watch 
for  the  expected  British  fleet,  were  seeking  one  day  a  place  to 
encamp,  when  they  came  upon  an  old  church,  the  condition  of  which 
revealed  at  once  the  completeness  and  the  recentness  of  the  ruin. 
It  stood  in  a  lonely  dell,  where  the  silence  was  broken  only  hy  the 
breeze  whispering  through  the  pines  and  cedars  and  dense  shrub 
bery  that  closed  the  entrance.  Huge  oaks,  standing  near  the  walls, 
enveloped  the  roof  with  their  long,  interlacing  branches.  The  doors 
all  stood  wide  open;  the  windows  were  broken  ;  the  roof  was  rotten, 
and  had  partly  fallen  in  ;  and  a  giant  pine,  uprooted  by  a  tempest, 
was  lying  against  the  front,  choking  up  the  principal  door.  The 
churchyard,  which  was  extensive,  and  enclosed  by  a  high  brick  wall 
of  costly  structure,  was  densely  covered  all  over  with  tombstones 
and  monuments ;  many  of  which,  though  they  bore  names  once  held 
in  honor  throughout  Virginia,  were  broken  to  pieces,  or  prostrate, 
with  brambles  and  weeds  growing  thick  and  tangled  between  them 
everywhere.  The  parish  had  been  important  enough  to  have  a 
separate  building  for  a  vestry  just  outside  the  churchyard  wall. 
This  had  rotted  away  from  its  chimney,  which  stood  erect  in  a  mass 
of  ruin. 

With  some  difficulty  the  soldiers  forced  their  way  through  the 
fine  old  porch,  between  massive  doors,  into  the  church.  What  a 
picture  of  desolation  was  disclosed !  The  roof,  rotted  away  at  the 
corners,  had  let  in  for  years  the  snow  and  rain,  staining  and  spoiling 
the  interior.  The  galleries,  where  in  the  olden  time  the  grandees 
of  the  parish  sat,  in  their  square,  high  pews,  were  sloping  and  lean 
ing  down  upon  the  pews  on  the  floor,  and  on  one  side  had  quite 
fallen  out.  The  remains  of  the  great  Bible  still  lay  open  on  the 
desk,  and  the  tattered  canvas  which  hung  from  the  walls  showed 
traces  of  the  Creed  and  Commandments  which  had  once  been  written 
upon  it.  The  marble  font  was  gone :  it  was  a  punch-bowl,  the  com 
mander  of  the  picket  was  told.  The  communion-table,  which  had 
been  a  superb  piece  of  work,  of  antique  pattern,  with  a  heavy  wal 
nut  top,  was  in  its  place,  but  roughened  and  stained  by  exposure. 
It  was  afterwards  used  as  a  chopping-block.  The  brick  aisles 
showed  that  the  church  was  the  resort  of  animals,  and  the  wooden 
ceiling  was  alive  with  squirrels  and  snakes.  The  few  inhabitants 
of  the  vicinity  —  white  trash  —  held  the  old  church  and  its  wilder 
ness  of  graves  in  dread,  and  scarcely  dared  enter  the  tangled  dell 


80  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

in  which  they  were.  It  was  only  the  runaway  slave,  overcome  by  a 
greater  terror,  flying  from  a  being  more  awful  than  any  ghost, — 
savage  man,  —  that  ventured  to  go  into  the  church  itself,  and  crouch 
among  the  broken  pews. 

Such  is  the  ruin  that  befalU^cpjnnaujiity-Aidiich  subsists  upon 
Jts  capital.  We  have~see7rTn"e"~end  of  it.  Mr.  Jefferson,  admitted 
to  the  naFin  17G7,  saw  the  beginning  of  it,  and  doubled  his  estate 
by  it  in  seven  years'  practice.  He  was  present  as  a  spectator  in  the 
<•  <>f  Burgesses  in  1765,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  bolster 
the  falling  fortunes  of  leading  members  by  loans  of  public  money. 
Patrick  I  Ie nry  exploded  the  scheme  by  an  epigram.  The  speaker 
of  the  House,  who  was  also  the  treasurer  of  the  Province,  had  been 
in  the  habit  for  years  of  lending  sums  of  the  public  money  to  dis 
tressed  members  and  others,  becoming  himself  responsible  to  the 
government  for  the  repayment.  But  those  planters  were  doomed 
never  to  be  again  in  a  paying  condition.  Many  of  them  borrowed, 
few  repaid,  until  his  deficit  was  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
pounds.  A  ring  was  formed  in  the  Assembly,  for  the  double  pur 
pose  of  relieving  the  speaker's  estate  from  this  menacing  obligation, 
and  of  enabling  him  to  accommodate  others  of  the  ring  with  further 
loans  of  public  money.  A  public  loan-office  was  proposed,  a  sort  of 
Bank  of  Virginia,  authorized  to  lend  the  public  money  on  good 
security.  It  was  the  intention  of  this  ring  to  make  the  scheme 
work  backward,  and  include  the  loans  already  effected.  Mr.  Speaker 
Robinson,  in  fact,  intended  to  slip  his  shoulders  out  from  under 
his  burden,  and  leave  it  saddled  upon  Virginia.  The  bill  being 
introduced,  the  borrowing  gentlemen  supported  it  by  the  usual  argu 
ment  :  Many  men  in  the  colony,  of  large  property,  had  been  obliged 
to  contract  debts,  the  immediate  exaction  of  which  would  cause 
tlu-ir  ruin;  but  with  a  little  time,  and  a  little  seasonable  a-sis;ance, 
tbey  could  pay  every  thing  they  owed,  with  ease.  Patrick  Henry 
was  not  the  most  solvent  of  men,  but  he  saw  the  fallacy  of  this 
argument  as  applied  to  the  lavish  aristocrats  of  Eastern  Virginia. 

"  What,  sir,''  he  cried,  condensing  his  speech  into  a  sentence, 
"  is  it  proposed,  then,  tov_r^cj^um^^^£endthrift  from  his  dissipation 
and  extravagance  by  filling  his  pocket7nBi"lnoney:Tlr 

There  was  an  end  of  the"  scheme  of  a  loan-office.  That  rending 
sentencf  penetrated  the  understandings  of  Western  yeomen,  the 
solvent  class  of  Virginia ;  and  they  were  too  numerous  for  the  iusol- 


LAWYERS   IX   OLD   VIRGINIA.  81 

vent  aristocrats  to  carry  a  measure  against  them.  The  speaker 
died  next  year :  the  deficit  could  no  longer  be  concealed ;  the  real 
object  of  the  scheme  became  apparent ;  and  the  speaker's  estate 
had  to  make  good  the  loss. 

All  this  sank  deeply  into  the  mind  of  the  young  man  who  stood 
listening  to  the  debate  at  the  door  of  the  chamber.  That  epigram 
of  his  guest  stuck  in  his  memory,  and  remained  fixed  there  while 
Memory  held  her  seat.  In  scenes  widely  different  from  these,  at  a 
time  many  years  distant,  this  debate,  and  the  impressive  commentary 
upon  it  disclosed  by  the  speaker's  death,  ma}'  have  influenced  him 
too  much,  may  have  made  him  too  distrustful  of  institutions  which 
enable  men  of  business  to  apply  the  superabundance  of  next  month 
to  the  insufficiency  of  this. 

For  the  present  behold  him  a  busy,  thriving  young  lawyer,  in  the 
midst  of  the  general  embarrassment  of  the  great  planters.  Sixty- 
eight  cases  before  the  chief  court  of  the  Province  the  first  year  of 
his  practice  ;  the  second  year,  one  hundred  and  fifteen  ;  the  third,  one 
hundre(}  and  ninety-eight  ;  the  fourth,  one  hundred  and  twenty-one ; 
the  fifth,  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  ;  the  sixth,  one  hundred 
and  fifty-four;  the  seventh,  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven;  the 
eighth,  —  which  was  1774,  —  only  twenty-nine,  for  by  that  time 
Virginia  had  other  work  for  him.  This  account,  which  Mr.  Randall 
copied  from  Jefferson's  own  books,  shows  a  falling  off  from  the  year 
1769.  But  it  was  a  falling  off  only  from  his  practice  in  that  one 
court.  As  the  new  party  lines  were  formed,  and  party  feeling  waxed 
hot,  he  lost  some  practice  in  the  General  Court,  but  more  than  made 
up  for  the  loss  by  an  increase  of  office  business  and  county-court 
cases.  In  1771  he  was  engaged  in  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven  causes 
before  the  General  Court ;  but  the  whole  number  of  his  cases  that 
year  was  four  hundre/1  and  thirty,  since  the  politics  that  may  have 
repelled  the  tobacco  lords  of  Lower  Virginia  attracted  clients  in  the 
mountain  counties.  To  the  income  of  four  hundred  pounds  a  year, 
derived  from  his  farm,  a  professional  revenue  was  now  added  that 
averaged  more  than  five  hundred  pounds  a  year;  which  made  him, 
with  his  excellent  habits,  a  prosperous  young  gentleman  indeed,  able 
to  add  a  few  hundred  acres  to  his  estate  from  time  to  time,  until  his 
home  farm  of  nineteen  hundred  acres  had  become,*  in  1774,  a  number 
of  farms  and  tracts,  five  thousand  acres  in  all,  and  "  all  paid  for." 
There  was  nothing  in  which  a  thriving  Virginian  of  that  day  could 


82  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

invent  his  surplus  income  except  land  and  slaves.  Every  one  had 
the  mania  for  po>M-ssing  vast,  tracts  of  land,  hoping  one  day  to  have 
negroes  enough  to  clear  and  work  them.  Jefferson,  however,  appears 
r  t<>  have  bought  slaves  as  an  investment.  The  thirty  slaves 
inherited  iroin  his  lather  in  17~>~  had  become  but  fifty-four  in  1774  ; 
and  his  further  increase  in  this  kind  of  property  came  to  him  by  other 
ways  than  purchase. 

It  is  nut  clear  to  us  what  he  could  have  done  with  his  stores  of 
legal  knowledge,  practising  before  such  courts  as  they  had  then  in 
Virginia.  The  General  Court,  of  which  we  read  so  much,  what  was 
it  ?  It  was  not  a  bench  of  learned  judges,  raised  from  the  bar  by 
their  superior  ability  and  judicial  cast  oi  mind.  It  was  composed  of 
tin-  governor  and  a  quorum  (five)  of  the  Council;  the  Council  being 
a  dozen  or  so  of  the  great  planters,  appointed  by  the  king,  and 
selected,  as  we  are  told,  for  their  "  wealth,  station,  and  loyalty.'' 
This  council  was  a  little  House  of  Lords  to  the  Province;  and, 
like  the  Uritish  House  of  Lords,  it  was  the  Supreme  Court 
a-  well,  without  a  learned  chancellor  on  the  Woolsack.  (Jlovernor 
Fauquier,  one  would  think,  was  better  fitted  to  decide  a  card-table 
dispute,  a  point  of  drawing-room  etiquette,  or  the  scanning  of  aline 
in  Horace,  than  knotty  questions  of  law  ;  but  he  was  the  legal  head  of 
thi>  court  as  long  as  he  filled  the  place  of  governor.  ISTor  is  it  to  be 
supposed  that  the  wealthy  planters  of  the  Council  had  either  inclina 
tion  or  ability  to  make  up  judgments  from  the  reasoning  of  the 
Wythes  and  the  Jeffersons  that  conducted  causes  in  their  hearing. 
]>ut  the,  Knglish  have  had  ways  of  neutralizing  the  errors  of  their 
S}Tstem.  They  know  how,  among  a  crowd  of  pleasure-loving,  un 
learned  peers,  to  get  a  few  "law  lords  ;  "  and  how,  into  a  committee 
or  a  commission  of  five  or  seven  illustrious  incapables,  to  insert  one 
real  person,  who  is  appointed  for  the  purpose  of  .doing  the  work  !  So, 
in  Virginia,  there  appears  to  have  usually  been  in  the  body  of 
councillors  one  learned  and  able  man.  who  performed  the  duty 
of  listening,  weighing,  and  deciding. 

Jefferson  had  most  of  the  requisites  of  a  great  lawyer:  industry, 
so  quiet,  methodical,  and  sustained,  that  it  amounted  to  a  gift;  learn 
ing,  multifarious  and  exact ;  skill  and  rapidity  in  handling  books; 
the  instinct  of  research,  that  leads  him  who  has  it  to  the  fact  he 
wants,  as  surely  as  the  hound  scents  the  game  ;  a  serenity  of  tem 
per,  which  neither  the  inaptitude  of  witnesses  nor  the  badgering  of 


LA  \VYEK3   IN  OLD  VIBGrSTA. 

counsel  conld  ever  disturb ;  a  habft  of  getting  every  thing  upon  paper 
in  such  a  way  that  all  his  stores  of  knowledge  could  be  marshalled 
and  brought  into  action ;  a  ready  sympathy  with  a  client's  mind ;  an 
intuitive  sense  of  what  is  due  to  the  opinions,  prejudices,  and  errors 
of  others;  a  knowledge  of  the  few  avenues  by  which  alone  unwel- 
come  truth  can  find,  access  to  a  human  mind :  and  the  power  to  state 
a  case  with  the  clearness  and  brevity  that  often  make  argument 
superfluous,  f  And  surely  it  ought  to  be  reckoned  among  the  quali 
fications  of  a  lawyer  —  a  trained  servant  of  justice  —  that  he  is  him 
self  jost,  and  a  lover  of  whatever  is  right,  fair,  and  equal  between  a 
man  and  his  brother.  A  grandson  of  Mr.  Jefferson  once  asked  an 
old  man,  who,  in  his  youth,  had  often  heard  him  plead  causes,  how 
he  ranked  as  a  speata?  "*  Well," said  the  old  man,  "it  is  hard  to 
tell,  because  he  always  took  the  rigfc- 

He  was  tfo  orator.  He  knew  too  much,  and  was  too  much,  to  be 
eloquent.  He  dace  J^|IM«*I  a  lawjei  as  a  person  whose  trade  it  is  to 
contest  every  thing,  concede  ^^**"gj  and  talk  by  the  hour.  He 
could  not  talk  by  the  hour.  Besides  the  mental  impediment,  there 
was  a  physical  impediment  to  his  addressing  a  large  company.  If  he 
spoke  in  a  tone  much  above  that  of  conversation,  his  voice  soon 
became  husky  an  i  inarticulate.  But  Madison,  to  whom  we  owe  the 
preservation  of  this  fact,  used  also  to  say.  that  when  he  was  a  student, 
be  heard  his  friend  Jefferson  plead  a  cause  before  a  court,  and  he 
acquitted  himself  well,  speaking  with  fluency  as  well  as  force.  He 
could  not  have  been  wanting  in  such  speech  as  was  oftenest  requited 
before  a  jury,  because  we  find  his  practice  always  increasing  in  the 
county  courts.  If  he  had  lived  in  these  tim  i  Henry  and 

himself  would  have  formed  a  law  partnership  perhaps ;  Jefferson 
getting  up  the  cases,  and  Henry  pleading  such  as  gave  scope  and 
opportunity  to  his  magnificent  talent.  It  takes  two  men  to  make  a 
man.  What  a  power  would  have  been  wielded  by  a  firm,  one  mem 
ber  of  which  was  possessed  of  an  unequalled  gift  of  uttering  the 
truth  which  the  other  was  singularly  gifted  to  investigate !  The  two 
talents  have  never  been  *  .  in  an  eminent  degree  by  one 

individual. 

T:  "avryer  loved  his  work,  and  took  an  interest  in  it,  apart 

from  the  i  of  the  moment.  He  was  one  of  the  first  of  hia 


84  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

countrymen  to  form  historical  collections,  —  a  taste  since  developed 
into  mania.  As  Virginia  was  late  in  becoming  familiar  with  the 
printing-press,  the  early  laws  had  been  supplied  to  the  counties  in 
manuscript  at  public  expense,  and  without  any  adequate  provision  for 
tlu'ir  preservation.  He  found  extreme  difficulty  in  procuring  copies 
of  some  of  them  ;  some  appeared  to  have  perisl.ied  ;  others  existed 
in  one  copy  so  rotten  with  age  that  a  leaf  would  fall  into  powder  on 
being  touched.  "  I  set  myself,  therefore,  to  work,"  he  Bays,  "  tocol- 
l«',-t  all  which  were  then  existing,  in  order  that  when  the  day  should 
come  in  which  the  public  should  advert  to  the  magnitude  of  their 
loss  in  these  precious  monuments  of  our  property  and  our  history,  a 
part  of  their  regret  might  be  spared  by  information  that  a  portion 
had  been  saved  from  the  wreck,  which  is  worthy  of  their  attention 
and  preservation.  In  searching  after  these  remains,  I  spared  neither 
time,  trouble,  nor  expense."  The  more  ancient  manuscripts  IIQ  pre 
served  in  oiled  silk,  some  of  them  being  so  far  gone,  that,  having  been 
laid  open  for  copying,  they  could  never  be  gathered  up  again,  but 
perished  of  the  operation.  Others  he  had  bound  into  volumes.  If 
the  reader  will  turn  over  the  volumes  of  Hening's  "  Statutes  at 
Large,"  a  publication  suggested  by  Jefferson,  and  the  most  impor 
tant  work  relating  to  the  early  history  of  Virginia  which  now  exists, 
he  will  discover  that  a  very  large  number  of  the  most  curious  docu 
ments  and  earliest  laws  are  credited  by  the  editor  to  Mr.  Jefferson's 
collection. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

A   MEMBER    OF    THE    VIRGINIA   LEGISLATURE. 

IT  belonged  to  his  position  in  Albemarle  to  represent  that  county 
in  the  House  of  Burgesses  ;  but,  in  imitation  of  the  British  Parlia 
ment,  the  little  parliament  of  Virginia  usually  lasted  seven  years, 
and  consequently  there  had  been  no  general  election  since  he  came  of 
age.  In  1767  Governor  Fauquier  died,  aged  sixty-five,  and  there  was 
an  interregnum  of  a  year,  during  which  the  duties  of  governor 
devolved  on  the  President  of  the  Council,  John. Blair ;  but  there  was 
no  pause  in  the  course  of  political  events.  The  king  held  to  his 
purpose  of  raising  a  revenue  in  the  colonies  ;  and  an  obliging  min 
istry  having,  as  they  supposed,  learned  wisdom  from  the  failure  of 
their  predecessors  to  enforce  the  Stamp  Act,  endeavored  next  "  to 
raise  a  revenue  from  the  colonies  without  (jiving  them  any  offence." 
These  words  of  Charles  Townsend  give  us  the  key  to  the  policy  of 
the  ministry.  The  colonies  were  to  be  flattered  and  conciliated. 
They  had  objected  to  an  internal  tax;  very  well,  they  should  be 
accommodated  with  external  duties  collected  at  the  custom-houses, 
trifling  duties  on  glass,  tea,  paper,  and  painters'  materials.  Any 
thing  to  oblige  colonies  so  loyal,  so  willing  to  assist  a  gracious  young 
king.  In  the  spring  of  1768  an  express  came  riding  into  Wil- 
liamsburg,  bearing  a  despatch  from  Massachusetts  to  the  House  of 
Burgesses,  announcing  the  firm  resolve  of  Massachusetts  to  resist 
these  duties  by  all  constitutional  means,  and  asking  the  concurrence 
and  co-operation  of  Virginia.  The  messenger,  having  delivered  his 
despatch,  rode  southward  to  deliver  copies  of  the  same  to  the  Caro- 
linas  and  Georgia. 

The  Virginians,  in  the  absence  of  a  royal  governor,  could  give  full 
play  to  their  opposition  ;  for  John  Blair  was  in  accord  with  the 
popular  feeling.  Another  remonstrance  was  addressed  to  Great 

85 


Ob  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Britain,  asserting  strongly,  but  with  dignity  and  moderation,  the  old 
principle,  "  No  power  on  earth  has  a  right  to  impose  taxes  on  the 
people,  or  take  the  smallest  portion  of  their  property,  without  their 
consent  given  by  their  representatives."  It  is  remarkable  with  what 
clearness  this  truth  was  perceived  by  every  creature  in  America  who 
had  capacity  to  perceive  any  truth.  Nearly  everybody  seems,  at 
first,  to  have  understood  that  this  principle  was,  as  our  loyal  Vir 
ginians  said  on  this  occasion,  "the  chief  pillar  of  the  Constitution, " 
without  which  "no  man  could  be  said  to  have  the  least  shadow  of 
lilx-rty ; "  since  no  man  could  be  truly  said  to  possess  any  thing,  if 
other  men  could  lawfully  take  any  portion  of' it. 

A  royal  governor  of  amplest  dignity  was  coming  over  the  sea. 
In  accordance  with  the  new  imbecility  of  flattering  the  colonies,  it 
was  determined,  that,  in  future,  the  governor-in-chief  should  reside 
in  Virginia,  instead  of  governing  his  Province  by  a  lieutenant.  Vir 
ginia  was  thrilled  by  the  announcement  that  a  personage  of  no  less 
note  than  the  Right  Honorable  Norborne  Baton  de  Botetourt  was 
coming  in  person  to  govern  them.  In  October,  1768,  he  arrived 
with  a  prodigious  train  of  servants  and  baggage,  and  a  gorgeous 
state-coach,  the  gift  of  the  king,  and  milk-white  steeds  to  draw  it, 
which  some  historians  say  were  eight  in  number,  others  six.  Vir 
ginia,  no  less  loyal  to  the  king  than  to  Magna  Charta,  rose  to  the 
-ion,  and  gave  the  Right  Honorable  Norborne  Baron  de  Botetourt 
a  reception  worthy  of  his  name.  One  relic  of  this  ceremonial  is  an 
"Ode,"  published  in  the  "Virginia  Gazette,"  which  swells  with  the 
importance  of  the  occasion.  If  this  "  Ode  "  was  actually  sung  in  the 
presence  of  Lord  Botetourt,  he  must  have  been  hard  put  to  it  to 
preserve  the  gravity  of  his  countenance. 

RECITATIVE. 

VIRGINIA,  sec,  thy  GOVERNOR  appears  ! 
The  peaceful  olive  on  his  brow  he  wears  ! 
Sound  the  shrill  trumpets  heat  the  rattling  drums  ; 
From  GREAT  BRITANNIA'S  isle  his  LORDSHIP  comes. 
Bid  Kcht)  from  the  waving  woods  arise, 
And  joyful  acclamations  reach  the  skies; 
Let  th.-  loud  organs  join  their  tuneful  roar, 
And  bellowing  t-nnnnits  rend  the  pebbled  shore; 
Bid  smooth  .Jjiini-s  Kiver  eateh  the  cheerful  sound, 
And  roll  it  to  Virginia's  utmost  bound; 
While  Happalmnnoek  and  York's  -lidm-  stream 
Swift  shall  convey  the  sweetly  pleasing-  theme 


A  MEMBER  OF  THE  VIRGINIA  LEGISLATURE.  87 

To  distant  plains,  where  pond'rous  mountains  rise, 
Whose  cloud-capped  verges  meet  the  bending  skies; 
The  LORDLY  PRIZE  the  Atlantic  waves  resign, 
And  now,  Virginia,  now  the  BLESSING'S  thine: 
His  listening  ears  will  to  your  burst  attend, 
And  be  your  guardian,  governor,  and  friend. 

AIR. 

He  comes  :  His  Excellency  comes, 

To  cheer  Virginian  plains ! 
Fill  your  brisk  bowls,  ye  loyal  sons, 

And  sing  your  loftiest  strains. 
Be  this  your  glory,  this  your  boast, 
LORD  BOTETOURT'S  the  favorite  toast : 

Triumphant  wreaths  intwine ; 
Fill  full  your  bumpers  swiftly  round, 
And  make  your  spacious  rooms  resound 

With  music,  joy,  and  wine. 

RECITATIVE. 

Search  every  garden,  strip  the  shrubby  bowers, 
And  strew  his  path  with  sweet  autumnal  flowers ! 
Ye  virgins,  haste,  prepare  the  fragrant  rose, 
And  with  triumphant  laurels  crown  his  brows. 

DOET. 

(Enter  virgins  with  flowers,  laurels,  etc.)       , 
See,  we've  stript  each  flowery  bed  ; 
Here's  laurels  for  his  LORDLY  HEAD  ; 
And  while  Virginia  is  his  care, 
May  he  protect  the  virtuous  fair  ! 

AIR. 

Long  may  he  live  in  health  and  .peace, 

And  every  hour  his  joys  increase! 

To  this  let  every  swain  and  lass 

Take  the  sparkling,  flowing  glass  ; 

Then  join  the  sprightly  dance,  and  sing, 

Health  to  our  GOVERNOR,  and  GOD  save  the  King. 

VIRGINS. 
Health  to  our  GOVERNOR. 

BASS  SOLO. 
Health  to  our  GOVERNOR. 

CHORUS. 
Health  to  our  GOVERNOR,  and  GOD  SAVE  THE  KING ! 


88  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  such  an  outburst  as  this  coming  from 
the  community  that  sent  forth  a  series  of  such  manly  and  able 
papers  on  the  rights  of  men  and  citizens ;  but  they  were  all  still 
under  the  illusion  of  royalty.  Jefferson  himself,  perhaps,  in  17G8, 
could  have  accompanied  this  performance  on  his  violin  without 
violent  grimaces. 

To  business.  As  when  a  new  king  comes  to  the  throne,  Parlia 
ment  is  dissolved,  so,  on  the  arrival  of  a  new  governor,  the  House 
of  Burgesses  was  dismissed,  and  a  general  election  ordered.  Thomas 
Jefferson  announced  himself  a  candidate  for  the  county  of  Albemarle  ; 
and,  during  the  winter  of  17G8-G9,  he  canvassed  his  county  for  votes, 
—  visiting  each  voter,  asking  him  for  his  vote  and  influence,  getting 
his  promise  if  possible,  keeping  open  house  and  full  punch-bowl  as 
long  as  the  canvass  lasted.  Every  voter  was  rightly  compelled  to 
vote  at  every  election,  under  penalty  of  a  hundred  pounds  of 
tobacco.  During  the  three  election  days  the  candidates  supplied 
unlimited  punch  and  lunch,  attended  personally  at  the  polls,  and 
made  a  low  !>.>\v  as  often  as  they  heard  themselves  voted  for.  No 
cait'lulaie  was  so  strong  that  he  could  omit  the  treating  or  the  can 
vassing.  James  Madison  was  the  first  who  tried  it  in  Virginia,  in 
1777;  and  he  lost  his  election  by  it.  The  withdrawal  of  the  punch 
bowl  was  ascribed  to  parsimony,  and  the  omission  of  the  canvassing 
to  pride. 

Jefferson's  election  was  a  matter  of  course.  Nevertheless,  he  ac 
cepted  the  honorable  trust  with  seriousness,  and  formed  a  resolution, 
the  wisdom  of  which  every  year  of  the  existence  of  free  government 
has  only  the  more  clearly  shown.  We  owe  the  record  of  this  reso 
lution  to  his  own  pen.  At  a  later  stage  of  his  public  life,  a  friend 
having  invited  him  to  share  in  some  enterprise  that  promised  profit, 
he  made  this  reply  :  — 

"  When  I  first  entered  on  the  stage  of  public  life  (now  twenty- 
four  years  ago),  I  came  to  a  resolution  never  to  engage,  while  in 
public  office,  in  any  kind  of  enterprise  for  the  improvement  of  my 
fortune,  nor  to  wear  any  other  character  than  that  of  a  farmer.  I 
have  never  de-parted  iVoin  it  in  a  single  in>tance  ;  and  I  have,  in 
multiplied  instances,  found  myself  happy  in  being  able  to  decide  and 
to  act  as  a  public  servant,  clear  <>f  all  interior,  in  the  multiform  ques 
tions  that  have  arisen,  wherein  I  have  seen  others  embarrassed  and 


A  MEMBER   OF   THE   VIRGINIA  LEGISLATURE.  89 

biased  by  having  got  themselves  in  a  more  interested  situation. 
Thus  I  have  thought  myself  richer  in  contentment  than  I  should 
have  been  with  any  increase  of  fortune.  Certainly  I  should  have 
been  much  wealthier  had  I  remained  in  that  private  condition  which 
renders  it  lawful  and  even  laudable  to  use  proper  efforts  to  better  it." 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  he  began  his  public  life  of  forty  years. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  very  desirous  of  distinguishing  himself. 
He  desired  most*  ardently  the  approval  of  his  countrymen.  He 
avowed  to  Madison,  long  after,  that,  in  the  earlier  years  of  his 
public  service,  "  the  esteem  of  the  world  was,  perhaps,  of  higher 
value  in  his  eyes  than  every  thing  in  it." 

The  assembly  convened  on  the  llth  of  May,  1769,  nearly  a  hun 
dred  members  in  attendance,  Colonel  George  Washington  among 
them.  It  must  have  been  a  great  day  for  the  children  and  negroes 
of  Williamsburg;  for  Lord  Botetourt  was  to  ride,  for  the  first  time, 
in  his  splendid  state-coach,  a  king's  gift,  from  the  palace  to  the 
Capitol,  to  open  the  Provincial  Parliament  in  person.  Posterity 
will  perhaps  never  know  with  certainty  whether  his  lordship  was 
drawn  on  this  occasion  by  six  milk-white  steeds,  or  by  eight,  be 
cause  historians  differ  on  the  point;  and  Mr.  Burk  says  eight  on 
one  page  of  his  ^history,  and  six  on  another.  The  yeoman  of  the 
western  counties,  and  indeed  the  members  generally,  though  much 
conciliated  by  the  frank  and  friendly  manner  of  the  governor,  eyed 
his  grand  coach  with  disfavor,  regarding  it  as  a  college  youth 
might  the  present  of  a  large  humming-top  sent  by  a  relative  on 
the  other  side  of  the  globe.  He  is  past  humming-tops.  "Poor 
old  uncle,"  says  the  lad,  as  he  feels  his  nascent  mustache,  "  he  still 
thinks  of  me  as  the  boy  I  was."  We  can  well  believe,  however, 
that  as  the  milk-white  steeds,  covered  with  the  showy  trappings  of 
the  time,  slowly  drew  the  gaudy  coach  between  lines  of  faces, 
black  and  white,  the  spectacle  was  greeted  with  acclamations. 
Upon  reaching  the  Capitol,  at  the  other  end  of  the  avenue,  the 
governor  alighted,  and  ascended,  with  stately  steps  and  slow,  to  the 
Council  Chamber,  the  Council  being  the  Senate,  or  House  of  Lords 
of  Virginia. 

How  amusingly  formal  the  opening  of  the  little  parliament  ! 
Young  Jefferson  might  well  be  surprised  at  the  free-and-easy  ways 
of  the  Maryland  Legislature  ;  ,for  at  Williamsburg  all  the  etiquette 


90  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

of  legislation  was  observed  with  rigor.  Imagine  the  members,  new 
and  old,  strolling  into  the  chamber  towards  ten  in  the  morning; 
Thomas  rJftVcrson  and  "Patrick  Henry,  perhaps,  going  up  together 
from  their  lodging-house.  When  the  bell  rings,  Jefferson  need  not 
now  withdraw  to  the  lobby  door.  Two  members  of  the  Council 
are  in  attendance,  at  the  governor's  command,  to  administer  the 
oath  to  the  burgesses,  standing  and  uncovered:  — 

"  You  and  every  one  of  you  shall  swear  upon  the  Holy  Evange 
lists,  and  in  the  sight  of  God,  to  deliver  your  opinion  faithfully, 
justly,  and  honestly,  according  to  your  best  understanding  and  con 
science,  for  the  general  good  and  prosperity  of  this  country,'  and 
every  particular  member  thereof;  and  to  do  your  utmost  endeavor 
to  prosecute  that,  without  mingling  with  it  any  particular  interest 
of  any  person  or  persons  whatever.  So  help  you  God  and  the  con 
tents  of  this  book." 

The  members  having  taken  their  seats,  and  resumed  their  hats, 
the  clerk  of  the  General  Assembly  appears,  and  pronounces  these 
w«>r«U  :  •'•  Gentlemen,  the  governor  commands  this  House  to  attend 
JIi>  K  .  i-llriicy  immediately  in  the  Council  Chamber."  The  bur 
gesses  obey  this  command;  and  being  gathered  about  His  Excellency, 
seated  on  his  viceregal  throne,  are  thus  addressed  by  him  :  "  Gen 
tlemen  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  you  must  return  to  your  House, 
and  immediately  proceed  to  the  choice  of  a  speaker."  This  com 
mand  also  the  House  obeys;  and  when  they  are  once  more  in  their 
j,  and  silent,  the  clerk  being  at  his  desk,  a  member  rises  and 
••  .Mr.  Cli-rk."  The  clerk  then  stands  up,  points  to  the  mem 
ber  without  speaking,  and  sits  down  again.  The  member  speaks : 
"I  move  that  Peyton  Randolph,  Esq.,  take  the  chair  of  this 
Efyuse  as  speaker,  which  office  he  has  before  filled  with  such  dis 
tinguished  abilities,  steadiness,  and  impartiality,  as  have  given 
cut  in;  satisfaction  to  the  public."  Mr.  Randolph  is  unanimously 
elected.  Two  members  attend  him,  one  on  each  side,  from  his  seat 
to  the  npperm«»t  step  of  the  platform,  which  having  ascended,  and 
beinur  left  tin-re  alone,  he  turns  and  addresses  the  House,  thanking 
them  lor  their  unanimous  vote,  and  asking  their  indulgence  for  the 
futiii  '"ii  as  lie  has  taken  his  seat  in  the  speaker's  chair,  the 

mace,  \\liich  until  that  moment  has  lain  under  the  table,  is  placed 
upon  it. 


A  MEMBER   OF  THE  VIRGINIA  LEGISLATURE.  91 

Is  the  House  now  ready  to  transact  business  ?  By  no  means. 
It  is  next  ordered  that  two  members  bear  a  message  to  the  gover 
nor,  informing  him,  that,  in  obedience  to  his  commands,  they  have 
elected  a  speaker,  and  desire  to  know  His  Excellency's  pleasure 
when  they  shall  wait  upon  him  to  present  their  speaker  to  him.  To 
this  message  the  governor  replies  that  he  will  send  an  answer  by  a 
messenger  of  his  own.  Accordingly  the  clerk  of  the  General 
Assembly  soon  re-appears  in  the  House,  and  delivers  the  governor's 
answer:  "The  governor  commands  this  House  to  attend  His  Excel 
lency  immediately  in  the  Council  Chamber.'''  Once  more  the  bur 
gesses  march  to  the  apartment,  but  this  time  with  a  speaker  at  their 
head  ;  and,  when  the  speaker  has  been  presented  to  the  governor, 
His  Excellency  is  pleased  to  say  that  he  approves  their  choice. 
Then  the  speaker,  on  behalf  of  the  House,  lays  claim  to  all  its 
ancient  rights  and  privileges,  —  freedom  of  speech,  untrammelled 
debate,  exemption  from  arrest,  and  protection  of  their  estates  from 
attachment.  Finally  he  asks  the  governor  not  to  impute  to  the 
House  any  errors  their  speaker  may  commit.  The  governor 
answers  that  he  shall  take, care- to  defend  them  in  all  their  rights 
and  privileges.  Then  the  governor  reads  his  speech,  conceived  on 
the  plan  of  a  king's  speech,  addressing  first  the  Council  and  the 
Burgesses,  then  the  Burgesses  alone,  and  finally  both  Houses  once 
more. 

The  speech  being  finished,  the  speaker  asks  a  copy  for  the  guid 
ance  of  the  House  of  Burgesses ;  which  is  furnished  him,  and  the 
burgesses  return  to  their  own  chamber.  The  speaker  ascends  to  his 
chair,  whence  he  makes  a  formal  report  of  what  they  had  just  wit 
nessed.  He  informs  them  that  the  governor  had  made  a  speech 
to  the  Council  and  Burgesses,  of  which,  "  to  prevent  mistakes,"  he 
had  obtained  a  copy;  which  he  proceeds  to  read  to  the  House. 
Not  till  this  formality  is  over  is  the  House  ready  to  perform  an  act 
of  its  own. 

To  such  a  point  of  decorum  had  the  House  been  brought 
since  the  time,  1664,  when  it  was  necessary  to  impose  a  fine  of 
twenty  pounds  of  tobacco  upon  "every  member  that  shall  pipe  it" 
after  the  roll  had  begun  to  be  called,  unless,  in  an  interval  of 
business,  he  obtained  "public  license  from  the  major  part  of  the 
house."  ^  The  same  code  was  stringent  with  regard  to  all  breaches 
of  decorum.  Any  member  adjudged  by  the  majority  to  be  "  dis- 


!'l2  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

guised  with  drink  "  was  fined,  for  the  first  offence,  one  hundred 
pounds  of  tobacco;  for  the  second,  three  hundred  pounds;  and,  for 
the  third,  a  thousand.  To  interrupt  a  member  cost  the  offender  a 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco;  and,  to  speak  of  a  member  with  disre 
spect,  five  hundred.  As  the  pay  of  members  was  a  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  of  tobacco  per  day,  with  a  further  allowance  for 
travelling  expenses  and  servants,  these  fines  were  severe;  and 
doubtless  they  had  their  share  in  making  this  Virginian  parlia 
ment  the  dignified  and  decorous  body  we  know  it  to  have  been. 
Its  influence  lives  to-day  in  every  legislative  hall  in  the  country, 
transmit  ted  by  Jefferson's  Manual. 

One  of  its  kindly  and  courteous  customs  brought  to  the  new  mem 
ber  from  Albemarle  a  cutting  mortification  on  the  first  day  of  the 
on.  It  was  usual  to  assign  some  formal  duty  to  young  members 
by  way  of  introducing  them  to  public  business,  and  giving  them  an 
opportunity  to  air  their  talents.  As  soon  as  the  speaker  had  fin- 
i.-he.l  ivading  the  governor's  speech,  it  was  in  order  to  appoint  a 
committee,  to  make  the  draught  of  a  reply  ;  and,  to  assist  this  com 
mittee,  the  House  was  accustomed  to  pass  resolutions,  the  substance 
of  whieh  was  to  be  incorporated  in  the  draught.  Jefferson,  in  com 
pliance  with  the  request  of  Mr.  Pendleton,  a  leading  member,  wrote 
these  resolutions,  which  the  House  accepted;  and  he  was  named 
one  of  the  committee  to  prepare  the  address.  His  elders,  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton  and  Mr.  Xicholas,  assigned  him  this  duty  also.  He  wrote 
tin-  diMughton  the  too  obvious  plan  of  sticking  close  to  the  resolu 
tions,  employing  much  of  their  very  language.  Upon  reading  his 
draught  to  the  committee, — pluming  himself,  as  he  confesses,  upon 
the  neatness  and  finish  of  his  performance,  —  the  elder  members 
totally  dissatisfied  with  it.  It  would  not  do  at  all.  The  resolu 
tions,  they  said.  .>hould  be  regarded  only  as  hints,  to  be  amplified  into 
a  flowing  and  original  discourse.  Jefferson's  draught  was  set  a-ide; 
and  Mr.  Nicholas  his  chief  critic,  the  head  of  the  bar  of  Virginia, 
was  appointed,  to  produce  a  more  suitable  composition.  The  old 
hand  r-.r.ld  not  be  at  a  lo-s  in  expanding  and  rewording  the  compact 
resolutions  of  the  tyro;  and  his  draught  was  accepted  both  by  the 
committee  ami  the  House.  "Being  a  young  man,"  wrote  Jefferson 
Ling  ai'ier.  MM  well  as  a  yonivj;  member,  it  made  on  me  an  impres 
sion  proportioned  to  the  sensibility  of  that  time  of  life."  Thus  the 
man  who  \\a-  oV>tine<l  to  gain  by  his  pen  the  parliamentary  distinc- 


A  MEMBER   OF  THE   VIRGINIA  LEGISLATURE.  93 

tion  usually. won  only  by  the  tongue,  began  his  career,  as  so  many 
illustrious  orators  have  done,  by  a  failure. 

These  lofty  civilities  between  the  governor  and  the  Legislature 
consumed,  as  it  seems,  two  days.  What  next  ?  Lord  Botetourt  in 
his  speech  had  made  no  particular  suggestions ;  and,  in  the  minds 
of  members,  there  was  but  one  thought,  —  to  resist  the  lawless  taxa 
tion  of  the  colonies  by  Parliament,  and  the  reckless  outrage  'of 
sending  persons  accused  of  treason  to  be  tried  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ocean.  The  spirited  behavior  of  Massachusetts  in  inviting  the 
concurrence  of  the  other  colonies  in  constitutional  opposition  to 
these  measures  had  been  severely  commented  upon  in  England ;  and 
this  was  a  new  cause  of  irritation.  The  milk-white  steeds,  too,  and 
the  gaudy  coach,  had  increased  suspicion  in  some  minds.  Indeed, 
at  just  this  stage  of  the  controversy,  tliere  was  a  near  approach  to 
unanimity  of  feeling  along  the  whole  line  of  the  Thirteen  Colonies, 
and  in  none  of  them  a  nearer  than  in  loyal  Virginia.  And  they 
were  all  equally  mistaken  in  attributing  the  false  policy  of  the 
mother  country- to  Parliament  and  ministers,  instead  of  the  king 
and  his  Scotch  tutors. 

On  the  third  day  were  introduced  the  Four  Resolutions,  which  a 
precipitate  governor  was  to  stamp  with  the  seal  of  his  reprobation, 
and  so  send  them  ringing  round  the  world :  1.  No  taxation  without 
representation ;  2.  The  colonies  may  concur  and  co-operate  in  seek 
ing  redress  of  grievances ;  3.  Sending  accused  persons  away  from 
their  country  for  trial  is  an  inexpressible  complexity  of  wrong; 
4.  We  will  send  an  address  on  these  topics  to  the  "father  of  all  his 
people,"  beseeching  his  "  royal  interposition."  The  resolutions  being 
passed  almost  unanimously,  the  speaker  was  ordered  to  send  a  copy 
of  the  same  to  every  legislative  Assembly  "on  this  continent." 
After  such  a  day's  work  the  House  adjourned.  That  for  your 
milk-white  steeds  !  The  next  day  the  address  to  the  king  was 
reported,  revised,  agreed  to,  and  ordered  to  be  forwarded  to  the  king's 
most  excellent  Majesty,  through  the  colony's  London  agent,  and 
afterwards  published  in  the  English  newspapers.  On  the  day  fol 
lowing,'  at  noon,  Lord  Botetourt's  secretary  entered  the  chamber. 
He  pronounced  the  formula :  "  The  governor  commands  this  House 
to  attend  His  Excellency  in  the  Council  Chamber."  The  members 
tramped  to  the  other  end  of  the  building,  and  ranged  themselves 
expectant  about  the  throne.  No  one,  I  think  (though  tradition  has 


04  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFEKSON. 

it  otherwise),  anticipated  the  governor's  extreme  course;  and  all 
appear  to  have  been  astounded  to  hear  the  "ominous  and  alarming 
word*-;/'  as  Burk  styles  them,  which  fell  from  his  lips:  — 

"Mr.  Speaker  and  Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  :  I  have 
heard  of  your  resolves,  and  augur  ill  of  their  effects.  You  have 
made  it  my  duty  to  dissolve  you,  and  you  are  dissolved  accordingly." 

Thomas  Jefferson  and  his  colleagues  were  by  these  words  changed, 
in  an  instant,  from  a  legislative  assembly  into  a  hundred  and  eight 
private  gentlemen.  Such  was  the  law  of  the  British  Empire.  The 
new  member  from  Albemarle,  after  all  his  canvassing  and  treating, 
enjoyed  the  honor  of  representing  his  native  county  five  days,  dur 
ing  one  of  which  he  had'  received  a  snub.  But  now  the  whole 
House,  Virginia,  Magna  Charta,  the  rights  and  dignity  of  man,  had 
been  mocked  and  made  of  no  account.  ;  0 

What  an  afternoon  and  evening  Williamsburg  must  have  experi 
enced  after  that  abrupt  dismissal  of  the  House!  Itris  strange,  that, 
•  many  writers,  no  one  should  have  left  a  more  minnte  record 
than  has  yet  come  to  light.  How  did  Colonel  Washington  take  it? 
l!v  iiir.h  and  feeling  he  was  a  yeoman;  and  he  had  narrowly 
•d  going  to  sea  before  the  mast,  to  work  his  way,  if  he  could, 
up  t<>  the  command  of  a  merchant-ship.  But  his  brilliant  gallantry 
in  the  field,  and  a  rich  widow's  hand  and  fortune,  had  placed  him 
among  the  aristocrats.  No  man  can  quite  avoid  the  reigning  foible 
of  his  class  and  time.  Washington's  sense  of  justice,  however,  was 
sure  and  keen  ;  and  he  had  been,  from  the  first  rumor  of  the  Stamp 
Act,  on  the  right  side  of  this  great  controversy.  He  was  no  milk 
sop.  There  \vas  a  fund  —  a  whole  volcano  —  of  suppressed  fire  in 
him  ;  and  being  still  a  young  man,  all  unschooled  to  the  prudential 
«>f  the  statesman,  he  doubtless  favored  the  company  with 
his  M-ntim«'iits.  I  suppose  he  dined  that  afternoon  at  the  old  Ra 
leigh  tavern,  with  many  other  members;  and,  amid  the  roar  of  talk, 
his  v»»i<-e  wa-  occasionally  heard,  uttering  those  hearty  exclamations 
with  which  the  Virginians  of  that  day  used  to  relieve  their*  minds. 
We  can  fancy  Patrick  Henry,  too,  surrounded  as  he  must  have  been 
at  such  a  time,  holding  high  discourse  in  the  evening  on  the  piazza; 
and  all  Williamsburg  standing  in  groups,  discussing  the  great  event 
of  the  day.  and  the  greater  events  expected  to-morrow.  Jefferson 


A  MEMBER   OF   THE  VIRGINIA  LEGISLATURE.  95 

probably,  and  other  writing  members,  were  closeted  somewhere  in  the 
town,  preparing  for  the  next  day's  work.  A  hundred  gentlemen 
may  not  be  a  House  of  Burgesses,  but  they  can  hold  a  meeting; 
and  a  meeting  they  mean  to  hold  to-morrow  in  the  Apollo,  the 
great  room  of  the  Raleigh  tavern,  where  so  many  of  them  have 
danced  the  minuet. 

They  met  accordingly.  We  only  know  what  they  did  on  the 
occasion,  not  how  they  did  it.  Following  the  example  set  by  Massa 
chusetts  the  year  before,  they  agreed  to  recommend  their  constituents 
to  try  and  starve  a  little  good  sense  into  the-minds  of  British  manu 
facturers  and  merchants.  It  was  America  that  gave  Great  Britain 
the  deadly  wealth — ill-distributed  wealth  is  always  deadly  —  with 
which  she  is  now  struggling  for  life.  These  Virginians,  acting  upon 
Franklin's  hint  and  Massachusetts'  example,  agreed  :  1.  To  be  a 
great  deal  more  saving  and  industrious  than  they  ever  were  before; 
2.  Never  again,  as  long  as  time  should  endure,  to  buy  an  article 
taxed  by  Parliament  for  the  sake  of  raising  a  revenue  in  America, 
excepting  alone  low  qualities  of  paper,  without  which  the  business 
of  life  could  not  go  on ;  3.  Never,  until  the  repeal  of  the  recent  act, 
to  import  any  article  from  Britain,  or  in  British  "ships,  which  it  was 
possible  to  do  without;  4.  They  would  save  all  their  lambs  for 
wool.  And,  lest  any  weak  brother  should  hoose  to  misunderstand 
the  terms  of  the  compact,  they  enumerated  the  forbidden  articles, 
—  an  interesting  catalogue,  because  it  shows  how  dependent  Vir 
ginia  then  was  upon  Europe  for  every  •.thing  except  some  of  the 
coarser  staples  of  food  and  raiment. "  The  list  was :  — 

Spirits,  wine,  cider,  perry,  beer,  ale,  malt,  barleyj  pease,  beef, 
pork,  fish,  butter,  cheese,  tallow,  candles,  oil,  fruit,  sugar,  pickles, 
confectionery,  pewter,  hoes,  axes,  watches,  clocks,  tables,  chairs, 
looking-glasses,  carriages,  joiners'  and  cabinet  work,  upholstery, 
trinkets,  jewelry,  plate  and  gold,  silver-ware,  ribbons,  millinery,  lace, 
India  goods  except  spices,  silks  except  sewing-silk,  cambric,  lawn, 
muslin,  gauze  except  bolting-cloths,  calico,  cotton  or  linen  stuffs 
above  2s.  per  yard,  woollens  above  Is.  6cL,  broadcloths  above  8s., 
narrow  cloths  above  3s.,  hats,  stockings,  shoes,  boots,  saddles,  and  all 
leather-work. 

Eighty-eight  members  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  signed  this 
agreement.  As  it  was  seldom  that  more  than  ninety-five  members 
were  in  attendance  on  the  same  day,  this  was  a  near  approach  to 


96  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

unanimity.  Virginia  accepted  the  compact  made  by  her  representa 
tives.  K\vr\-  man  who  signed  the  agreement  was  re-elected.  Ev 
ery  man  who  refused  lost  his  election. 

The  respectful  tone  of  the  document,  the  perfect  decency  of  the 
proceedings  in  the  Apollo,-the  dignified  character  of  the  men  who 
led  the  movement,  made  the  deepest  impression  upon  the  mind  of 
L<>rd  I»ote.court.  He  had  been  told  in  London  —  I  need  not  say 
what.  We  all  know  how  England  has  misinterpreted  America 
always.  America  has  generally  loved  that  step-mother  too  much  j 
England  has  never  loved  America  at  all.  What  Lord  Botetourt 
found  in  Virginia,  we  know;  and  he  had  understanding  enough  to 
di«-crn  the  truth.  lie  wrote  home  to  the  ministry  that  these 
Virginians  were  not  rebellious,  not  factious,  not  indifferent  to  the 
needs  of  ilie  empire,  but  loyal  subjects,  contending  for  the  birth 
right  <>f  Englishmen,  with  intelligence  and  dignity.  There  was 
vacillation  in  the  counsels  of  the  king,  and  the  party  opposed  to  the 
taxation  of  the  colonies  gained  a  brief  ascendency. 

Lord  Botecourty  therefore,  before  many  months  had  gone  by,  had 
the  pleasure  of  summoning  the  Assembly;  and  again  there  passed 
between  them  those  elaborate  formalities  described  above.  When, 
at  length,  he  had  reached  the  point  of  delivering  his  speech,  what 
a  joyful  announcement  it  was  his  privilege  to  make  ! 

"I  have  been  assured  by  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough,  that  His 
Majesty's  present  administration  have  at  no  time  entertained  a 
design  to  propose  to  Parliament  io  lay  any  further  taxes  upon  Ameri 
ca  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue,  and  that  it  is  their  intention 
to  propose  to  the  next  session  of  Parliment,  to  take  off  the  duties 
upon  glass,  paper,  and  colors,  upon  consideration  of  such  duties  hav 
ing  been  laid  contrary  to  the  true  principles  of  commerce." 


words  thrilled  every  heart.  Joy  glistened  in  every  eye. 
Ko  one  seems  to  have  noticed  tin-  omission  of  the  word  te  a  from  the 
list.  The  governor,  now  in  the  fullest  sympathy  with  the  people  of 
his  Province,  could  not  be  content  without  adding  some  assurances 
for  the  reino't-r  future  ;  and  he  proceeded  to  utter  words,  that,  in  all 
probability,  cost  him  his  life.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  tlie  nicest 
sense  of  honor,  in  whose  mind  a  promise  of  his  own  unfulfilled 
might  rankle  mortally.  A  ministry,  he  observed,  is  not  immortal: 


A  MEMBER   OF   THE   VIRGINIA  LEGISLATURE.  97 

what  then  of  their  successors  ?     Upon  this  point,  he  said,  he  could 
give  only  a  personal  assurance. 

"  It  is  my  firm  opinion,  that  the  plan  I  have  stated  to  you  will 
certainly  take  place,  and  that  it  will  never  be  departed  from ;  and  so 
determined  am  I  ever  to  abide  by  it,  that  I  will  be  content  to  be 
declared  infamous,  if  I  do  not,  to  the  last  hour  of  my  life,  at  all 
times,  in  all  places,  and  upon  all  occasions,  exert  every  power  with 
which  I  am  or  shall  be  legally  invested,  in  order  to  obtain  and 
maintain  for  the  continent  of  America  that  satisfaction  which  I 
have  been  authorized  to  promise  this  day,  by  the  confidential  ser 
vants  of  our  gracious  sovereign,  who,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  rates 
his  honor  so  high,  that  he  would  rather  part  with  his  crown  than 
preserve  it  by  deceit." 

Almost  while  he  uttered  these  words,  which  seemed  to  pledge  the 
king,  the  ministry,  and  himself,  Lord  North  came  into  power,  and 
renewed  the  strife.  Lord  Botetourt  with  indignation  demanded  his 
recall ;  but,  before  he  obtained  it,  he  died,  as  is  supposed,  of  morti 
fication  at  his  inability  to  make  good  his  emphatic  assurances. 
Virginia  did  justice  to  his  character,  and  placed  his  statue  in  the 
public  square  of  Williamsburg. 

For  the  present,  however,  all  minds  were  content,  and  the  parlia 
ment  of  Virginia  proceeded  with  alacrity  to  business.  The  member 
from  Albemarle  received,  during  his  second  session,  a  rebuff  more 
decided  and  more  public  than  when  his  draught  was  so  summarily 
set  aside  in  his  first. 

What  an  absurd  creature  is  man  !  This  sanguine  young  burgess, 
now  that  all  danger  seemed  past  of  his  white  countrymen  being,  as 
they  termed  it,  "  reduced  to  slavery,"  thought  it  a  good  time  to 
endeavor  to  mitigate  the  oppression  of  his  black  countrymen,  who 
were  reduced  to  slavery  already.  He  soon  had  the  hornets  about 
his  ears.  At  that  time,  no  man  could  free  his  slaves  without  sending 
them  out  of  Virginia.  Jefferson  desired  the  repeal  of  this  law.  He 
wished  to  throw  around  the  slaves  what  he  calls  "  certain  moderate 
extensions  of  the  protection  of  the  laws."  With  the  proper  mod 
esty  of  a  young  member,  he  called  the  attention  of  Colonel  Bland 
to  this  subject,  secured  his  co-operation,  and  induced  him  to  intro 
duce  the  bill.  "  I  seconded  his  motion,"  records  Jefferson,  "  and,  as 


98  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

a  younger  member,  was  more  spared  in  the  debate;  but  he  was 
denounced  as  an  enemy  to  his  country,  and  was  treated  with  the 
greatest  indecorum"!  And  this,  too,  although  Colonel  Bland  was 
"  one  of  the  oldest,  ablest,  and  most-respected  members  "  !  Jefferson 
attributes  this  conduct  to  the  habitual  subservience  of  members  to 
the  mother  country.  "During  the  regal  government,"  he  says, 
"nothing  liberal  could  expect  success."  Under  no  government  has 
an  assembly  of  slaveholders  ever  been  otherwise  than  restive  under 
attempts  to  limit  their  power  over  their  slaves. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HIS   MARRIAGE. 

THIS  year,  1769,  so  fruitful  of  public  events,  was  a  busy  and 
interesting  one  to  the  member  from  Albemarle  in  his  private  capa 
city.  He  was  now  in  the  fullest  tide  of  practice  at  the  bar,  —  one 
hundred  and  ninety-eight  cases  before  the  General  Court,  the  great 
est  number  he  ever  reached  in  a  year.  Already  he  had  chosen 
Moaticello  as  the  site  of  his  future  home.  He  had  had  men  chop 
ping  and  clearing  on  the  summit  for  some  time ;  and,  in  the  spring 
of  this  year,  he  had  an  orchard  planted  on  one  of  its  slopes.  Be 
tween  the  two  sessions  he  superintended  the  construction  of  a  brick 
wing  of  the  coming  mansion,  one  pretty  large  room  with  a  chamber 
or  two  over  it,  under  the  roof.  The  General  Court  sat  in  April. 
During  December  and  January  he  was  preparing  for  the  court, 
making  briefs,  taking  notes,  collecting  precedents  ;  getting  every 
thing,  according  to  his  custom,  upon  paper,  and  then  dismissing  it 
from  his  mind.  On  the  1st  of  February,  1770,  his  mother  and 
himself  went  from  home  to  visit  a  neighbor.  While  they  were  at 
the  neighbor's  house,  a  slave  came  to  them,  breathless,  to  say  that 
their  house  and  all  its  contents  were  burned.  After  the  man  had 
finished  his  account  of  the  catastrophe,  the  master  asked,  "But 
were  none  of  my  books  saved  ?  "•  A  grin  of  exultation  overspread 
the  sable  countenance.  "  No,  master/7  said  the  negro,  "  but  we 
saved  the  fiddle  ! " 

Two  hundred  pounds'  worth  of  books  gone,  besides  all  his  law- 
papers,  and  notes  of  cases  coming  on  in  April  for  trial !  Nothing 
saved  but  a  few  old  volumes  of  his  father's  library,  and  some  un 
important  manuscript  books  of  his  own.  His  mother  and  the  chil 
dren  found  temporary  shelter  in  the  house  of  an  overseer ;  and  he 
repaired  to  his  unfinished  nest  on  the  mountain-top,  where  he  vainly 


100  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

strove  to  reconstruct  his  cases  for  the  coming  term.  It  was  an  iron 
rule  of  that  primitive  court,  never  to  grant  an  adjournment  of  a 
case  to  another  term.  How  he  made  it  up  with  his  clients  and  the 
court,  no  one  has  told  us. 

That  house  which  he  was  constructing  on  Monticello  was  strangely 
in  his  thoughts  during  the  next  year  or  two.  When  he  was  far 
away  from  home  he  brooded  over  it ;  and  he  used  to  solace  the  tedium 
of  country  inns  by  elaborately  recording  dreams  of  its  coming  fit 
ness  and  beauty.  It  was  his  resolve  that  there  should  be  one 
mansion  in  Virginia,  for  the  design  of  which  the  genius  of  archi 
tecture  should  at  least  be  invoked.  He  meant  that  there  should 
be  one  home  in  Virginia  worthy  the  occupation  of  perfectly  civilized 
beings  ;  in  which  art,  taste,  and  utility  should  unite  to  produce  an 
admirable  result.  What  a  piece  of  work  it  was  to  place  such  an 
abode  on  the  summit  of  his  little  mountain,  with  no  architect  but 
himself,  few  workmen  but  slaves,  no  landscape-gardener  within  three 
thousand  miles,  no  models  to  copy,  no  grounds  to  imitate,  no  tincjture 
of  high  gardening  in  the  Province.  The  bricks  had  to  be  made,  the 
trees  felled,  the  timber  hewn,  the  nails  wrought,  the  vehicles  con 
structed,  the  laborers  trained,  on  the  scene  of  operations.  No  fine 
commodities  could  be  bought  nearer  than  Williamsburg,  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  distant,  nor  many  nearer  than  Europe.  He  had  to  send 
for  even  his  sashes  to  London,  where  one  lot  was  detained  a  month 
to  let  the  pivtty  harden!  Nothing  but  the  coarsest,  roughest  work 
could  go  on  in  his  absence ;  and  often  the  business  stood  still  for 
weeks,  for  months,  for  years,  while  he  was  in  public  service.  But 
he  kept  on  with  an  indomitable  pertinacity  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury,  at  the  expiration  of  which  he  had  the  most  agreeable  and 
refined  abode  in  Virginia,  filled  with  objects  of  taste  and  the  means 
of  instruction,  and  surrounded  by  beautiful  lawns,  groves,  and  gar 
dens. 

At  present  all  this  existed  only  in  his  thoughts.  He  used  to 
write,  in  one  of  his  numerous  blank-books,  minute  plans  for  various 
parts  of  the  grounds,  still  rough  with  the  primeval  stumps.  A 
most  unlawyer-like  tone  breathes  through  these  written  musings. 
What  spell  was  upon  him,  when,  in  dreaming  of  a  future  cemetery, 
he  could  begin  his  entry  with  a  sentence  like  this  ?  "  Choose  out 
for  a  burial-place  some  unfrequented  vale  in  the  park,  where  is  '  no 
sound  to  break  the  stillness  but  a  brook,  that,  bubbling,  winds  among 


p  - 

V  Jat 


HIS  MARKIAGE. 

the  weeds ;  no  mark  of  any  human  shape  that 
unless  the  skeleton  of  some  poor  wretch  who  sought  that  place  out 
to  despair  and  die  in.'  "  The  rest  of  the  description  is  in  a  similar 
taste.  The  park,  in  general,  was  to  be  a  grassy  expanse,  adorned 
with  every  fragrant  shruh,  with  trees  and  groves,  and  it  was  to  he 
the  haunt  of  every  animal  and  bird  pleasing  to  man.  "  Court  them 
to  it  by  laying  food  for  them  in  proper  places.  Procure  a  buck-elk 
to  be,  as  it  were,  monarch  of  the  wood  ;  but  keep  him  shy,  that  his 
appearance  may  not  lose  its  effect  by  too  much  familiarity.  A 
buffalo  might  be  confined  also.  Inscriptions  in  various  places,  on 
the  bark  of  trees  or  metal  plates,  suited  to  the  character  and  expres 
sion  of  the  particular  spot."  Whence  these  broodings  over  the 
mountain  nest  that  was  forming  under  his  eye?  Could  it  be  love  ? 
Seven  years  before,  he  had  solemnly  assured  John  Page,  that,  if 
Belinda  would  not  accept  his  service,  it  should  never  be  offered  to 
another. 

f  But  the  mightiest  capacity  which  this  man  possessed  was  the 
capacity  to  love.  In  every  other  quality  and  grace  of  human  nature 
he  has  been  often  equalled,  sometimes  excelled ;'  but  where  has  there 
ever  been  a  lover  so.  tender,  so  warm,  so  constant,  as  he  ?  Love  was 
If  is  life.  )Few  men  have  had  so  many  sources  of  pleasure,  so  many 
agreeable  tastes  and  pursuits  ;  but  he  knew  no  satisfying  joy,  at  any 
period  of  his  life,  except  through  his  affections.  And  there  is  none 
other  for  any  of  us.  f  There  is  only  one  thing  that  makes  it  worth 
while  to  live :  it  is  love.1^  Not  the  wild  passion  that  plagues  us  in 
our  youth,  but  the  tranquil  happiness,  the  solid  peace,  to  which 
that  is  but  the  tumultuous  prelude,  — the  joy  of  living  with  people 
whose  mere  presence  rests,  cheers,  improves,  and  satisfies  us.  He 
who  achieves  that  needs  no  catechism  to  tell  him  what  is  the  chief 
end  of  man.  That  is  the  chief  end  of  man.  Nothing  else  is  of 
any  account,  except  so  far  as  it  ministers  to  that.  Jefferson  was 
making  this  beautiful  mountain  nest  for  a  mate  whom  he  meant  to 
ask  to  come  and  share  it  with  him. 

Among  his  associates  at  the  Williamsburg  bar  was  John  Wayles, 
a  lawyer  in  great  practice,  who  had  an  estate  near  by,  upon  which 
he  lived,  called  The  Forest.  He,  too,  had  thriven  upon  the  decline 
of  Virginia ;  and  he  had  invested  his  fees  in  lands  and  slaves,  until, 
in  1771,  he  had  a  dozen  farms  and  tracts  in  various  parts  of  the 
Province,  and  four  hundred  slaves.  At  his  home  (which  was  not  so 


102  LIFE  OF  TJIOMAS  JEFFERSON.      • 

far  from  Williamsburg  that  a  young  barrister  could  not  ride  to  it 
occasionally  with  a  violin  under  his  arm)  there  lived  with  him  his 
widowed  daughter,  Martha  Skelton,  childless,  a  beauty,  fond  of 
music,  and  twenty-two.  We  all  know  how  delightfully  the  piano 
and  the  violin  go  together  when  both  are  nicely  touched.  It  was 
the  same  with  the  spinet  and  the  violin.  Jefferson  had  improved 
in  person  and  in  position  since  he  had  danced  with  Belinda  in  the 
Apollo,  seven  years  before.  It  was  observed  of  him  that  he  con 
stantly  grew  better  looking  as  he  advanced  in  life,  —  plain  in 
youth,  good-looking  in  his  prime,  handsome  as  an  old  man.  And 
In1  had  now  advanced  from  the  bashful  student  to  the  condition 
of  a  remarkably  successful  lawyer  and  member  of  the  Assem 
bly.  The  wooing  appears  to  have  been  long.  She  was  a  widow 
in  1768,  and  there  are  slight  indications  of  a  new  love  in  one 
of  his  letters  of  1770;  but  they  Were  not  married  till  New- Year's 
Day,  1772. 

How  fixed  his  habit  was  of  recording  every  item  of  expense  is 
shown  by  the  page  of  his  pocket-diary  for  his  wedding-day.  The 
fees  of  the  two  clergymen  in  attendance,  the  sums  given  to  musi 
cians  and  servants,  all  are  set  down  in  order,  quite  as  usual.  On 
one  of  the  early  days  of  January,  1772,  the  newly  married  pair 
started  from  The  Forest,  where  the  ceremony  had  been  performed, 
for  Monticello,  their  future  abode,  more  than  a  hundred  miles  dis 
tant,  in  a  two-horse  chaise.  1 

As  the  day  lengthens,  the  cold  strengthens.  In  Virginia  there  is 
often  no  serious  winter  till  after  New  Year's,  when  all  at  once  it 
comes  rushing  down  from  the  north  in  a  tempest  of  wind  and  snow. 
There  was  some  snow  on  the  ground  when  they  left  the  bride's 
home  ;  and  it  grew  deeper  as  they  went  towards  the  mountains,  until 
it  was  too  deep  for  their  vehicle.  They  were  obliged,  at  last,  to 
leave  the  carriage,  and  mount  the  horses.  At  sunset  on  the  last 
day  of  their  journey,  when  they  were  still  eight  miles  from  Monti- 
cello,  the  snow  was  nearly  two  feet  deep.  A  friend's  house  gave 
them  rest  for  a  while,  l>ut  they  would  plod  on,  and  get  home  that 
night.  They  reached  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  ploughed  up  the 
long  ascent,  and  stood  at  length,  late  at  night,  cold  and  tired, 
before  their  door. 

In  old  Virginia  servants  seldom  lodged  in  their  masters  house, 
but  in  cabins  of  their  own,  to  which  they  returned  after  their  work 


HIS  MARRIAGE.  103 

was  done.  No  light  saluted  the  arriving  pair.  No  voice  welcomed 
them.  No  door  opened  to  receive  them.  The  servants  had  given 
them  up  long  before,  and  gone  home  to  bed.  Worst  of  all,  the  fires 
were  out,  and  the  house  was  cold,  dark,  and  dismal.  What  a  wel 
come  to  a  bride  on  a  cold  night  in  January  !  They  burst  into  the 
house,  and  flooded  it  with  the  warmth  and  light  of  their  own  un 
quenchable  good-humor !  Who  could  wish  a  better  place  for  a 
honeymoon  than  a  snug  brick  cottage,  lifted  five  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  above  the  world,  with  half  a  dozen  counties  in  sight,  and 
three  feet  of  snow  blocking  out  all  intruders  ?  What  readings  of 
Ossian  there  must  have  been  !  I  hope  she  enjoyed  them  as  well  as 
he.  For  his  part,  the  poems  of  that  ancient  bard  —  if  he  was 
ancient  —  were  curiously  associated  in  his  mind  with  the  tender 
feelings;  and  now,  shut  in  with  his  love  in  his  mountain  home,  he 
grew  so  enamoured  of  the  poet,  that  nothing  would  content  him  but 
studying  him  in  the  original  Gaelic. 

He  wrote  to  his  acquaintance,  Charles  Macpherson,  cousin  of  the 
translator,  that  "  merely  for  the  pleasure  of  reading  Ossian's  works, 
he  was  desirous  to  learn  the  language  in  which  he  sung."  He  begs 
Macpherson  to  send  him  from  Scotland,  not  only  a  grammar,  a  dic 
tionary,  a  catalogue  of  Gaelic  works,  and  whatever  other  apparatus 
might  be  necessary,  but  copies  of  all  the  Ossianic  poems  in  the  origi 
nal  Gaelic.  If  they  had  been  printed,  he  would  have  them  in  print. 
If  not,  "  my  petition  is,  that  you  would  be  so  good  as  to  use  your 
interest  with  Mr.  Macpherson  to  obtain  leave  to  take  a  manuscript 
copy  of  them,  and  to  procure  it  to  be  done.  I  would  choose  it  in  a 
fair,  round  hand,  with  a  good  margin,  bound  in  parchments  as  ele 
gantly  as  possible,  lettered  on  the  back,  and  marbled  or  gilt  on  the 
edges  of  the  leaves.  I  would  not  regard  expense  in  doing  this."  He 
tells  him,  that  if  there  are  any  other  Gaelic  manuscript  poems  acces 
sible,  .it  would  at  any  time  give  him  "the  greatest  happiness"  to 
receive  them ;  for  "  the  glow  of  one  warm  thought  is  to  me  worth 
more  than  money." 

Public  events  prevented  the  execution  of  this  scheme.  It  is 
remarkable,  that,  here  in  the  woods  of  America,  a  young  man,  inspired 
by  love,  should  have  hit  upon  the  method,  very  simple  and  obvious, 
it  is  true,  which,  a  hundred  years  after,  has  apparently  cleared  up 
the  Ossianic  mystery,  by  showing  that  Macpherson's  Ossian  is  a 
poor,  slurring  translation  of  poems  really  existing  in  the  Gaelic  Ian- 


10  i  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

guage.*  Among  a  thousand  babblers,  it  is  the  man  who  goes  out  of 
his  way,  and  looks  at  the  thing  with  his  own  eyes,  who  is  likely  to 
understand  it  first. 

Next  year  the  death  of  his  wife's  father  brought  them  forty  thou 
sand  acres  of  land  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  slaves.  When 
their  share  of  the  debts  upon  Mr.  Wayles's  estate  had  been  paid, 
the  fortunes  of  the  wife  and  of  the  husband  were  about  equal.  The 
Natural  Bridge,  eighty  miles  from  Monticello,  was  upon  one  of  the 
tracts  now  added  to  their  property. 

The  year  1772,  which  was  the  first  of  Jefferson's  married  life,  I 
think  he  would  have  ever  after  pronounced  the  happiest  of  all  his 
years.  To  most  of  us,  perhaps,  that  first  year,  or  at  least  some 
small  part  of  it,  is  the  most  consciously  happy  time  we  ever  know. 
It  may  wt-11  be  so.  The  moment  when  two  stand  at  the  altar,  a 
wedded  pair,  is  the  moment  for  which  all  their  past  moments  were 
made,  from  which  all  their  future  moments  date.  The  first  months 
an-  a  blissful  pause  in  life's  toilsome  journey ;  for  the  old  cares  have 
ended  in  fruition,  and  the  new  cares  are  as  yet  nothing  but  delight. 
The  chilly  winter  of  desire  is  past ;  the  tempest  of  the  passions 
passes  soon  with  well-attempered  minds;  it  is  May-time  then,  the 
bright  and  sunny  seed-time,  when  no  one  thinks  that  the  harvest 
can  be  other  than  glorious.  Nature  begins  every  thing  with  a  smile. 
The  most  bountiful  harvest  is  not  joyous  and  serene,  like  the  May 
morning  when  the  wheat  is  only  a  greener  grass,  and  the  trees  have 
nothing  for  us  but  blossoms.  We  see  many  couples  who  have  been 
harshly  dealt  with  in  the  struggle  for  life,  —  they  are  sadly  battered 
and  worn  ;  and  we  meet  others  who  have  dealt  harshly  with  one  an 
other,  whose  case  is  more  deplorable.  It  is  an  affecting  thought,  that 
they,  too,  must  once  have  looked  hopefully  upon  life,  must  once  have 
been  pleasing  in  one  another's  eyes,  must  once  have  had  their  Monti- 
cello  to  go  home  to,  and  to  make  lovely  by  their  touch,  —  if  it  were 
only  two  tenement-rooms,  adorned  with  pictures  cut  from  the  illus 
trated  papers. 

A  lull  in  the  political  storm  gave  Jefferson  a  long  interval  of 
peace,  the  last  he  was  to  know  for  many  a  year.  The  General  Court 
called  him  to  Williamsburg,  April  15  and  October  15,  and  detained 

*  The  Poems  of  Oesian  in  the  original  Gaelic,  with  a  literal  Translation  into  English,  and 
a  Dissertation  on  the  Authenticity  of  the  Poema.  By  the  Rev.  Archibald  Clerk,  Minister 
of  Kilmallie.  Two  vols.  Edinburgh.  1871. 


HIS  MARRIAGE.  105 

him  "  eighteen  days  exclusive  of  Sundays  "  each  time ;  but  during 
most  of  the  year  he  was  on  his  mountain,  laying  out  his  grounds, 
planning  parts  of  his  house,  watching  his  garden  in  that  vigilant 
manner  of  his,  superintending  his  widening  farms,  and  keeping  brief, 
exact  record  of  whatever  he  did,  observed,  and  learned.  Snow  three 
feet  deep,  as  he  records  soon  after  reaching  home  with  his  bride, 
"the  deepest  snow  we  have  ever  seen,"  covered  the  county  of  Albe- 
marle  during  the  last  days  of  January.  It  was  not  an  inviting 
prospect  for  the  Italians  whom  Philip  Mazzei  was  about  to  start  in 
the  culture  of  the  vine  near  by,  and  who  were  to  furnish  Jefferson 
with  Italian  gardeners.  Virginia  has  a  month  of  polar  winter  every 
third  or  fourth  year,  when  the  James  and  the  Potomac  are  ice-bound, 
and  the'mountain  counties  are  buried  in  snow.  This  happy  winter 
chanced  to  be  one  such.  But  an  early  spring  atones;  and  we  are 
relieved,  on  looking  over  the  published  leaves  of  the  young  husband's 
garden-book,  to  discover,  that,  on  March  20,  he  "  sowed  a  patch  of 
later  pease." 

The  broad  summit  of  his  mountain  presented  a  busy  scene  as  the 
season  advanced.  Men  were  levelling  the  summit  down  to  that 
expanse  of  six  acres  which  was  to  become  so  bright  with  lawn,  garden, 
grove,  and  flowers.  Others  were  cutting  roads  and  paths  through 
the  woods,  or  making  the  drive  around  the  great  lawn.  Jefferson, 
with  his  rule  in  his  pocket,  and  his  case  of  instruments  a$  hand, 
watched  every  operation  with  the  eye  of  a  curious  philosopher, 
pausing  often  to  make  a  calculation  or  record  a  hint.  Like  a  true 
mathematician,  he  would  take  nothing  for  granted.  Having  wheel 
barrows  with  one  wheel  and  others  with  two  wheels,  he  was  bound 
to  ascertain,  with  the  certainty  of  arithmetic,  which  was  the  more 
advantageous.  So  he  takes  his  position,  watch  in  hand,  pencil  in 
pocket.  He  discovered  that  Julius  Shard  fills  a  two-wheeled  barrow 
in  three  minutes,  and  wheels  it  thirty  yards  in  a  minute  and  a  half. 
He  observes  further,  that  the  two-wheeled  barrow  holds  four  times 
as  much  as  the  one-wheeled.  With  these  facts  before  him,  he  puts  the 
case  in  a  form  which  Professor  Small  himself  would  have  approved : 
Suppose  the  4  loads  put  in  in  the  same  time,  viz.,  3  minutes  ;  4  trips 
will  take  4X1^=6',  which  added  to  3'  filling  is  =  9',  to  fill  and  carry 
the  same  earth  which  was  filled  and  carried  in  the  two-wheeled  bar 
row  in  4J'."  This  seems  conclusive  against  the  one-wheeled  vehicle ; 
but,  as  that  form  of  barrow  has  held  its  own  against  all  rivals  for 


106  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

another  century,  we  must  conclude  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  one-wheeled 
harrow  was  not  a  fair  representative  of  its  order.  He  was  evidently 
much  attached  to  the  two-wheeled  specimen. 

K very  operation  was  scanned  and  tested.  He  observed  that  a 
four-horse  wagon  made  ten  trips  a  day  up  the  mountain,  and  brought 
nearly  live  cords  of  wood.  He  counted  the  number  of  rails  that 
could  be  drawn  up  the  steepest  part  of  the  mountain,  and. found  it 
was  twenty-eight.  "  A  coach  and  six,"  he  records,  "  will  turn  in 
eighty  feet."  He  meant  to  allow  room  enough  for  the  grandees  of 
Virginia  who  might  visit  him  to  turn  homeward.  For  his  own  part, 
he  had  not  yet  set  up  a  vehicle  more  imposing  than  the  two-wheeled 
chaise  in  which  he  had  attempted  to  bring  home  his  bride.  We 
learn,  from  the  same  source,  that  the  grounds  were  to  be  enclosed  by 
a  picket-fence,  every  other  picket  long,  and  that  the  short  pickets 
were  to  have  four  nails  each,  and  the  long  ones  five.  No  scrap  of 
knowledge  came  amiss  to  the  young  housekeeper.  "Mrs.  Wythe," 
lie  records,  "  puts  one-tenth  very  rich  superfine  Malmsey  to  a 
dry  Madeira,  and  makes  a  fine  wine."  This  item,  doubtless,  he 
brought  home  from  Williamsburg  for  his  wife,  with  Mrs.  TVythe's 
compliments ;  for  the  lady  of  the  mountain  kept  her  housekeeping- 
book,  and  was  noted  for  her  skill  in  household  arts.  Her  books  of 
accounts,  written  in  a  neat  lady-like  hand,  still  exist. 

AVhat  an  experimenter  he  was  with  his  garden !  He  tried  almost 
every  valuable  nut,  vegetable,  grain,  bulb,  shrub,  tree,  and  grass 
the  world  knows,  —  almonds,  bitter  almonds,  soft-shelled  almonds, 
olives  (fifteen  hundred  olive-stones  at  once),  Alpine  strawberries, 
French  chestnuts,  and  all  the  rare  kinds  of  more  familiar  fruits  and 
vegetables.  His  new  neighbor,  Mazzei,  filled  his  garden  with  the 
fine  melons,  vines,  and  nuts  of  Italy,  which  it  was  one  of  Jefferson's 
dearest  delights  to  spread  over  Virginia,  Maryland,  the  Carolinas,  and 
Georgia.  He  watched  the  operations  of  the  Italian  vineyard  plant 
ers  with  the  closest  attention,  and  put  down  in  his  garden-book  a 
curiously  minute  account  of  their  method  of  laying  out  a  vineyard 
and  planting  vines.  The  coming  of  this  little  Italian  colony, 
with  the  intelligent  Mazzei  at  their  head,  and  the  prospect  which  it 
opened  of  Albemarle,  already  called  the  "garden  of  Virginia,"  be 
coming  its  vineyard  also,  was  an  immense  addition  to  the  interest 
and  attractiveness  of  Monticello.  If  Jefferson  loved  his  home  more 
than  most  men,  it  must  be  owned  that  few  men  have  ever  had  such 
a  home  to  love. 


HIS  MARRIAGE.  107 

It  is  the  wife  who  is  the  soul  of  a  house.  It  is  she  who  makes, 
who  constitutes,  who  is,  the  home.  The  wife  of  Jefferson  comes 
down  to  us  as  she  was  in  this  brightest  year  of  her  existence,  a  beau 
tiful  woman,  her  countenance  brilliant  with  color  and  expression, 
with  luxuriant  auburn  hair,  somewhat  tall,  and  of  a  very  graceful 
figure,  though  too  slight  for  the  wear  and  tear  of  this  troublesome 
world.  Nothing  but  good  has  been  recorded  of  her,  and  her  care 
fully-kept  household  books  still  speak  her  praise.  Tradition  reports 
that  she  possessed  an  attraction  for  her  husband,  most  rare  in  that 
age  among  ladies,  —  an  educated  mind  and  a  taste  for  the  higher 
literature.  Her  love  of  music,  her  skill  in  pjaying  the  harpsichord, 
and  her  voice  in  singing,  all  harmonized  with  his  tastes  and  habits, 
recalling  that  sister  so  early  lost.  A  Virginian  lady  of  that  period 
could  scarcely  escape  acquiring  the  homely,  invaluable  wisdom  that 
comes  of  dealing  with  the  common  duties  of  a  household.  She 
might  not  be  so  accomplished  as  the  mother  of  Washington,  who 
was  one  of  the  best  judges  of  a  horse  in  her  county,  and  perfectly 
capable  of  conducting  a  plantation ;  but  a  woman  could  not  be  quite 
a  fool  who  had  to  think  and  contrive  for  a  great  family  of  grown-up 
children. 

I  see  this  elegant  figure  moving  about  with  her  husband  among 
the  improvements  of  the  mountain-top,  visiting  with  him  the  spot 
where  negroes  were  grubbing  up  roots  and  trees  for  the  family 
burying-ground,  or  standing  by  his  side  as  he  counted  the  wheel 
barrow-loads  and  watched  the  wall-building.  During  the  winter, 
perhaps,  she  may  have  been  alive  to  the  inconveniences  of  living 
five  hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  the  air;  but  in  the  summer  she 
must  have  warmly  approved  her  husband's  choice,  if  it  were  only 
that  it  lifted  them  above  the  mosquitoes  and  all  disagreeable  insects. 
If  she  cast  her  eyes  in  one  direction,  she  saw  their  mount  sloping 
down  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  River  Bivanna;  and  she  could  see,  half 
a  mile  beyond  the  river,  the  blackened  ruins  of  the  house  in  which 
her  husband  was  born.  On  another  side,  the  mountain  fell  off  into 
the  valley  in  an  almost  precipitous  descent.  From  one  face  of  the 
summit  there  is  nothing  between  the  spectator  and  the  ocean,  two 
hundred  miles  distant,  and  yet  not  so  far  that  it  is  not  felt  in  the 
afternoon  breeze  of  the  hot  summer  days.  From  another,  there  is  a 
vast  expanse  billowy  with  mountains,  one  peak  clearly  visible  forty 
miles  off,  and  the  line  of  the  Blue  Ridge  marked  a'gainst  the  horizon 


108  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

a  hundred  miles  away.  Three  miles  yonder  lies  the  village  of 
Cliarlottesville ;  and  here  is  a  region  of  waving  wheat  fields  and 
farms,  with  the  river  winding  among  them.  From  one  point, 
nothing  breaks  the  view  for  forty-seven  miles,  and  then  it  ends  in  a 
solitary  peak  precisely  resembling  the  great  Pyramid  of  Egypt. 
A  ludy  less  susceptible  than  she  could  have  forgiven  the  height  of 
the  little  mount  for  the  wide  world  of  loveliness  which  it  dis 
closed. 

As  the  summer  advanced,  she  leaned  more  heavily  upon  her 
husband's  strong  arm  than  before,  and  less  frequently  rode  down 
into  the  valley.  Their  first  child  was  born  in  the  autumn,  —  that 
Martha  Jefferson  who  contributed  most  and  longest  to  the  solace  of 
her  father's  lif»>.  Here  was  a  new  tie  binding  him  to  his  home  ;  and 
it  was  wound  about  his  heart  at  the  very  period  when  the  events 
occurred  that  were  to  summon  him  away,  and  detain  him  many 
times  and  long. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AN  AFFAIR  IN  NARRAGANSETT  BAY. 

FROM  the  breezy  height  of  Monticello  we  must  repair  to  a  spot 
not  less  enchanting,  —  Newport,  the  Emerald  Isle  of  North  Amer 
ica.  Headers  are  familiar  with  the  ocean  drive,  that  winds  about 
among  the  rocks  and  by  the  beaches,  and  past  Lily  Pond,  until  it 
turns  the  Point  at  the  ocean  end  of  the  island,  and  winds  round 
past  Fort  Adams,  where  the  band  plays;  then  by  the  pretty  harbor, 
alive  with  yachts  and  skimming  sail-boats  ;  and  "  so  home."  Bren- 
ton's  Point  is  the  ancient  and  proper  name  of  that  turning-place, 
where  the  carriages  stop  for  their  occupants  to  look  out  for  Point 
Judith  and  Block  Island,  and  admire  the  tumbling  waves  that  foam 
over  the  reefs  near  the  shore,  and  where  children  get  out  to  explore 
the  aquarium  disclosed  to  view  at  low  tide,  and  gather  star-fish,  wet 
and  squirming,  inadmissible  to  a  well-regulated  vehicle.  In  March, 
1772,  it  was  a  bleak  and  desolate  place,  without  sign  of  human 
habitation.  But  even  at  that  early  period  there  was  much  life  upon 
the  waters ;  for  Newport  had  an  important  commerce  with  the 
African  coast,  and  Providence,  thirty  miles  off,  at  the  head  of  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay,  though  inferior  to  Newport  in  wealth  and  population, 
was  a  thriving  town.  '  Those  were  the  days  when  the  best  Chris 
tians  saw  nothing  wrong  in  buying  negroes  and  gold-dust  on  the 
coast  of  Africa  with  New-England  rum,  and  selling  the  negroes  to 
the  West  Indies  for  molasses,  and  taking  the  molasses  home  to  be 
converted  into  more  rum  for  another  voyage:  Newport  had  the 
cream  of  this  sweet  commerce  for  many  a  year,  as  well  as  a  legiti 
mate  trade  with  the  mother-country. 

But  this  was  not  all  the  business  that  enriched  Newport  and 
Providence.  It  was  not  to  protect  lawful  commerce  that  British 
men-of-war  cruised  continually  in  Narragansett  Bay,  and  lay  at 

109 


110  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

anchor  off  Brenton's  Point.  England  was  at  peace  with  all  the 
world ;  the  pirates  had  been  driven  from  these  waters ;  but  in  March, 
1772,  when  Jefferson  was  sowing  his  later  pease  at  Monticello,  two 
British  men-of-war  approached  the  Point,  one  of  some  magnitude, 
called  the  Beaver,  and  the  other,  a  schooner  of  eight  guns,  named 
the  Gaspee.  The  larger  of  these  vessels  kept  on  her  course,  and 
vanishes  from  this  history.  The  Gaspee  dropped  her  anchor,  furled 
her  sails,  and  remained  about  where  the  Light  Ship  now  rides 
uneasily  on  the  waves. 

Need  I  remind  the  reader  with  what  rigor  England  applied  the 
protective  system  at  that  time?  A  colonist  could  catch  a  beaver, 
and  take  off  its  skin ;  but  a  British  law  forbade  his  making  that  skin 
into  a  hat.  English  hatters  were  protected.  A  Pennsylvanian  might 
dig  a  piece  of  iron  out  of  his  native  hills,  and  even  smelt  away  its 
impurities  ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  send  it  to  England  to  be  made  into 
steel  and  a  scythe.  British  cutlers  must  be  protected.  A  Virginian 
could  raise  as  much  tobacco  as  he  chose ;  but,  though  England  were 
glutted  with  tobacco,  he  could  not  export  a  hogshead  of  it  to  another 
country.  He  must  send  it  all  to  England,  whence  British  mer 
chants  would  distribute  it  over  the  world.  A  Newport  merchant 
might  discover  excellent  fabrics  and  commodities  in  Holland  or 
France ;  but  he  must  buy  his  return  cargo  in  English  ports  of 
English  dealers.  A  Carolinian  could  not  sell  a  pound  of  his  indigo 
to  France,  where  so  much  of  it  was  used.  The  commerce  of  the 
colonies,  and  their  internal  trade  as  well,  were  restricted  and  ham 
pered  in  every  way,  with  the  single  object,  and  that  object  avowed, 
of  compelling  the  colonists  to  pour  the  net  product  of  their  toil  and 
enterprise  into  British  coffers.  The  colonists  complied  not  unwill 
ingly,  because  they  loved  their  country,  that  is,  the  British  Empire, 
and  b.-caiis.-  they  felt,  that,  in  return  for  all  this,  England  was  bound 
to  defend  them  against  the  world. 

But  tin-  protective  system  includes,  as  an  invariable  accompani 
ment,  the  illicit  trader  and  the  smuggler;  and  it  will  not  be  one  of 
the  k-ast  advantages  of  the  universal  freedom  of  trade,  which  we 
li.-iv  b.-fii  approaching  for  a  century  past,  and  may  reach  a  century 
hence,  that  those  bad  vocations  will  cease  to  be  exercised.  Seldom 
have  they  been  so  nourishing  as  in  the  waters  about  Newport,  from 
the  peace  of  1763  to  the  war  of  1775.  The  French  War  had  given 
a  wonderful  development  to  the  business.  A  colonial  governor  had  the 


AN  AFFAIR  IN  NARRAGANSETT  BAY.  Ill 

power  to  grant  a  flag  of  truce,  and  an  enterprising  Newporter  could 
apply  for  one  under  pretext  of  going  to  the  French  West  Indies  to 
effect  an  exchange  of  prisoners.  It  is  mentioned  as  a  proof  of  the 
incorruptible  honor  of  Governor  Fauquier  of  Virginia,  gambler  as 
he  was,  that  he  refused  an  offer  of  two  thousand  pounds  sterling  for 
a  flag.  Other  governors  were  not  so  scrupulous  ;  and  the  governor  of 
Rhode  Island,  who  alone  was  elected  by  the  people  of  his  Province, 
had,  it  is  said,  no  scruples  at  all,  but  granted  flags  to  all  applicants 
at  a  certain  price.  Give  a  Yankee  captain,  in  time  of  war,  a 
schooner  full  of  "  fish  and  notions,"  a  flag  of  truce  to  the  enemy,  and 
a  free  range  of  the  seas ;  what  does  he  want  more  ?  He  is  trading 
with  peace  advantages,  and  gets  war  prices.  ••-  • 

Considering  the  circumstances,  we  cannot  be  surprised  at  the  bad 
account  given  of  the  Rhode.-Islanders  by  Archdeacon  Burnaby,  who 
visited  them  towards  the  close  of  the  French  War.  A  cunning, 
deceitful  people,  he  calls  them,  who,  "  live  almost  entirely  bij  unfair 
and  illicit  trading"  and  their  "magistrates  are  partial  and  corrupt." 
The  English  traveller  adds  this  remark:  "Were  the  governor  to 
interpose  his  authority,  were  he  to  refuse  to  grant  flags  of  truce,  or 
not  to  wink  at  abuses,  he  would,  at  the  expiration  of  the  year,  be 
excluded  from  his  office,  the  only  thing,  perhaps,  which  he  has  to  sub 
sist  upon."  But  then,  according  to  this  Tory  archdeacon,  the  people 
themselves  had  little  to  subsist  upon  except  the  illicit  trade;  for  the 
enemy,  in  the  course  of  the  war,  had  captured  one  hundred  and 
thirty  of  their  vessels  ;  and  their  own  privateers,  of  which  they  kept 
a  great  number  at  sea,  had  had  ill  luck.  Nevertheless,  he  says, 
they  would,  out  of  their  population  of  thirty-five  thousand  souls, 
maintain  a  regiment  of  provincial  troops,  which  made  the  taxation 
burdensome.  Besides,  their  paper  money  was  in  a  woful  condition, 
as  it  required  twenty-five  hundred  pounds  in  Rhode-Island  paper  to 
buy  one  golden  guinea. 

The  war  being  at  an  end  in  1763,  nothing  more  could  be  done  in 
the  flag-of-truce  way ;  and  a  part  of  this  demoralized  energy  and 
capital  was  employed  in  evading  the  revenue  laws.  One  glance  at 
the  map  will  remind  the  reader  that  the  waters  about  Rhode  Island 
furnish  every  facility  for  any  kind  of  illicit  trade  that  can  be  carried 
on  in  small,  swift  vessels. 

For  eight  years  — 1764  to  1772  —  there  had  been  war  in  Narra- 
gansett  Bay,  between  Rhode  Island  and  the  king  of  Great  Britain. 


112  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

The  king  began  it.  An  offensive  armed  schooner,  the  St.  John, 
was  stationed  in  the  bay  in  1764,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  interfering 
with  the  maritime  pursuits  of  the  Rhode  Islanders.  This  St. 
John  had  the  insolence  to  make  a  prize  of  a  brig  which  had 
brought  in  an  unlawful  cargo.  Retaliation  :  the  people  seized  a 
shore  battery,  and  fired  into  the  St.  John.  Royal  ships  impressed 
unwary  seamen.  On  one  occasion  the  Maidstone,  man-of-war, 
boarded  a  brig  just  from  the  African  coast,  and  impressed  her 
whole  crew,  who  had  expected  that  very  night  to  be  at  home.  Retal 
iation  :  a  crowd  of  Newporters  seized  one  of  the  Maidstone's 
boats  at  the  Long  Wharf,  dragged  her  up  Broad  Street  to  the 
Parade,  and  burnt  her  in  front  of  that  handsome  State  House 
which  still  stands.  Again,  in  1769,  the  sloop-of-war  Liberty, 
besides  making  herself  generally  odious  through  the  sleepless  vigil 
ance  of  her  commander,  Lieutenant  Reid,  once  stopped  and 
brought  in  an  innocent  vessel,  and  then  fired  at  the  captain's  boat 
when  he  came  seeking  redress.  Retaliation  :  a  resolute  company 
of  Newporters  boarded  her,  cut  her  cables,  let  her  drift  ashore,  hard 
and  fast  j  and  then,  when  night  fell,  a  party  set  her  on  fire,  and  she 
was  burned  to  the  water's  edge !  This  was  war. 

In  1772  it  fell  to  the  little  Gaspee,  of  eight  guns,  Lieutenant 
Dudingston  commanding,  to  continue  the  strife.  This  lieutenant 
was  not  long  in  making  himself  an  object  of  passionate  disgust  to 
a  seafaring  people.  Lying  there,  off  Brenton's  Point,  right  at  the 
entrance  of  the  bay,  in  the  very  highway  leading  both  to  Newport 
and  Providence,  he  adopted  the  system  of  boarding  every  thing 
that  floated,  —  packets,  market-boats,  ferry-boats,  coasting  schoon 
ers,  Indiamen,  Londoners,  homeward-bound,  outward-bound,  — 
every  thing !  The  expedient  was  simple  and  obvious,  but  it  was  all 
too  effectual.  And,  to  make  his  conduct  the  more  offensive,  he 
sent  any  contraband  property  that  he  seized  to  Boston  for  adjudica 
tion. 

At  that  time  the  deputy-governor  of  Rhode-Island  Plantation, 
Darius  Sessions  by  name,  lived  at  Providence  ;  and  the  governor, 
Joseph  Wanton,  lived  at  Newport.  Darius  Sessions  wrote  to 
Joseph  Wanton  a  letter  of  ludicrous  gravity,  relating  the  aggres 
sions  of  "a  schooner"  upon  "our  navigation;"  affecting  not  to 
know  ••  who  ///•  is.  and  by  what  authority  he  assumes  such  a  con 
duct ;"  and  requesting  his  honor  to  inquire  into  the  matter.  The 


AN  AFFAIR   IN  NAEEAGANSBTT  BAY.  113 

deputy  contrived  to  make  a  pointed  allusion  to  the  sloop  "  Liberty," 
burnt  at  Newport  some  time  before.  "  It  is  suspected/'  said  Mr. 
Session,  "that  he  has  no  legal  authority  to  justify  his  conduct; 
and  his  commission,  if  he  has  any,  is  some  antiquated  paper,  more 
of  a  fiction  than  any  thing  else,  ...  no  other  than  the  commission 
the  famous  Reid  had,  ivho  lost  his  sloop  at  Newport,  or  something 
else  of  no  validity."  The  governor,  in  the  same  strain  of  affected 
ignorance,  addressed  a  note  of  inquiry  to  the  odious  lieutenant,  who 
replied,  not  in  the  most  conciliatory  tone,  that  he  "  had  done  noth 
ing  but  what  was  his  duty."  Much  correspondence  followed.  The 
governor  wrote  to  the  admiral  at  Boston,  and  the  admiral  replied 
with  the  hauteur  that  might  be  expected  :  both  referred  the  matter 
to  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough  ;  and  the  affair  drew  to  great  length 
and  complexity.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  Lieutenant  Dudingston 
continued  to  "disturb  the  navigation"  of  Narragansett  Bay,  and 
seized  whatever  rum  or  other  commodity  had  not  contributed  its 
quota  to  the  king's  strong  box. 

June  10,  1772,  at  noon,  the  regular  packet  plying  between  New 
port  and  Providence,  left  Newport  for  Providence  without  notifying 
Lieutenant  Dudingston.  The  Gaspee  gave  chase ;  chased  the 
packet  up  the  bay  twenty-three  miles,  and*  then  ran  hard  aground 
on  Narragansett  Point,  seven  miles  below  Providence.  The  packet 
reached  her  berth  about  sunset.  Her  captain  related  his  adven 
ture,  and  described  the  situation  of  the  hated  Gaspee  to  Mr. 
John  Brown,  the  most  substantial  merchant  of  the  place.  In 
common  with  the  whole  colony,  Mr.  Brown  believed  the  proceedings 
of  Lieutenant  Dudingston  to  be  illegal.  Deputy-Governor  Darius 
Sessions  had  consulted  Chief-justice  Hopkins  upon  the  subject,  and 
the  chief  justice  had  officially  pronounced  them  lawless.  No  com 
mander  of  a  vessel,  the  chief  justice  maintained,  had  any  right  to 
exert  authority  in  the  colony  without  previously  applying  to  the 
governor,  showing  his  warrant  for  so  doing,  and  being  regularly 
sworn  in. 

Mr.  Brown,  like  most  men  who  live  near  the  sea,  carried  the 
tide  in  his  mind,  as  farmers  at  work  in  a  distant  field  observe,  with 
out  thinking  of  it,  their  taskmaster,  the  sun.  The  Gaspee 
cannot  get  off  Namquit  Point  before  three  in  the  morning,  thought 
the  merchant.  The  case  of  the  Liberty,  perhaps,  flashed  across 
his  mind.  The  Gaspee  had  run  herself  ashore !  What  an 


114  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

opportunity  to  free  the  waters  of  Rhode  Island  from  this  worse 
than  a  pirate  ! 

He  spoke  to  one  of  the  captains  in  his  service,  who  hurried 
away  as  if  on  a  joyful  errand.  A  few  minutes  later  the  beating  of 
a  drum  in  the  main  street  of  Providence  summoned  the  people  to 
doors  and  windows  ;  and  the  drummer,  in  the  manner  of  a  town- 
crier,  lifted  up  his  voice  and  proclaimed  the  situation  of  the 
Gaspee,  and  invited  all  men  disposed  to  lend  a  hand  to  her  de 
struction  to  repair  to  Sabin's  tavern  as  soon  as  it  was  dark.  At 
half-past  nine,  eight  of  the  largest  boats  belonging  to  the  town, 
with  muffled  oars  and  filled  with  armed  men,  each  boat  com 
manded  by  a  sea-captain,  dropped  away  from  Fenners  Wharf.  It 
was  no  mob  that  manned  the  boats.  The  best  men  of  the  town 
took  part  in  this  expedition,  and  all  men's  hearts  went  with  it ; 
unless  it  might  be  some  lone  representative  of  the  collector  of  the 
customs,  — the  only  officer  in  Rhode  Island  not  elected  by  the  peo 
ple.  J.ihn  Brown,  the  prime  mover,  who  was  in  one  of  the  boats, 
besides  being  the  chief  merchant  of  the  colony,  was  of  the  family 
that  afterwards  founded,  and  gave  its  name  to,  Brown  University. 

All  on  board  the  Gaspee  slept,  except  one  sailor  who  kept  the 
\va  -h.  At  midnight  the  watch  was  changed,  when  'Bartholomew 
Cheevercame  on  deck  in  his  turn.  At  a  quarter  to  one  lie  descried, 
in  the  darkness,  —  the  night  was  very  dark,  —  aline  of  boats  silently 
approaching  the  vessel.  He  reported  the  ominous  circumstance  to  the 
lieutenant,  who  hurried  on  deck  in  his  night-shirt,  and  soon  saw  the 
boats  himself.  '•  Hail  them,"  said  the  officer,  "and  tell  them  to  stand 
off  at  their  peril.'1  The  sailor  obeyed.  No  answer.  Again  he  shouted, 
w  Who  comes  there  ?"  No  answer.  The  lieutenant  himself  then 
took  his  station  at  the  side  of  the  vessel,  a  pistol  in  one  hand  and  a 
cutlass  in  the  other.  He  hailed  the  boats  twice.  From  one  of 
them  came  at  length  an  angry  reply,  which  may  be  softened  into, 
"I  am  the  sheriff  of  the  county  of  Kent,  damn  you  !  I  have  got 
a  warrant  to  appivhond  you,  damn  you !  So  surrender,  d.amn  y9U  !  " 
Which  was  a  fiction,  uttered "T>y~6mr~of  the  captains  commanding. 
"Call  all  hands/5  said  the  lieutenant  to  Cheever,  who  obeyed;  and 
the  men,  in  the  course  of  a  few  seconds,  began  to  tumble  up.  But 
those  few  seconds  were  fatal  to  the  Gaspee. 

For,  at  the  instant  of  Lieutenant  Dudingston's  appearance  at  the 
side  of  his  vessel,  one  of  the  men  in  the  boats  said  to  a  comrade, 


AN  AFFAIR   IN   NARRAGANSETT  BAY.  115 

"  Re-ach  me  your  gun,  and  I  can  kill  that  fellow."  Just  as  the  lieu 
tenant  had  given  the  order  to  call  all  hands,  he  fell  to  the  deck,  dan 
gerously  wounded  in  the  arm  and  groin,  bleeding  profusely.  Pie 
Lad  not  yet  been  helped  to  the  cabin  before  the  assailants  boarded, 
drove  the  men  below,  and  were  masters  of  the  vessel.  The  Provi 
dence  men  followed  the  crew  into  the  hold,  tied  every  man's  hands 
behind  him,  and  prepared  to  set  them  ashore. 

A  young  medical  student,  while  busy  below  tying  the  hands  of  the 
unresisting  crew,  was  called  to  the  deck  by  a  voice  familiar  to  all 
the  party.  "What  is  the  matter,  Mr.  Brown?"'  asked  the  student. 
"  Don't  call  names,"  was  the  reply,  "  but  go  immediately  into  the 
cabin.  There  is  one  wounded,  and  will  bleed  to  death."  Upon 
examining  the  wound  the  student  feared  the  great  artery  was  cut, 
and  began  to  pull  and  tug  at  the  collar  of  his  own  shirt  to  tear  a 
bandage.  The  wounded  man  showed  that  he  was  worthy  of  better 
work  than  chasing  packet-boats,  and  groping  after  hidden  rum,  by 
saying,  "Pray,  sir,  don't  tear  your  clothes:  there  is  linen  in  that 
trunk."  And,  after  his  wound  was  dressed,  he  begged  the  young 
surgeon  to  accept  a  gold  stock-buckle  as  a  mark  of  his  gratitude ; 
and,  this  being  refused,  he  pressed  upon  him  a  silver  one,  which  the 
student  accepted,  and  wore  to  old  age.  The  crew  were  landed  in  two 
parties,  two  miles  apart,  and  the  lieutenant  was  carried  to  a  house 
near  the  shore.  The  schooner  was  then  set  on  fire. 

When  the  sun  rose,  nothing  remained  of  her  but  a  black  and 
smoking  hulk.  The  assailants  rowed  home  at  leisure  in  broad  day 
light,  reaching  Providence  in  time  for  breakfast.  So  little  conceal 
ment  was  there,  that,  in  the  course  of  the  morning,  a  young  man 
appeared  in  the  most  public  place  in  Providence  with  Lieutenant 
Dudingston's  gold-laced  hat  upon  his  head,  and  related  to  a  great 
circle  of  admiring  bystanders  how  and  where  he  had  got  it  in  the 
schooner's  cabin.  He  was  induced,  to  retire  with  his  trophy ;  but 
every  American  in  Providence  knew  who  had  done  the  deed,  who 
suggested  it,  and  what  part  in  it  each  of  the  leading  persons  had 
borne. 

Darius  Sessions's  parents  must  have  been  devoid  of  a  sense  of  the 
ludicrous,  else  he  had  not  been  blessed  with  such  a  name  ;  but  Dari 
us  himself  was  a  humorist.  In  th.e'  morning  he  received  the  "news7' 
of  this  transaction.  Whereupon  'he  rode  down  to  the  scene,  attended 
by  some  gentlemen  of  the  town,  to  inquire  into  it.  He  found  the 


116  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

tiling  had  really  happened.  Here  was  the  smoking  hulk.  In  yon 
der  house  lay  the  wounded  officer.  The  crew  were  roaming  at  large, 
subsisting  on  the  country.  He  visited  the  lieutenant,  and  begged 
t<>  know  how  he  could  be  of  service  to  him.  That  truly  gallant 
officer  replied,  that,  for  his  own  part,  he  wanted  nothing;  he  hardly 
expi •<•>.!  to  survive  ;  but  he  asked  to  have  his  men  attended  to,  and 
sent  to  the  admiral  in  Boston.  The  deputy  took  sundry  depositions, 
pr"vid«-d  for  the  crew,  and  returned  home  to  exercise  his  talent  for 
grave  burlesque  in  a  letter  to  the  governor.  "  A  very  disagreeble 
affair,"  said  he,  "has  lately  happened  within  this  part  of  the  col 
ony."  He  related  the  disagreeable  affair.  Then  he  remarked, 
'•The  dangerous  tendency  of  this  transaction  is  too  obvious  to  pass 
it  over  with  the  least  appearance  of  neglect."  He  did  not  under 
line  the  word  "  appearance  :  "  it  was  not  necessary.  He  concluded 
his  epistle  thus:  "  It  is  the  prevailing  opinion  of  the  gentlemen  in 
tli is  quarter,  that  a  proclamation,  with  a  large  reward,  be  issued  for 
apprehending  the  persons  who  have  thus  offended.  You  will  please 
consult  the  gentlemen  your  way;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  I  will 
endeavor  to  collect  the  sentiments  of  the  members  of  the  Assembly, 
and  other  principal  gentlemen  by  name,  and  send  the  same  to  your 
lion  or  as  soon  as  may  be." 

Governor  Wanton  acted  upon  this  hint.  A  proclamation  was  very 
promptly  issued,  offering  a  reward  of  a  hundred  pounds  to  any  one 
who  should  discover  the  perpetrators.  Strange  to  say,  the  proclama 
tion  was  of  no  effect.  Not  a  person  in  Rhode  Island  disclosed 
•  many  hundreds  of  men,  women,  and  children  must  have  pi  r- 
sonally  )\n«>wn.  Lieutenant  Dudingston  recovered  his  health,  was 
recommenced  for  promotion,  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  obtained  it. 
Other  cruisers*  replaced  the  burnt  Gaspee.  Narragansett  Bay  was 
as  blue  and  l.ri^it  as  before,  its  islands  as  richly  verdured,  and  all 
things  \vrnt  their  ii^ual  train. 

No  one  can  unoVrV/and  the  importance  of  this  affair  unless  he 
bears  in  mind  that  the  crr^at;  controversy  of  which  it  was  one  trifling 
outbreak  \vas  a  controvers\tr  between  the  colonists  and  OXE  :M  w. 
That  one  man  was  the  king1;'  —  Poor>  dull,  proud,  ignorant,  moody 
George  III.,  —  the  costliest  k5[°8  :l  country  was  ever  cursed  with. 
He  cost,  in  fact,  £80(V)(H),iini).1l1"  >ides  his  board  and  the  loss  of 
thirteen  colonies  ;  for  it  was  he  tV13'*'  one  blind,  unteachable  dunce, 
who  severed  the  empire.  V 

•  Of  course  there  are  always  men  enVuo^  to  flatter  the  foibles  of  a 


AN   AFFAIR   IN   NARRAGANSETT   BAY.  117 

king.  The  American  Tories  exulted  in  the  destruction  of  the  Gas- 
pee.  If  this  does  not  wake  the  British  lion,  wrote  Governor  Hutch- 
inson  of  Massachusetts,  no  one  will  ever  tremble  at  his  roar  again  ! 
"  So  daring  an  insult ! "  By  men,  too,  who  are  perfectly  well  known, 
and  yet  not  one  arrested  !  The  royal  animal  has  been  asleep  these 
four  or  five  years  past ;  as  if  these  turbulent  colonists  could  be  ruled 
by  soft  words,  and  milk-white  steeds  drawing  great  lords  in  gor 
geous  coaches !  A  gracious  king  sees  with  what  result.  A  king's 
lieutenant  wounded,  and  turned  out  of  his  vessel !  Governor  Ilutch- 
inson  had  the  honor  of  conversing  with  Admiral  Montagu  on  the 
subject ;  and  he  rejoiced  to  hear  the  admiral  state,  that,  in  his  opinion, 
Lord  Sandwich  would  "  never  leave  pursuing  the  colony  until  it  was 
disfranchised.'7  Governor  Hutchinson's  own  opinion,  as  recorded 
for  the  perusal  of  the  home  government,  was  this :  "  If  the  late 
affair  at  Rhode  Island  is  passed  over  without  a  full  inquiry^and  due 
resentment,  our  liberty  people  will  think  they  may  with  impunity 
commit  any  acts  of  violence,  be  they  ever  so  atrocious ;  and  the  friends 
to  government  will  despond,  and  give  up  all  hopes  of  being  able  to 
withstand  the  faction.'7 

The  home  government  needed  no  prompting.  The  lion  was 
awake.  The  "  law-servants  of  the  crown "  pronounced  the  act  of 
the  Rhode  Islanders  high  treason,  levying  war  against  the  king. 
Five  royal  commissioners  —  the  governor  of  Rhode  Island,  the  chief 
justices  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Massachusetts,  and  a  judge 
of  the  Boston  Vice-admiralty  Court  —  were  appointed  to  go  to  Rhode 
Island,  and  investigate  the  fell  business.  General  Gage,  command 
ing  the  troops  at  Boston,  was  ordered  to  hold  himself  in  readiness  to 
assist  the  commissioners,  if  they  should  need  assistance.  Governor 
Wanton  received  this  information  from  England  about  the  1st  of 
October  in  a  long  despatch  from  Lord  Dartmouth ;  and  the  material 
parts  of  this  document  found  their  way  into  the  newspapers.  Secrecy 
would  have  been  desirable,  if  the  governor  had  meant  to  execute  the 
king's  commands ;  but  important  matters  will  get  into  the  papers 
in  times  of  public  commotion,  if  the  pigeon-hole  is  not  well  looked 
to.  There  was  one  paragraph  in  Lord  Dartmouth's  despatch  which 
arrested  every  intelligent  mind  in  the  colonies,  and  kindled  every 
patriotic  heart.  Jefferson  read  it  at  Monticello  with  feelings  inex 
pressible.  Dabney  Carr  read  it  in  his  cabin  full  of  children,  and, 
I  doubt  not,  rode  swiftly  to  his  brother-in-law,  Jefferson,  to  talk  it 
over : — 


118  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFEItSON. 

"  It  is  his  majesty's  intention,  in  consequence  of  the  advice  of  hig 
Privy  Council,  that  the  persons  concerned  in  the  burning  of  the 
(la-pee  schooner,  and  in  the  other  violences  which  attended  that 
daring  insult,  SHOULD  BE  BROUGHT  TO  EXGLAND  TO  BE  TRIED; 
and  I  am  therefore  to  signify  to  you  his  majesty's  pleasure,"  that 
the  prisoners,  together  with  the  witnesses  on  both  sides,  shall 
be  delivered  to  the  custody  of  Admiral  Montagu,  and  sent  in  a  king's 
si  lit)  to  England  ! 

The  commissioners  arrived  at  Newport.  They  offered  a  reward 
of  a  thousand  pounds  sterling  to  any  one  who  would  reveal  or  betray 
the  ringleaders,  and  five  hundred  pounds  for  the  detection  of  any 
other  person  concerned.  Before  entering  upon  their  duties  they  all 
swore  and  subscribed  the  three  great  oaths,  so  pertinent  to  the 
occasion.  First,  they  swore  they  did  not  believe  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation,  and  that  they  regarded  the  invocation  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  as  superstitious  and 
idolatrous.  Secondly,  they  swore  that  they  considered  George  III. 
the  true  king  of  Great  Britain,  and  rejected  the  Pretender,  who 
called  himself  James  III.  Thirdly,  they  swore,  that,  from  their 
hearts,  they  abhorred,  detested,  and  abjured,  as  impious  and  hereti 
cal,  the  damnable  doctrine  and  position,  that  the  Pope  could  depose 
a  king  by  progjfancing  him  excommunicate.  These  three  tremen 
dous  oaths JJ^H^  out  to  great  length,  having  been  duly  sworn, 
recorded,  uifl  ^Rd,  the  commissioners  proceeded  to  business.  It 
was  in  the^^^port  State  House,  in  that  large  room  into  which 
summer  vi^Rs  peep,  and  admire  the  quaint  carpentry  of  other 
days,  that^Bese  solemn  things  were  done. 

The  ccBpissioners  summoned  witnesses,  took  depositions,  ad 
journed,  met  again,  sat  long  and  often,  made  up  a  voluminous 
report,  and  discovered  nothing!  Not  one  man  was  so  much  as 
arrested  !  Every  witness  that  knew  any  thing  about  the  matter 
staid  at  home,  and  sent  an  excuse.  Some  had  causes  c.oming  on  at 
court.  One  had  "a  swelling  in  the  hand."  Another  was  seventy- 
four  years  of  age.  Sabin,  at  whose  house  the  assailants  had  met,  and 
where  they  had  spent  an  hour  and  a  half  in  casting  bullets  and  sharp 
ening  cutlasses,  sent  the  following,  which  may  serve  as  a  sample:  — 

"Gentlemen,  I  now  address  you  on  account  of  a  summons  I 
received  from  you,  requiring  my  attendance  at  the  Council  Chamber 
in  Newport  on  Wednesday,  l>l)th  instant. 


AN  AFFAIR   IN   NAKBAGANSETT   BAY.  119 

"Now,  gentlemen,  I  beg  to  acquaint  you  what  renders  me  incapa 
ble  of  attending.  I  am  an  insolvent  debtor ;  and,  therefore,  my 
person  would  be  subject  to  an  arrest  by  some  one  or  other  of  my 
creditors;  and  my  health  has  been  on  a  decline  for  these  two 
months  past,  and  it  would  be  dangerous  should  I  leave  my  house. 

"And,  further,  were  I  to  attend,  T  could  give  no  information 
relative  to  the  assembling,  arming,  training,  and  leading  on  the  peo 
ple  concerned  in  the  destroying  the  schooner  Gaspee. 

"  On  the  9th  day  of  June  last,  at  night,  I  was  employed  at  my 
house,  attending  company;  who  were  John  Andrew,  Esq.,  Judge  of 
the  Court  of  Vice-admiralty,  John  Cole,  Esq.,  Mr.  Hitchcock,  and 
George  Brown,  who  supped  at  my  house,  and  staid  there  until  two 
of  the  clock  in  the  morning  following;  and  I  have  not  any 
knowledge  relative  to  the  matter  on  which  I  am  summoned."  * 

And  so  said  they  all,  namely,  George  Brown,  Mr.  Hitchcock, 
Judge  Andrews,  and  John  Cole,  Esq.,  none  of  whom  could  attend 
the  honorable  commissioners,  though  they  found  time  to  write  -ex 
cuses  protesting  the  densest  ignorance  of  the  whole  affair.  In 
a  word,  the  investigation  was  an  absolute  nullity  and  farce. 
Those  five  commissioners,  with  all  the  aid  the  Jdng  could  give 
them,  with  his  fleet,  his  army,  and  his  thousand  pounds,  could  not, 
after  five  months'  trying,  discover  what  every  boy  in  the  streets 
knew,  and  what  they  themselves  knew,  as  mere  men.  The  publi 
city  given  to  Lord  Dartmouth's  despatch  would  alone  have  defeated 
its  object,  even  if  the  commissioners  had  been  in  earnest. 

The  affair  might  have  ended  here  ;  but  the  king's  friends  were 
now  in  the  ascendency  in  Parliament,  and  they  must  needs  invest 
this  folly  with  the  importance  and  permanence  of  law.  An  act  was 
passed  for  the  better  protection  of  the  navy  and  its  appurtenances, 
which  made  it  a  capital  offence  to  destroy  any  object  belonging  to  a 
king's  vessel.  The  act  was  so  worded,  that  a  man  who  should  cut 
a  button  from  a  drunken  marine's  coat,  or  knock  in  the  head  of  a 
royal  beef-barrel,  was  to  be  presumed  a  traitor  to  the  king,  and  could 
be  sent  for  trial  to  any  county  in  England. 

*  A  History  of  the  Destruction  of  his  Britannic  Majesty's  Schooner  Gaspee  in  Narragan- 
gett  Buy.  By  John  Russell  Bartlett,  Secretary  of  State  of  Rhode  Island.  P.  102.  Provi 
dence.  1871. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   EFFECT   IN   VIRGINIA   AND   ELSEWHERE. 

IT  were  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  interest  which  this  affair 
excited  throughout  the  colonies.  The  audacious  gallantry  of  the 
Providence  men  was  the  first  theme  of  admiration ;  and,  before  that 
had  become  an  exhausted  topic,  rumors  of  coming  vengeance  from 
England  renewed  the  public  interest  in  it.  Lord  Dartmouth's 
df -patch,  the  arrival  of  the  commissioners,  and  their  solemn  sessions 
at  Newport,  still  kept  all  minds  attentive.  The  absurd  failure  of 
the  royal  commission  does  not  seem  to  have  allayed  the  popular  re 
sentment.  Finally,  the  act  of  Parliament  fixing  the  Rhode  Island 
precedent  into  imperial  law  convinced  all  but  the  most  reluctant 
that  the  king  was  resolved  upon  forcing  the  controversy  to  an 
armed  issue.  Students  familiar  with  the  period  receive  the  impression 
that  it  was  the  burning  of  the  Gaspee,  more  than  the  throwing 
overboard  of  the  tea,  that  led  to  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  and  so  precip 
itated  the  Revolution. 

One  evening  in  the  early  part  of  March,  1772,  six  or  seven  gentle 
men  sat  about  a  table  in  a  private  room  of  the  Raleigh  Tavern  at 
Williamsburg,  Va.  They  were  all  members  of  the  House  of 
Burgesses,  —  Patrick  Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  his  brother  Fran 
cis  Lightfoot  Lee,  Thomas  Jeiferson,  his  brother-in-law  Dabney 
Carr,  and  one  or  two  others.  Rhode  Island  had  been  for  weeks  upon 
every  tongue.  It  was  not  yet  known  that  the  scenes  enacting  in 
tin-  Xevvport  State  House  were  comedy  instead  of  tragedy.  Para 
graphs  of  fearful  import  circulated  in  the  newspapers  from  colony 
to  colony.  It  looked,  for  a  time,  as  though  poor  little  Rhode  Island 
was  about  to  be  extirpated;  for  Admiral  Montagu  was  going  there 
with  a  fleet,  General  Gage  with  an  army;  the  inquisition  had 
air.  aily  b-'t-n  set  up;  and  every  man  whom  it  chose  to  arrest  was  to 
120 


THE  EFFECT  IN  VIRGINIA   AND   ELSEWHERE.          121 

be  sent  three  thousand  miles  away  for  trial.  Rhode  Island  was  the 
least  of  the  colonies;  and  it  seemed  as  if,  for  that  reason,  she  had 
been  first  marked  for  vengeance.  But  the  lawless  court  then  sitting 
at  Newport  an  infuriate  ministry  could  transfer  to  Williamsburg, 
and  order  fleets  and  armies  to  Virginia  to  execute  its  decrees  !  At 
such  a  crisis,  what  does  it  become  the  most  powerful  of  the  colonies 
to  do  on  "behalf  of  the  weakest? 

This  was  the  question  which  those  gentlemen  were  discussing  at 
the  Raleigh  Tavern  that  night.  They  were  of  the  younger  mem 
bers  of  the  House  ;  and  they  had  met  by  themselves,  because  they 
feared  their  elders  would  hesitate  to  act  with  the  requisite  prompt 
ness  and  spirit.  Their  object  was  to  hit  upon  a  course  which  should 
be  moderate  enough  for  the  Tories,  while  being  decided  enough 
for  the  Whigs.  Virginia,  they  all  felt,  must  stand  by  Rhode  Island. 
The  colonies  must  make  common  cause.  But  it  was  requisite  to 
proceed  with  moderation. 

We  shall  never  appreciate  what  it  cost  some  of  the  Virginians  to 
fall  into  line  with  the  Northern  colonies  on  these  occasions.  The 
ideal  of  New  England,  as  we  plainly  see  in  all  the  memorials  of  the 
first  century,  was  Israel ;  but  Virginia's  beloved  and  honored  model 
was  England:  and  both  were  equally  cramped  by  the  inadequacy 
of  their  pattern.  When  the  coast  of  British  North  America  was 
divided,  it  was  the  northern  half  that  should  have  been  called  Vir 
ginia,  and  the  southern  half  New  England ;  for  it  was  in  the  south 
ern  half  that  another  England  was  to  be  attempted.  There  the 
Clmrch  of  England  was  to  be  established;  there  primogeniture  and 
entail  were  to  perpetuate  county  families ;  there  the  laborer  was  to 
be  ignorant,  poor,  and  hopeless;  there  the  government  was  to  be 
an  imitation  of  king,  lords,  and  commons;  there  the  king  was  to 
be  the  source  of  honor  ;  there  that  inexplicable,  complex,  omnipotent 
influence,  the  social  tone,  was  to  be  English,  only  English,  and  that 
exceedingly.  For  a  century  or  more  it  was  Virginia's  favorite  vanity 
to  differ  from  New  England  in  just  that  very  particular  which  the 
present  crisis  called  upon  her  to  disregard. 

In  1G74,  when  the  agents  of  Virginia  were  in  London  trying  to 
get  their  rights  secured  by  a  charter,  they  were  opposed  on  the 
ground  of  New  England's  recent  adherence  to  Cromwell.  The 
agents  replied,  No  disobedience  of  New  England  ought  to  cause 
apprehension  of  the  same  on  the  part  of  Virginia;  for  the  people  of 


122  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

New  England  "  steer  a  quite  contrary  course  "  from  us  Virginians. 
Then  endeavor,  as  much  as  they  can,  to  "sever  themselves  from  the 
crown  ;  "  whereas  our  "chief  desire  is  to  be  assured  of  our  perpet 
ual,  immediate  dependence  thereon."  They  discover  antimonarchical 
principles  ;  they  love  a  republican  form  of  government,  which  is 
something  distinct  and  independent  from  the  policy  of  England. 
But  we  "  are  and  ever  have  been  heartily  affectionate  and  loyal  to  the 
monarchy  of  England  ;  "  and  the  government  of  Virginia  is  "  con 
stituted,  as  we  humbly  conceive,  in  imitation  of  it."  They  have 
obtained  power  of  choosing  their  own  governor.  We,  on  the  con 
trary,  "  would  not  have  that  power,  but  desire  our  governor  may  be 
from  time  to  time  appointed  by  the  king."  "  The  New  Englanders 
imagine  great  felicity  in  their  form  of  government,  civil  and  ecclesi 
astical,  under  which  they  were  trained  up  to  disobedience  to  the 
crown  and  church  of  England*;  but  the  Virginians  would  think 
themselves  very  unhappy  to  be  obliged  to  accept  of  and  live  under  a 
government  so  constituted." 

Every  Virginian  heart  would  have  responded  to  these  sentiments. 
But,  with  all  this  loyalty  to  the  king,  there  was  a  deeper  attachment 
to  what  they  called  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  and  especially  to 
that  fundamental  right,  without  which  no  other  has  validity, —  the 
right  of  self-taxation.  The  Province,  for  a  century  and  a  half,  was 
never  suffered  long  to  forget  that  great  right  and  the  means  of  pre 
serving  it.  The  people  had  a  special  drill  and  training  in  Magna 
Charta.  Old  men  long  remembered,  and  told  their  descendants,  that 
all  was  chaos  in  Virginia  for  the  first  fourteen  years  ;  until  the  first 
House  of  Burgesses  convened  at  Jamestown,  —  their  "darling 
assembty,"  as  one  of  the  old  historians  styles  it.  During  fifty-three 
years  more  it  was  the  first  object  of  Virginians  to  secure  this  right 
df  self-government  by  a  royal  charter.  Curiously  enough,  the  first 
king  who  recognized  their  parliament  was  the  monarch  who  lost  his 
h«.-:id  by  trying  to  govern  England  without  one.  Young  Charles  I. 
wrote  the- m  a  letter,  scolding  them  for  founding  their  colony  upon 
tuluu-rn-sinuki'.  and  advising  them  to  turn  their  attention  to  potash, 
-.  iron,  and  salt;  but  he  offered  them  three  shillings  a  pound 
for  their  whole  crop  of  tobacco,  and  told  them  to  convene  an  Assem 
bly  to  consider  and  decide  upon  the  proposition.  To  the  moment  of 
that  king's  decapitation,  Virginia  sided  with  the  Commonwealth  men, 
as  England  herself  did.  Once,  in  1G54;  the  tobacco  lords  in  the  Bur- 


THE  EFFECT   IN  VIRGINIA  AND  ELSEWHERE.          123 

gesses  disfranchised  all  their  constituents,  except  these  who  pos 
sessed  a  certain  quantity  of  land.  The  act  was  repealed  t\vo  years 
after,  and  for  reasons  which  Jefferson  himself  might  have  dictated, 
and  which,  doubtless,  his  ancestors  approved.  It  was  unreasonable  and 
unnatural,  said  the  preamble  to  the  repealing  act,  that  men  who  con 
tributed  to  the  support  of  government  and  the  defence  of  the  coun 
try  should  be  deprived  of  their  chartered  and  natural  rights  by  the 
very  servants  whom  they  had  chosen  to  watch  over  their  interests. 
,  A  long  series  of  events  could  be  adduced  to  show  that  the  funda 
mental  rights  of  citizens  were  familiar  and  dear  to  Virginians  from 
1621  onward  to  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act.  Every  doctrine  of  the 
Revolutionary  period  can  be  found,  expressed  with  force  and  intelli 
gence,  in  the  public  papers  of  the  Province  a  century  before  the 
meeting  of  the  first  Congress.  Despite-  that  sentimental  loyalty  of 
theirs,  the  yeomen  of  Virginia  were  distinctly  aware  that  their  col 
ony  had  been  "  deduced "  not  at  the  king's  expense,  and  defended 
not  by  the  king's  troops,  and  supported  not  by  the  king's  treasure ; 
and  that,  in  founding  a  colony  which  cost  the  king  nothing,  and 
yielded  him  a  revenue  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  a  year,  they  had 
certainly  not  lost  any  of  the  rights  of  Englishmen. 

Sentiment,  however,  is  a  potent  influence,  particularly  when  it  is 
allied  with  vanity.  It  is  hard  for  men  to  profess  opinions  to  which 
the  stigma  of  vulgarity  has  been  affixed;  and,  in  Virginia,  loyalty 
to  church  and  king  was  regarded  as  the  trait  of  a  gentleman.  And, 
ridiculous  as  it  seems,  those  twelve  councillors  whom  the  governor 
recommended  and  the  king  appointed,  —  the  only  Virginians  who 
could,  with  any  show  of  legality,  claim  precedence  of  the  rest  — 
were  held  in  extravagant  respect.  There  was  a  large  circle  of  fami 
lies  with  whom  the  object  of  ambition  was  to  see  one  of  their  mem 
bers  appointed  to  a  seat  in  the  Council  Chamber.  Sentiment,  vanity, 
interest,  tradition,  habit,  united  to  bind  the  heads  of  great  families 
in  close  array  around  the  viceregal  throne.  The  excellent  Botetourt, 
too,  had  now  been  replaced  by  the  rash,  ignorant,  and  reckless  Lord 
Dunmore,  with  his  cormorant  factotum  extorting  illegal  fees,  and  a 
numerous  family  of  sons  and  daughters,  who  were  striving  to  intro 
duce  into  society  at  Williamsburg  rules  of  precedence  similar  to 
those  which  prevailed  in  European  courts.  Fool  as  he  was,  he  had 
his  courtiers  and  his  votaries.  "  The  palace  "  was  still  a  social  force, 
as  well  as  a  political  one. 


124  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Our  young  burgesses,  therefore,  who  were  closeted  at  the  Raleigh 
Tavern,  could  recommend  nothing  very  bold  or  decisive.  Besides, 
thev  came  of  a  race  whose  words  are  apt  to  be  moderate  and  few 
when  their  intent  is  most  serious  and  unchangeable ;  not  inclined 
to  threaten  until  they  are  ready  with  the  stroke. 

Two  years  and  a  half  before,  the  Massachusetts  Assembly  had 
appointed  a  committee  of  correspondence,  of  five  members,  to  com 
municate  with  their  agent  and  others  in  England,  and  with  the 
speakers  of  the  several  colonial  legislatures,  upon  subjects  of  common 
concern  ;  and,  once  or  twice,  circular  letters  had  been  sent  by  the 
House  to  the  speakers  of  the  various  assemblies.  Acting  upon  this 
hint  (though  without  thinking  of  it  at  the  time),  the  young  gentle 
men  determined  to  propose  to  their  House  to  establish  a  Standing 
Committee  of  eleven  members,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  getting  and 
transmitting  to  sister  colonies  the  earliest  intelligence  of  such  acts 
of  the  administration  and  of  Parliament  as  related  to  America;  to 
instruct  this  committee  to  inquire  at  once  into  the  affair  at  Rhode 
Island;  and  to  invite  each  of  the  other  colonial  legislatures  to 
appoint  a  similar  committee.  '  This  measure  was  to  be  urged  as  a 
means  of  "  quieting  the  minds  of  his  majesty's  faithful  subjects  in 
tldx  colony"  which  had  been  "  much  disturbed  by  various  rumors 
and  reports  of  proceedings  tending  to  deprive  them  of  their  ancient 
leural  and  constitutional  rights." 

The  resolutions  having  been  drawn,  Jefferson  was  asked  to  offer 
them  to  the  House  the  next  morning.  He  preferred  to  assign  this 
task  to  his  brother-in-law,  Dabney  Carr,  a  ne\v  member,  as  yet 
unheard  in  the  House,  but  endowed,  as  Jefferson  believed,  with  emi 
nent  talents  for  debate.  Mr.  Carr  consenting,  the  company  broke  up, 
Carr  and  Jefferson  going  to  their  lodgings  together.  As  they  walk 
ed  homeward,  they  conversed  upon  the  utility  and  probable  effects 
of  such  committees  of  correspondence;  and  they  agreed  in  thinking 
that  the  measure  must  lead,  and  that  speedily,  to  a  C<>.\<;i;]>s  <>F 
]H:  i- IT  IKS  from  all  the  colonies,  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  a 
united  front  to  these  strange  aggressions,  and  of  concerting  the  best 
method-;  «»f  opposition.  If  either  of  them  had  ever  heard  of  the 
M  i-a.-husetts  committee  of  1770,  they  had  forgotten  it.  Thatcom- 
mitt«'e'>  rhief  ol.j.-ct  had  been  o»nv>pond«-nre  with  agents  in 
Ion,  No  st/xtvni  of  interchanging  news  and  ideas  had  resulted 
from  its  appointment.  Tlu-y  felt  then,  and  always  felt,  that  theirs 
w.t>  an  original  measure. 


THE   EFFECT   IN   VIRGINIA  AND   ELSEWHERE.          125 

The  next  morning  Dabney  Carr  rose  to  address  the  House  for  the 
first  time.  A  general  favorite,  every  one  wished  him  success  ;  and 
he  spoke  to  men  alarmed  at  the  events  transpiring  in  Rhode  Island. 
The  resolutions  were  read.  He  supported  them  in  a  speech  which 
tradition  reports  to  have  been  a  happy  blending  of  boldness,  pru 
dence,  and  courtesy.  How  harmless  the  measure  suggested!  What 
more  proper  than  for  legislative  bodies  to  procure  prompt,  exact  in 
formation  !  He  reconciled  nearly  every  mind  to  the  wisdom  and 
propriety  of  the  scheme;  and,  when  he  sat  down,  the  faces  of  the 
little  parliament  beamed  with  generous  joy  as  in  the  triumph  of  a 
friend.  Forty-three  years  after,  Jefferson  told  a  son  of  the  young 
speaker  how  well  he  remembered  the  pleasure  which  shone  in  the 
countenances  of  the  Assembly  at  the  conclusion  of  the  speech,  and 
the  buzz  of  applauding  remark  that  followed  it.  The  resolutions 
were  carried  with  a  near  approach  to  unanimity.  The  members  of 
the  committee  were  Peyton  Randolph,  R.  C.  Nicholas,  Richard 
Bland,  R.  H.  Lee,  Benjamin  Harrison,  Edmund  Pendleton,  Patrick 
Henry,  Dudley  Digges,  Dabney  Carr,  Archibald  Gary,  and  Thomas 
Jefferson. 

The  session  ended  on  the  day  following;  but  the  committee 
remained  long  enough  to  prepare  and  despatch  a  circular  letter  to 
the  colonial  assemblies,  explaining  the  object  of  their  appointment, 
and  requesting  each  of  them  to  designate  a  similar  committee  with 
whom  they  could  regularly  communicate.  What  a  part  these  com 
mittees  played  in  the  times  that  followed  need  not  be  told  !  Every 
county,  every  village,  came  to  have  its  committee,  the  power  of 
which  increased  as  the  public  alarm  increased.  No  power  is  so 
terrible  as  the  organ  of  a  public  terror.  Some  of  the  innumerable 
committees,  American  and  French,  that  sprang  into  being  through 
that  meeting  in  the  Raleigh  Tavern,  abused  their  power;  but  the 
Committees  of  Correspondence  —  forerunner  and  cause  of  the  Con 
tinental  Congress — secured  the  independence  of  the  colonies.  The 
author  of  the  scheme  lived  to  see  its  success  in  one  Revolution,  and 
its  fearful  abuse  in  another. 

The  sympathy  of  the  most  powerful  —  or,  at  least,  the  most 
imposing  and  famous  —  of  the  colonies  with  the  smallest  and 
weakest  touched  every  generous  heart  in  America,  and  led  the  way 
to  that  predominance  of  Virginia  which  made  her  by  and  by  the 
"  mother  of  Presidents."  The  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  hailed 


1'2(3  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON". 

with  \vnrm  applause  the  wise  and  firm  conduct  of  Virginia  at  all 
times,  and  especially  in  thus  making  the  cause  of  Khode  Island  her 
own.  The  Khode-Island  Legislature,  in  one  of  its  resolves,  spoke  of 
"  the  glorious  Assembly  of  Virginia."  The  young  burgesses  had 
every  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  results  of  their  measure. 

The  session  being  ended,  Jefferson  and  Carr  resumed  their  pro- 
>iiiil  duties.  If  they  rode  homeward  together,  as  is  probable, 
JcfYerson  was  obliged  to  return  soon  to  the  April  term  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court  at  Williamsburg ;  and  his  brother-in-law  had  causes  to 
plead  in  the  county  court  held  at  Charlottesville,  the  village  that 
lay  within  sight  of  Monticello.  Dabney  Carr,  then  eight  years 
married,  had,  as  I  have  said,  his  little  house  full  of  little  children. 
The  sixth  was  born  about  the  time  of  his  coming  from  his  first  ses 
sion,  flushed  with  the  triumph  of  his  maiden  speech.  He  was  com 
pelled  to  leave  home  again  before  his  wife  was  strong  enough  to  sit 
up.  Her  spirits  sank  at  the  thought  of  his  leaving  her,  and  she 
was  oppressed  with  forebodings  of  evil.  He  took  his  leave  of  her, 
and  mounted  his  horse  for  his  journey  to  Charlottesville.  When 
she  heard  his  horse's  steps  upon  the  road  under  her  window,  she 
•d  herself  feebly  in  bed  to  catch  one  last  look  at  him;  but  she 
only  could  get  high  enough  to  see  his  hat,  as  it  swayed  to  the 
motion  of  the  horse.  Soon  after  reaching  Charlottesville  he  was 
sei/.ed  with  a  malignant  type  of  typhoid  fever,  the  course  of  which 
v,a;  so  rapid  that  he  could  not  be  moved  even  so  far  as  Monticello, 
and  he  died  before  Jefferson  heard  that  he  was  in  danger. 

The  news  of  this  desolating  stroke  came  near  depriving  his  chil 
dren  of  a  mother.  She  lost  her  reason  for  a  time  ;  during  which  she 
could  see  only  the  moving  phantom  of  a  HAT,  as  she  had  seen  her 
hu>band's  when  h<«  passed  her  window.  When  reason  returned,  and 
for  many  w.-eks  after,  still  that  maddening  hat  would  not  vanish 
from  her  sight.*  It  was  long  before  she  could  bend  her  mind  to 
the  new  duties  which  the  event  devolved  upon  her. 

In  this  sudden  desolation  of  her  young  life,  her  brother  was 
literally  a  tower  of  refuge  to  her;  for  he  took  her,  and  all  her  help 
less  brood,  home  to  Munticello,  which  thenceforth  became  their 
home,  as  he  their  father.  He  reared  and  educated  all  those  six  chil 
dren —  three  sons  and  three  daughters — with  the  same  care, 

*  Randall's  Jvfl'erson,  i.  84. 


THE   EFFECT   IN  VIRGINIA  AND  ELSEWHERE.          127 

tenderness,  and  liberality  as  his  own.  He  nurtured  their  infancy ; 
he  directed  their  studies ;  he  guided  their  entrance  into  active  life ; 
two  of  the  sons  pursuing  with  distinguished  success  his  own  profes 
sion.  Nor  did  he  ever,  during  the  long  series  of  years  when  he 
had  offices  to  give  away,  quarter  one  of  them,  or  one  of  their  chil 
dren,  upon  the  public.  When  he  reached  home,  he  found  that  his 
friend  had  been  buried  at  Shadwell.  Mindful  of  the  romantic  agree 
ment  of  their  youth,  that,  whichever  died  last,  should  bury  the 
other  under  the  giant  oak  on  Monticello,  beneath  which  they  had 
read  and  talked  during  long  summer  days,  he  caused  the  remains  to 
be  removed,  and  mused  over  an  inscription  proper  for  the  tombstone. 
He  wrote  one,  which  recorded  the  usual  brief  outline  of  a  human 
life,  and  ended  it  with  these  words  :  u  To  his  virtue,  good  sense, 
learning,  and  friendship,  this  stone  is  dedicated  by  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,  who,  of  all  men  living,  loved  him  most.'*  He  thought  of  these 
lines  to  accompany  the  inscription,  from  the  Excursion  of  Mallet : — 

"  Lamented  Shade,  whom  every  gift  of  Heaven 
Profusely  blest ;  a  temper  winning,  mild  ; 
Nor  pity  softer,  nor  was  truth  more  bright. 
Constant  in  doing  well,  he  neither  sought 
Nor  shunned  applause.     No  bashful  merit  sighed 
Near  him  neglected.     Sympathizing,  he 
Wiped  off  the  tear  from  Sorrow's  clouded  eye 
With  kindly  hand,  and  taught  her  heart  to  smile." 

These  melancholy  duties  done,  there  remained  for  Jefferson  a  vast 
increase  to  the  joy  of  his  home ;  the  play  and  prattle  of  six  affection 
ate  children,  their  opening  intelligence,  their  abundant  love,  their 
six  countenances  speaking  welcome  when  he  returned,  and  luring 
him  while  away.  He  had  the  instinct  of  the  parent  and  of  the 
tutor,  and  both  unusually  strong;  so  strong  that  his  own  family  could 
not  have  sufficed  for  their  gratification.  Science  will  orre  day  tell  us 
why  the  children  of  such  a  pair  should  have  had  so  slight,  so  pre 
carious,  a  hold  upon  life.  At  present  we  have  to  be  content  with 
the  miserable  fact.  Their  first  child,  Martha,  inherited  a  constitu 
tion  sufficiently  robust ;  their  second  lived  but  five  months ;  their 
third  only  »enteen  days ;  their  fourth  child  was  Mary,  who 
grew  to  womanhood;  their  fifth  lived  five  months;  and  their  sixth 
two  years.  All  of  them  were  girls,  except  the  one  that  lived  seven- 


128  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

teen  days.  The  youngest,  who  survived  two  years,  seemed  all 
spirit.  She  listened  to  music  with  rapture,  and  had  an  organization 
so  finely  attuned,  that  a  false  note  brought  tears  to  her  eyes.  But 
Jefferson  was  blest  in  this,  that  his  mountain-top  at  every  period  of 
bis  long  life  was  alive  and  merry  with  a  swarm  of  children  besides 
his  own. 

We  know  so  little  of  Mrs.  Jefferson,  that  the  least  thing  which 
concerns  her  has  interest.  Three  glimpses  of  their  home  life  are 
afforded  in  the  memorials  of  these  happy  jrears.  In  one  record  we  see 
her  teaching  ';  the  little  Cans"  the  beginnings  of  knowledge,  along 
with  her  own  child.  In  another  the  dense  veil  of  a  hundred  years  is 
lifted  for  a  moment,  and  we  hear  her  blaming  her  husband  for  some 
generous  deed  of  his  which  had  met  with  an  ungrateful  return. 
"  But,"  she  immediately  added,  in  a  gush  of  admiring  affection,  ""  it 
was  alwavs  so  with  him  :  he  is  so  good  himself,  that  he  cannot  under 
stand  huw  had  other  people  maybe."  In  another  we  witness  a  short 
domestic  scene,  in  which  appear  three  characters,  —  father,  mother, 
and  child.  For  some  trifling  fault  the  child  had  undergone  a  trifling 
punishment.  Some  time  after,  being  again  in  disgrace,  her  mother 
ided  her  of  the  painful  circumstance.  The  too  sensitive  Mar 
tha,  deeply  wounded  at  what  seemed  a  taunt,  turned  away  with  a 
swelling  heart,  and  eyes  filled  with  tears;  but,  before  she  had  gone 
beyond  hearing,  she  heard  her  father  say  to  her  mother,  in  the  low 
tone  of  affectionate  remonstrance,  "  My  dear,  a  fault  in  so  young  a 
child,  once  punished,  should  be  forgotten."  The  child  never  forgot 
the  passion  of  grateful  love  that  filled  her  heart  as  these  words  caught 
her  ear.* 

The  year  1773  wore  away.  The  next  year  was  the  one  decisive  of 
the  controversy  between  the  colonies  and  the  king.  When  the  year 
1774  opened^  Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  thriving  young  lawyer,  not 
known  eveo  by  name  beyond  his  native  Province;  when  it  closed, 
be  \vu>  a  person  of  note  among  the  patriots  of  America,  and  had  won 
the  honor  of  being  proscribed  by  name  in  England. 

The  >prinij  found  him  as  usual  in  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Bur 
gesses.  As,  in  1773,  the  eyes  of  the  continent  were  fixed  upon  Nar- 
Qgeti  r»ay,  so  now,  in  1774,  every  mind  was  intent  upon  Boston 
Harbor.  The  wrath  of  a  misguided  king  was  kindled  against  the 

*  Domestic  Life  of  Thomas  Jeffcrsou,  p.  344. 


I 


THE   EFFECT   IN   VIRGINIA   AND    ELSEWHERE. 

Bostonians.  They  had  not  equalled  the  Rhode  Islanders  in  audacity ; 
they  had  not  burnt  a  king's  vessel,  nor  wounded  a  king's  lieutenant ; 
but  a  few  of  them  had  taken  the  liberty  of  throwing  some  chests  of 
tea  into  the  harbor.  The  ministry,  instructed  by  their  failure  in 
Rhode  Island,  made  no  attempt  to  discover  the  doers  of  this  deed. 
They  offered  no  reward,  and  appointed  no  commissioners.  They 
held  the  whole  population  guilty,  and  closed  the  port ;  which,  in  an 
instant,  suspended  the  business  of  the  town,  and  deprived  it  of  the 
means  of  subsistence.  So  do  some  unskilful  schoolmasters,  when  they 
cannot  detect  a  culprit,  "  keep  in  "  the  whole  school,  and  put  every 
boy  upon  bread  and  water. 

Once  more  Thomas  Jefferson,  Patrick  Henry,  the  two  Lees,  and  a 
few  other  choice  spirits,  met  to  consider  what  part  it  became  Virginia 
to  take  in  this  new  crisis.  Expedients  appeared  to  be  exhausted  :  at 
least,  all  appeals  to  the  powers  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean  had 
proved  fruitless.  The  young  Whigs  in  conference  concluded  that 
the  next  thing  in  order  was  to  rouse  the  people  of  Virginia  to  a  more 
vivid  sense  of  the  deadly  peril  to  their  liberty.  The  Boston  Port 
Bill  was  to  go  into  operation  on  the  1st  of  June.  They  determined 
to  get  the  House,  if  they  could,  to  appoint  that  day  as  one  of  public 
fasting  and  humiliation,  to  be  observed  by  services  in  all  the  parish 
churches.  Between  the  end  of  the  session  and  the  day  designated, 
there  would  be  time  for  members  to  go  to  their  counties,  and  inspire 
the  clergy  with  the  feeling  proper  to  the  occasion.  "  We  cooked  up 
a  resolution,"  Jefferson  records,  "  somewhat  modernizing  the  Puritan 
phrases,  appointing  the  first  day  of  June  for  a  day  of  fasting,  humil 
iation,  and  prayer,  to  implore  Heaven  to  avert  from  us  the  evils  of 
civil  war,  to  inspire  us  with  firmness  in  support  of  our  rights,  and  to 
turn  the  hearts  of  the  king  and  parliament  to  moderation  and  justice." 

Jefferson  never  invited  failure  by  neglecting  obvious  precautions, 
or  disregarding  the  small  proprieties.  He  was  aware,  that,  if  this 
resolution  and  its  pious  preamble  were  offered  by  himself,  or  by  his 
merry  friend  Patrick  Henry,  or  by  any  of  the 'younger  Whigs,  the 
incongruity  would  not  escape  remark.  The  head  of  the  bar,  Mr. 
Nicholas,  a  grave,  religious  gentleman,  was  asked  to  offer  it  to  the 
Burgesses.  He  complied  with  the  request,  and  the  resolution  passed 
without  opposition. 

Lord  Dunmore  dissolved  the  House.  The  members,  as  in  Lord 
Botecourt's  time,  assembled  the  next  morning  in  the  Apollo. 

9 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON". 

M ••Mioiitous    meeting!     They  did    a    few  quiet    tilings,    in    their 

lUrteoui  way  :   but  two  of  th-in  wen;  tilings  that  prove. 1 

decisive,    irrever-ihle,   revolutionary.      They  agreed  to  buy  no  more 

tea.      Tlu-y  instructed  tin-  committee  of  correspondence  to  propose 

mi    A\\i  A i,   CiivuRESS  of  deputies  from   all  the  colonies.     They 

meet  on  the  1st  of  August,  at  Williamsburg,  to  elect  the 

Virginia  members  of  that  congress.     They  declared  that  an  attack 

on   tin-   rights  of  one  colony  was  an  attack'  on  all.     Then  they  broke 

up,  ;m«l  hurried  home  to  rouse  the  clergy  to  make  the  very  utmost 

of  the  opportunity  about  to  be  afforded  them  on  ihe  Fast  Day. 

'rin-  Fast  was  universally  observed;  and  its  effect,  as  Jefferson 
thought,  w:n  nio-t  salutary.  The  people,  IK-  says,  met.at  their  parish 
churches  with  anxiety  and  alarm  in  their  faces  ;  for  no  solemnity  of 
tin-  kind  had  been  held  in  nineteen  years,  not  since  the  days  of  ter 
ror  utter  I'.raddoek's  defeat.  The  minister  of  his  own  parish  was 
Charles  Clay  (< -nusin  of  Henry  Clay),  a  man  fully  alive  to  the  occa 
sion,  whose  fervid  oratory  was  1) card  all  through  the  Revolutionary 
period,  nerving  tin-  people  to  dare  and  endure.  "The  cause  of  lib 
erty  is  tin-  cause  of  (iod!"he  once  exclaimed  in  the  course  of  a 
sermon  on  a  i'a>t  day.  'M'ursi-d  l»e  lie."  was  another  of  his  sen- 
fcences,  "who  krepi-th  back  his  sword  from  blood  in  this  war!" 
<%  Tin-  elVect  of  the  day,"  wrote  Je|]'er.-on  many  years  after,  thinking, 
douhflc.-s,  of  what  he  Ii;id  heard  and  seen  in  . \lheniarle,  "was  like  a 
shock  of  electricity,  ar<>iiMn;4  every  man,  and  placing  him  erect  and 
solidly  on  hi 

All  that  summer  I'.o^ton,  snlTerinv;,  impoverished  l.oston,  lay  upon 
•  •V-TV  In-art.      Kach    Province,  county,  city,  town,  neighborhood;  .-•  nt 
•ntrihulioii  to  Mipply  the  needs  ..f  the  people,  suddenly  deprived 
of  their  occupation.      The  port  beinjr  closeil  on  tli«   1st  of  June,  the 
day  of  the  yar  when  the  .stock  of  food  in  a  country  reaches  its  low- 
lOint,  the  tanners  i-ould  not  at  fn  l.bi-ral  as  they  \vi>hi-d; 

but  they  did  what  they  conld.  Win<lhani  i('«»nii.  began  tlie  work 
of  relief,  lli-f.iiv  the  nuMith  of  .luin-  ende«l,  \Vindham  sent  in,  with  a 
cordial  letter  of  applau-e  and  sympathy,  "a  small  il.irk  of  sheep, 
which,  at  this  s-a-on.  an-  not  SO  good  as  we  could  wish,  but  are  the 
best  we  had."  Two  hundred  and  lifty-ei^ht  was  \Yindhanfs  notion 
of  the  number  of  sheep  that  <n>  to  "  a  small  flock."  Groton  (M 
sent  forty  hu-lids  of  ^rain  ;  \Vrenthain,  one  load  of  grain  ;  Pepperill) 
forty  bushels  j  Charleniont,  two  barrels  of  Hour  ;  Farmington,  between 


TNI:   i-:i''i«'K<'T   IN    VII:<;INIA    AND   KLSKWIIKKK.         1:',1 

Ihvee  and  foUr  bandied   hushels   of  rye   and    corn;    and  fertile   \\Vlli- 

ei lieid,  n-'arly  ei;;hi  iiiui(liT(i  bushels  of  grain,  with  promise  of  more 

after  harvest. 

New  Jersey  .soi ii i  wrote  lo  say  Mi:il  .sin-,  loo,  \vas  making  contri- 
hutions,  :nnl  \\oiilil  In-  ;.dad  to  know  which  Would  he  OtOll  :icccp!  ahle 
to  a  suffering  sister,  cash  or  produce  Cash,  replied  BoitOD,  if 
perfectly  convenient.  North  Carolina  promjilly  sen!  l\\.»  sloop- 
loads  of  provisions.  Tin-  Marhlehea.d  li.  li<'riiii'ii  WITC  :;o  liltcral  ;i:\ 

to  loruaid  "  t  wo  li nn<lrc(l  and   twcmty-four  quintain  of  I   ei 

li;.|i,  «'ii«-  l»:irn-l  and  I  linui-qiiartera  of  good  olive-oil,  and  tlmly  nine 
poundi,  five  shillings,  and  !ln-«-c  ji.-noo  iu  caHh."  Soutli  ('ai-olina's 

li  r  I  ";ll  W84  0&6  hundred  CAskf  Of  ric8i  "  I  lall  inioro  town  "  conl  ril»- 
uttid  thrcuj  thousand  Imslids  <•!'  OPfD,  twenty  burnd.s  of  m-  Hour, 

tpro  barrel*  of  pork,  and  iw«-my  barrels  of  im-ad.     \'ir;-;inia.,      iiirm 

Hccnn-d  |()  In-  no  end  to  Virginia's  ^il'ls  !  A  rar^o  of  corn  \\  a  i  IMT 
first  i.l'fci  -in" ;  Ale\amlri:i  lo!lo\\ed  ,-oon  \\illi  :i  present  of  llnve  hun 
dred  and  lil'ly  pound;  in  money;  and  (lie  ^-\eral  ronnlicM  Kept, 

forwarding  cargoes  .'i.nd  lar^e  consignments  of  com,  all  ihron-di  the 

antiinin  and  winter.  In  all,  Virginia  c<»nl  rihuted  aliont  li-n  lli.ui- 
:and  I  .n  ;|i.-|.i  of  wliatone  forwarder  .si  y  led,  in  Jii.s  Icll.-r,  tfc  « lon:il  imi 

grain/'  besides  severiJ  sums  of  money  from  villas-Hand  indiriduaU, 

"Hold  out,  lolij^  enon-'Ji,"  \\rote  a  •  ;e|,  I  1,-ina  n  in  llie  South,  "and 
I  lo  Ion  \\ill  heroine  I  he  j'Taiiary  of  Amerii-a.11 

As  the  cool  ;ie. -i.  on  approached,  the  a;'iaeidl  nra.l  lo\\n  hei-ainr- 
niore  liln-ral.  Lehanon  drove  in  "three  hundred  and  :  evenly  ,i\  r;i|. 
Hhci'j);11  Norwich,  two  hundred  a,nd  nine|Vone;  (•rotoii,  one  hun 
dred  :tnd  l.wenty  ;  1  lro(»K  ly  n,  •  oiji-  liuiidn-d  and  lw<-n!;\  li\e;  Ivi  I. 
Iladda.ni,  "  a  drove  of  sheep  and  cattle.11  The  Maryland  COUntlei 
\\eie.  e.||-eni(dy  liheral:  each  sent  its  Ilion  and  or  I  wo  I  lion  and 
lnr.ln-l,  of  corn.  I'Yoni  cold  and  remote  (Miehec.  rann-  "  ;i  small 
<|iianlity  of  wlieal .  ;  "  from  Montreal,  :t  hundred  DOUndl  I'llm;'. 
\Vha.t  drove  ()f  f,heej,  Kr  p|  streaming  into  Moslon,  when  tin-  1'in 
pei:ihire  favored  di'ivinj^!  From  every  little  mountain  (own  in  New 
I  lamp  hue  and  Vermont  c:ime  sheep,  lilt.V,  sixty'  li  \<-,  «HM'  Imndn-d, 
in  a  Hock.  Hartford  lent  "If,  .-ilh-r  li:u\-  •!  •  veil  liiindri-d  an<l 

thirty-eight  bushels  of  rye  and  one  hnndi«-d  and  eleven  busheli  of 
com,  its  "small  hut  ire,.  gratuity.V  r,<-i-wi<-k,  with  apologies  foi  ih«- 

Hmallness  of  ifn  j^iff,  ncnt  nix  oxen  and  twenty-six  sheep.  Many 
towns  and  .OHM-  PrOTlDCeS,  \\hi.h  mil-  of  I  IK-  :  n  mim-r':*  :«-arrily  |,:iil 


1;  -  LITE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

contributed  liberally,  contributed  a  second  time  from  the  autumn's 
fat  abundance.  Groton  did  so  and  Marblehead,  New  Jersey  and 
Baltin 

Individual  donations  swelled  tbe  tide  of  benefaction.  Samuel 
"Moody  treated  himself  to  a  gift  of  five  guineas.  Philadelphia  rai>«-d 
two  thousand  pounds,  and  forwarded  it,  part  in  provisions,  part  in 
iron,  part  in  money.  Providence  voted  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  pounds.  Newport  contributed  a  thousand  dollars.  New  York 
sent  n  New-Year's  gift  of  one  thousand  and  sixty-two  pounds,  with 
notice  of  more  to  come.  Clubs,  fire-companies,  and  other  organiza 
tions,  forwarded  sums  of  money  during  the  winter.  Charleston,  in 
South  Carolina,  alleviated  the  winter's  cold  with  three  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  tierces  of  rice.  The  church  in  Salem,  just  after  their 
meeting-house  was  burnt,  and  a  powerful  member  had  drawn  off 
a  number  of  their  body,  contrived  to  send  twenty-four  pounds,  six 
teen  shillings,  and  eight  pence,  "wishing  it  had  been  ten  times 
more."  Little  Rutland  could  only  spare  "four  quarters  of  beef," 
weight  five  hundred  and  ninety-three  pounds.  Springfield  gave 
twenty-five  pigs,  worth  ''three  pounds,  eighteen  shillings,  one  penny, 
lawful  money."  AVi-lls,  in  Maim*,  contributed  twenty-live  cords  of 
wood;  Iv.lmouth,  fifty-seven  cords;  Cape  Elizabeth,  forty-eight 
cord-;.  Portsmouth,  in  New  Hampshire,  voted  two  hundred  pounds. 
From  Delaware  came  nine  hundred  dollars.  In  the  spring  arrived 
another  thousand  pounds  from  New  York.  Farmers  who  had 
nothing  else  to  give  carted  firewood,  some  twelve  miles,  some  six 
teen.  Dominica  gave  three  bags  of  cocoa.  Even  from  London  — 
from  the  "Constitutional  Society"  there  —  came  a  hundred  pounds; 
from  another  society,  called  "The  Supporters  of  Civil  Rights,"  came 
five  hundred  pounds:  and  four  smaller  sums  were  received  from 
individuals  in  England,  —  fifteen  pounds,  twenty  pounds,  ten  pounds, 
four  guineas.  Augustine  Washington,  in  Virginia,  was  asked 
whether  he  could  sell  a  quantity  of  hoes  and  axes  which  lioston 
mechanics,  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  Port  Bill,  had  turned 
to  and  made.  The  committee  of  relief  set  large  numbers  of  the 
mechanics  at  work  making  bricks,  nails,  fabrics,  implements,  and 
invited  contributions  of  materials.  And  so  the  work  went  on,  even 
after  the  siege  of  the  town  was  begun  by  the  Continental  troops; 
Georgia  sending  sixty-three  casks  of  rice  as  late  as  June,  177*'). 

The  letters  which  accompanied  the  gift,  and  the  answers  of  the 


THE  EFFECT  IK  VIRGINIA   AND   ELSEWHERE.          133 

Boston  Committee,  — for  every  gift  was  specially  acknowledged  in 
an  epistle  of  high  courtesy  and  considerable  length,  —  would  fill  a 
volume  of  some  magnitude.  They  have  been  printed  by  the  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society,  to  which  the  public  is  indebted  for  the 
preservation  and  accessibility  of  a  great  number  of  most  precious 
memorials  of  the  past.  No  relic  of  that  period  contains  so  much  of 
its  spirit  as  this  mass  of  correspondence. 

Jefferson,  on  his  mountain-top  that  summer,  was  busy  both  with 
hands  and  brain.  He  was  striving  to  get  a  more  commodious 
house  over  the  heads  of  his  double  brood ;  making  bricks,  catting 
timber,  sending  to  England  for  sixteen  pairs  of  sashes,  and  a  small 
box  of  glass  to  mend  with.  His  new  Italian  gardeners  gave  him  as 
much  work  as  he  gave  them  ;  such  an  enthusiast  in  their  lovely  art 
was  he.  Nor  was  he  yet,  nor  was  he  ever,  weaned  from  his  violin. 

Alberti,  a  great  performer  on  the  instrument,  who  had  come  to 
Virginia  with  a  troupe  of  actors,  and  settled  there  as  a  teacher  of 
music,  he  had  lured  to  Monticello.  Under  him  he  practised  three 
hours  a  day,  until  the  absorbing  events  of  these  times  drew  him  off. 
'  This  summer,  especially,  his  head  was  busier  than  his  hands. 
June  and  July  would  soon  pass ;  and  then  the  burgesses  were  to 
meet  at  Williamsburg,  in  convention,  to  elect  deputies  to  the  Con 
gress  which  was  to  assemble  at  Philadelphia  in  September.  Those 
deputies,  when  elected,  would  require  formal,  exact  instructions. 
What  did  Virginia  desire  her  deputies  to  do  or  attempt  in  Philadel 
phia  ?  It  was  a  grave  question.  It  was  a  difficult  question.  The 
situation  being  unique,  there  were  no  precedents  to  guide ;  and  how 
necessary  to  the  limited  mind  of  man  are  precedents !  Jefferson 
brooded  over  this  problem;  and  before  starting  for  Williamsburg,  at 
the  end  of  July,  he  prepared  a  draft  of  such  instructions  as  he 
desired  should  be  given  to  the  representatives  of  Virginia  in  the 
General  Congress.  It  was  but  a  rough  draft,  with  gaps  in  it  for 
names  and  dates,  which  he  could  not  procure  at  home.  Such  as  it 
was,  however,  it  made  him  famous  on  one  side  of  the  ocean,  and 
proscribed  on  the  other. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

JEFFERSON    GIVES    ADVICE   TO    GEORGE   III. 

THE  slow  pace  at  which  the  two  great  revolutions  of  the  last  cen 
tury  marched  surprises  anew  every  new  inquirer.  In  our  own  day 
a  Louis  Philippe  slips  across  the  Channel  at  the  imminent  risk  of 
catching  a  cold,  or  a  Louis  Napoleon  eagerly  surrenders  a  sword  he 
never  used,  and  finds  safety  in  an  enchanting  chateau;  and,  behold, 
tlic  revolution  is  accomplished!  No  one  misses  them.  No  one 
regrets  them.  They  vanish  from  the  scene  like  player  kings,  —  as 
they  are ;  and,  if  a  movement  is  made  for  their  return,  it  is  by  men 
who  take  their  wages  for  doing  it.  So  completely  have  we  outgrown 
that  mighty  illusion  of  the  past,  the  divinity  that  hedged  a  king. 

Mr.  Carlyle  opens  his  series  of  pictures  of  the  French  Revolution 
with  the  death  of  Louis  XV.  To  have  made  the  series  complete,  he 
might  have  begun  with  the  execution  of  poor  crazy  Damiens,  who 
pierced  the  skin  of  that  monarch  with  a  penknife  in  1757,  and  was 
put  to  death  with  tortures  inconceivable.  Nothing  could  recall  to 
the  modern  reader  more  forcibly  the  spell  that  once  surrounded  the 
kingly  office.  Nothing  could  better  show  what  the  French  people 
hud  to  overcome  before  they  could  think  of  a  king  as  the  mere  chief 
magistrate  of  a  nation,  existing  only  for  the  nation's  convenience. 
The  apology  and  explanation  of  the  frenzies  of  the  French  Revolu 
tion  was  tin-  awful  majesty  with  which  policy  and  religion  had  con 
spired  to  invest  the  name  and  person  of  the  monarch. 

It  was  not  merely  that  the  king  had  the  power  to  inflict  upon  an 
irresponsible  fanatic  all  the  anguish  which  the  frame  of  a  powerful 
young  man  could  endure ;  it  was  not  merely  that  the  wretch  was 
burned  with  red-hot  tongs  by  the  parasites  who  arrested  him  ;  that 
his  eighty-two  days  of  detention  and  trial  were  all  days  of  keenest 
suffering ;  that  the  art  of  torture  was  exhausted  to  wring  from  his 

134 


JEFFERSON   GIVES   ADVICE  TO   GEORGE  III.  135 

lips  the  names  of  imaginary  confederates;  that  his  right  hand  was 
slowly  burnt  off;  that  he  was  torn  with  red-hot  pincers,  and  melted 
lead  and  boiling  pitch  poured  into  his  wounds ;  that  he  was  pulled 
to  pieces  by  four  horses;  that  his  body  was  burned  to  ashes,  his 
house  levelled  with  the  dust,  his  innocent  family  banished,  and  his 
relations  forbidden  to  bear  his  name.  The  cowardice  of  kings  has 
done  or  permitted  such  cruelty  many  times.  The  instructive  fact  in 
this  case  is,  that  France,  Europe,  the  civilized  world,  looked  on, 
and  saw  all  that  done  without  disapproval !  The  king  was  hailed 
with  unaccustomed  acclamations  when  next  he  appeared  in  public. 
When  he  pensioned,  or  otherwise  rewarded,  every  man  concerned  in 
the  trial  and  execution,  from  the  judges  to  the  torturers,  he  evidently 
did  what  France  thought  was  becoming.  A  dozen  diarists  of  the 
time  have  left  minute  narratives  of  the  whole  fell  business ;  but  who 
intimates  disapproval  ?  The  woman  of  rank  who  expressed  pity  for 
the  horses,  as  she  watched  their  struggles  to  accomplish  their  part 
of  the  programme,  was  supposed  to  have  uttered  a  gay,  sprightly 
thing,  suited  to  the  occasion.  Even  Voltaire,  the  chief  opponent 
of  the  system  of  torture,  made  a  jest  of  this  victim's  agony ;  for  he 
held  that  torture,  though  absurd  and  monstrous  in  ordinary  cases, 
might  properly  be  employed  when  s  the  life  of  a  king  had  been 
aimed  at. 

In  England  and  in  English  colonies,  king-worship  was  as  much 
more  profound  and  solemn  as  the  character  of  the  Saxon  is  deeper 
than  that  of  the. Celt.  How  else  can  we  account  for  the  submission 
of  such  an  empire  as  that  of  Great  Britain  to  such  kings  as  the 
Four  Georges,  from  whom  it  derived  immense  evils,  and  no  good  ? 
Whoever  or  whatever,  during  the  last  two  centuries,  has  been  right 
in  England,  the  king  has  always  been  wrong.  Whoever  has  been 
wise  in  England,  the  king  has  always  been  foolish.  Whoever  has 
assisted  progress  in  England,  the  king  has  always  obstructed  it. 
During  the  reign  of  the  first  two  of  these  royal  Georges,  the 
interests  of  a  great  empire  were  made  subordinate  to  those  of  a  petty 
Continental  state.  The  third  spent  his  long  life  in  warring  upon 
that  in  the  government  of  his  country  which  constitutes  a  great 
part  of  Britain's  claim  to  the  gratitude  of  our  race.  The  fourth,  so 
far  as  the  finite  mind  of  man  can  discern,  lived  but  to  show  how 
nearly  a  man  can  resemble  a  brute,  without  undergoing  an  Ovid's 
metamorphosis,  and  falling  upon  four  legs. 


136  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

P>ut,  being  called  by  the  name  of  KING,  it  was  enough.  From 
imperial  Chatham,  through  all  gradations  of  intelligence  and 
power,  down,  past  Dr.  Johnson,  to  the  lowest  flunky  that  ever  aired 
his  ••  quivering  calves"  behind  a  carriage,  Englishmen  were  proud 
to  be  called  their  subjects,  and  could  not  hold  their  souls  upright  in 
their  presence.  This  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  human  nature  for 
some  future  Darwin  to  investigate;  for  it  is  something  which  we 
appear  to  have  in  common  with  the  bees,  the  ants,  some  migratory 
birds,  and  some  gregarious  beasts. 

Jefferson  had  one  of  the  most  radical  of  minds,  superior  to  the 
illusions  in  which  most  men  pass  their  lives;  but  when,  in  the 
summer  <>f  1774,  he  sat  down  to  prepare  a  draft  of  Instructions  for 
Virginia's  delegates  to  the  Congress,  which  was  to  meet  at  Philadel 
phia  in  September,  he  thought  of  nothing  more  revolutionary  than 
this  :  The  Congress  should  unite  in  a  most  solemn  and  elaborate 
address  to  the  king  !  The  case  had  been  argued,  one  would  think, 
often  enough.  For  nine  years  the  separate  colonies  had  been  peti 
tioning  and  resolving.  The  press  of  both  countries  had  teemed 
with  the  subject.  Franklin  had  been  elucidating  it,  and  flashing 
wit  upon  it.  If  a  gracious  king  did  not  understand  the  matter  yet, 
there  was  small  reason  to  hope  that  any  further  expenditure  of 
nn -re  ink  would  avail.  Nevertheless,  this  young  radical  of  Monti- 
cello  deemed  it  the  chief  duty  of  the  Continental  Congress  to  argue 
the  matter  once  more,  and  make  another  appeal  to  the  justice  of 
the  king.  The  delegates  from  Virginia,  he  thought,  should  be 
instructed  to  propose  to  the  Congress  to  present  "a  humble  and 
dutiful  address  to  His  Majesty,"  as  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 
empire,  —  an  empire  governed  by  many  legislatures,  —  informing 
him  that  one  of  those  legislatures,  namely,  the  British  Parliament, 
had  encr., ached  upon  the  rights  of  others,  namely,  those  of  the 
Thirteen  American  Colonies,  and  calling  upon  the  king  to  interfere. 

A  humble  and  dutiful  address  !  One  who  is  familiar  with  the 
character  of  George  III.  can  scarcely  read  JelVerson's  draft  of  In 
structions  with  a  serious  countenance,  so  ludicrously  remote  was  it 
from  the  king's  conception  of  the  humble  and  the  dutiful. 

It  was  a  frightfully  radical  way  of  opening  the  case  to  speak  of 
the  mighty  Pmtish  Parliament  as  the  h-gi.-lature  of  one  portion  of 
the  king's  dominions.  That  was  the  point  in  dispute.  It  is  not 
probable,  that,  in  177-1,  Thomas  Jellersun,  a  provincial  lawyer,  knew 


JEFFERSON  GIVES   ADVICE   TO   GEORGE  HI.  137 

the  secrets  of  the  Court  of  St.  James ;  nor  could  it  have  been  his 
intention  to  inflame  the  wrath  of  the  British  lion  ;  but  if  he  had 
known  George  III.  from  his  childhood,  and  heard  every  Tory  senti 
ment  which  his  Scotch  tutors  had  instilled  into  his  unformed  mind, 
he  could  not  have  produced  a  piece  of  writing  better  calculated  to 
exasperate  the  king.  In  almost  every  sentence  there  was  a  sting,  — 
the  bitter  sting  of  truth  and  good  sense.  Jefferson  learned,  by  and 
by,  to  be  a  politician ;  and  he  acquired  the  art  of  uttering  offensive 
truths  with  the  minimum  of  offence.  Just  as  some  noblemen,  big 
oted  tories  in  theory,  are  most  courteous  democrats  in  practice,  giving 
to  every  human  creature  they  know  or  meet  his  due  of  consideration, 
so  he,  a  democrat  in  theory,  became  conciliatory  and  conservative  in 
giving  utterance  to  his  opinions,  anxious  to  narrow  the  breach  between, 
himself  and  his  opponents.  But  in  this  paper  he  accumulated  offence, 
careless  of  every  thing  but  to  get  roughly  upon  paper  the  substantial 
truth  of  the  matter,  leaving  it  to  the  convention  to  invest  that  truth 
with  becoming  words. 

The  Congress,  he  thought,  should  address  the  king  in  a  frank  and 
manly  manner,  devoid  of  those  servile  expressions  "  which  would 
persuade *His  Majesty  that  we  are  asking  favors  and  not  rights." 
The  king  was  to  be  invited  to  reflect  "  that  he  is  no  more  than  the 
chief  officer  of  the  people,  appointed  by  the  laws,  and  circumscribed 
with  definite  powers,  to  assist  in  working  the  great  machine  of  gov 
ernment,  erected  for  their  use,  and,  consequently,  subject  to  their 
superintendence."  This  sentence  bluntly  asked  George  III.  to  un 
learn  his  whole  education.  The  king  was  to  be  reminded,  also,  that 
the  colonies  had  been  planted,  and  defended  for  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  without  costing  the  king's  treasury  a  shilling.  Recently,  since 
the  commerce  of  America  had  become  important  to  Great  Britain, 
the  home  government  had  assisted  to  expel  the  French.  For  the 
same  reason  England  had  given  aid  to  Portugal,  and  other  allies, 
commercially  important  to  her;  but  the  British  Parliament  did  not 
claim,  in  consequence,  a  right  to  tax  the  Portuguese. 

Bat  this  was  inoffensive  compared  with  his  next  point.  In  allud 
ing  to  the  oppressions  suffered  by  the  colonies  in  the  time  of  the 
Stuarts,  the  uncompromising  radical  held  language  that  no  king  has 
ever  been  able  to  hear  with  patience :  "  A  family  of  princes  was 
then  upon  the  British  throne,  whose  treasonable  crimes  against  their 
people  brought  on  them  afterwards  the  exertion  of  those  sacred  and 


138  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFEESON. 

sovereign  rights  of  punishment,  reserved  in  the  hands  of  the  people 
for  cases  of  extreme  necessity,  and  judged  by  the  constitution  unsafe 
to  be  delegated  to  any  other  judicature"  !  He  spoke  familiarly,  too, 
of  "the  late  deposition  of  His  Majesty  King  Charles,  by  the 
Commonwealth  of  England,"  as  a  thing  too  obviously  right  to  be 
defended.  Equally  right  was  it  for  some  of  the  colonies  to  choose  to 
remain  under  Charles  II.  It  was  wholly  their  business  :  they  could 
have  any  king  they  liked,  or  no  king.  The  people  were  sovereign  j 
the  king  was  their  head  servant. 

AYith  regard  to  the  various  legislatures  in  the  empire,  all  of  them 
were  equally  independent  and  equally  sovereign.  The  parliament 
of  Virginia  had  no  right  to  pass  laws  for  the  government  of  the 
people  of  England,  and  the  British  legislature  had  no  right  to  pass 
laws  for  the  government  of  the  people  of  Virginia.  Hence,  the 
whole  series  of  absurd  and  iniquitous  acts  of  the  British  legislature 
regulating  the  commerce  and  restricting  the  industry  of  the  colonies 
were  VOID  !  "  Can  any  one  reason  be  assigned,  why  a  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  electors  in  the  island  of  Great  Britain  should  give  law 
to  four  millions  in  the  States  of  America,  every  individual  of  whom  is 
equal  to  every  individual  of  them,  in  virtue,  in  understanding,  and  in 
bodily  strength  ?"  He  enumerated  the  long  catalogue  of  monstrous 
acts,  from  the  amazing  laws  which  forbade  an  American  to  make  a 
hat  or  a  nail,  to  the  malignant  tyranny  which  would  drag  an  accused 
American  three  thousand  miles  to  his  trial.  "The  cowards  who 
would  suffer  a  countryman  to  be  torn  from  the  bowels  of  their  soci 
ety,  in  order  to  be  thus  offered  a  sacrifice  to  parliamentary  tyranny, 
would  merit  that  everlasting  infamy  now  fixed  on  the  authors  of 
the  act." 

The  burden  of  these  instructions  is  decentralization.  Already 
Jefferson  saw  the  necessity  of  local  government,  the  impossibility  of 
a  power  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames  acting  wisely  for  a  Province 
on  the  shores  of  the  James,  the  certainty  that  the  momentary  inter 
ests  of  a  chiss  near  the  law-making  power  would  outweigh  the  per 
manent  inierests  of  the  distant  Province.  The  abolition  of  slavery, 
he  remarked,  was  "the  great  object  of  desire  in  the  colonies ;"  and, 
as  a  M<-!>  towards  that,  Virginia  had  tried  again  and  again  to  stop 
all  further  importations  of  slaves;  but  every  such  law  had  been 
vetoed  by  the  king  himself,  who  thus  preferred  the  advantage  of  ;<a 
few  British  corsairs,  to  the  lasting  interests  of  the  American  States, 


JEFFERSON  GIVES  ADVICE  TO   GEOEGE  III.  139 

and  to  the  rights  of  human  nature  deeply  wounded  by  this  infamous 
practice." 

In  asserting  that  the  great  object  of  desire  in  the  colonies  was  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  he  expressed  rather  the  feeling  of  his  own  set,  — 
the  educated  and  high-bred  young  Whigs  of  the  Southern  colonies, 
than  the  sentiments  of  the  great  body  of  slaveholders.  He  could 
boast  that  the  first  act  of  his  own  public  life  had  been  an  attempt  in 
that  direction;  and  he  knew  that  his  friend  and  ally,  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  had  opened  his  brilliant  career  by  a  motion  to  put  an  end  to 
"the  iniquitous  and  disgraceful  traffic"  in  slaves.  Virginia,  this 
orator  observed,  was  falling  behind  younger  colonies,  because,  "with 
their  whites,  they  import  arts  and  agriculture,  whilst  we,  with 
our  blacks,  exclude  both."  Every  man  with  whom  Jefferson  asso 
ciated  felt  and  spoke  in  this  spirit.  Wythe,  E.  H.  Lee,  Madison, 
Jefferson,  and  the  flower  of  the  young  men  of  South  Carolina,  were 
all  abolitionists;  and  all  of  them  used  in  ITT^the  arguments  which 
were  so  familiar  to  us  in  1860. 

Jefferson  made  a  clean  breast  of  it  in  these  Instructions.  He 
went  to  the  root  of  the  matter  on  every  topic  that  he  toucheaT"*  He 
paid  the  king  the  extravagant  homage  of  assuming,  that,  if  a  thing 
could  be  shown  to  be  wrong  or  unlawful,  his  majesty  would  refrain 
from  doing  it,  as  a  matter  of  course.  Hence,  in  descanting  upon 
the  odious  presence  of  British  troops  in  Massachusetts,  he  desired 
the  king  to  be  informed  that  he  had  "  no  right  to  land  a  single 
armed  man  upon  these  shores ;  "  and  that  those  regiments  in  Boston 
were  subject  to  the  laws  of  Massachusetts,  like  all  other  emi 
grants  !  The  king's  grandfather,  George  II.,  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  found  it  convenient  to  bring  over  a  body  of  his  own  Han 
overian  troops  to  assist  in  the  defence  of  England ;  but  he  could 
not  land  a  man  of  them  till  Parliament  had  given  its  consent, 
and  specified  the  precise  number  that  might  be  brought  in.  The 
States  of  America  had  the  same  right.  "  Every  State  must  judge 
for  itself  the  number  of  armed  men  which  they  may  safely  trust 
among  them,  of  whom  they  are  to  consist,  and  .under  what  restric 
tions  they  are  to  be  laid." 

\     Every  State!     The  word  "colonies"  seldom  occurs  in  this  docu- 
jment.     The  word  "States"  supplies  its  place. 

The  wrongs  of  Boston,  when  he  came  to  speak  upon  them,  kin 
dled  his  usually  tranquil  mind.  He  wanted  it  put  to  the  king  with 


140  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFEKSOX. 

all  the  force  of  which  language  was  capable,  that,  while  only  a  few 
men  had  heen  concerned  in  throwing  the  tea  into  the  harbor,  the 
closing  of  the  port  had  reduped  "an  ancient  and  wealthy  town,  in  a 
moment,  from  opulence  to  beggary."  Men  who  had  spent  their 
lives  in  extending  the  commerce  of  the  empire,  men  who  were 
absent  in  distant  countries,  men  who  sided  with  the  king,  all,  all, 
were,  involved  in  one  indiscriminate  ruin.  This  might  be  revenge: 
it  could  not  be  justice. 

Towards  the  close  of  his  draft  the  author  dropped  the  tone  of  a 
burgess  instructing  his  representative,  and  talked  directly  to  the 
king  himself:  "Open  your  breast,  sire,  to  liberal  and  expanded 
thought.  Let  not  the  name  of  George  III.  be  a  blot  on  the  page  of 
history.  .  .  .  The  whole  art  of  government  consists  in  the  art  of 
being  honest.  Only  aim  to  do  your  duty,  and  mankind  will  give 
you  credit  when  you  fail.  No  longer  persevere  in  sacrificing  the 
rights  of  one  part  of  the  empire  to  the  inordinate  desires  of  an 
other."  With  several  other  brotherly  observations  equally  suited  to 
soothe  the  mind  of  a  proud,  ignorant,  obstinate,  and  misguided  king. 

Tin-so  radical  doctrines  found  free  acceptance  among  the  planters 
of  Jefferson's  own  county  of  Albemarle.  At  least,  Jefferson's 
ascendency  was  such,  that  he  was  able  to  procure  for  them  the  sup 
port  of  the  freeholders  of  the  county. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  the  details  of  politics  were  managed 
a  hundred  years  ago  very  much  as  they  are  now.  May  we  not  say, 
as  they  were  twenty  centuries  ago?  Who  has  forgotten  the  shock 
of  surprise  which  he  experienced  upon  opening  for  the  first  time  a 
volume  of  Demosthenes'  speeches,  to  discover  that  WHEREAS  and 
RESOLVED  were  forms  as  familiar  to  an  Athenian  audience  as  they 
are  to  us;  and  that  when,  on  a  memorable  occasion,  Daniel  Webster 
railed  f.>r  tin;  reading  of  the  resolution,  he  practised  a  device  which 
Demosiheiirs  used  almost  every  time  he  spoke?  Thomas  Jefferson 
wrote  this  draft  of  instructions  before  he  had  been  chosen  a  member 
of  the  convention  which  was  to  elect  delegates  to  the  Congress.  But 
politics  had  already  the  character  which  we  sometimes  describe  as 
"cut  and  dried.''  lie  knew  lie  was  to  be  elected.  The  freeholders 
of  Albemarle  were  to  meet  on  the  26th  of  July,  in  order  to  choose 
two  LCentleineii  to  .-erve  them  in  the  double  capacity  of  burgesses 
and  members  of  the  Williamsburg  Convention.  Those  two  gentle 
men  would  also  require  instructions  which  should  accord  with  the 


JEFFERSON  GIVES   ADVICE  TO   GEORGE  III.  141 

ponderous  document  that  one  of  them  intended  to  carry  in  his 
pocket  to  the  convention.  How  could  that  conformity  be  better 
secured  than  by  employing  the  same  mind  to  execute  both  ?  In  the 
resolutions  passed  by  the  freeholders  of  Albemarle,  Jefferson  caused 
himself  and  his  colleague  to  be  notified  that  no  foreign  legislature 
could  rightfully  exercise"  authority  in  an  American  colony.  This 
was  the  leading  idea  of  his  draught,  which  Franklin  had  promul 
gated  seven  years  before. 

Being  duly  elected  and  instructed,  he  left  his  home  for  Williams- 
burg  some  days  before  the  time  appointed  for  the  meeting  of  the 
Convention.  How  cold  are  words  to  express  the  tumult  of  desire 
with  which  this  ardent  young  radical  looked  forward  to  meeting  his 
friends  on  this  occasion  !  Every  thing  we  have  of  him  belonging  to 
this  period  shows  a  degree  of  excitement  to  which  he  was  little 
accustomed.  He  knew  well  that  Virginia  was  not  yet  prepared  for 
such  extreme  good  sense  as  he  had  inserted  in  the  roll  of  manuscript 
which  he  carried  with  him.  He  had  himself  held  the  Franklinian 
theory  for  several  years  ;  but,  as  yet,  he  knew  but  one  other  member 
of  the  House  of  Burgesses  who  fully  accepted  it ;  and  that  was  his 
old  friend  and  mentor,  George  Wythe.  There  was  something  re 
volting  to  the  patriotic  pride  of  Virginians  in  the  doctrine  that  the 
political  tie  between  Virginia  and  England  was  the  same  as  that 
which  connected  England  and  Hanover,  —  only  a  king  in  common! 
He  wished  to  be  promptly  on  the  ground  to  talk  the  matter  over 
with  members,  and,  above  all,  with  Patrick  Henry,  the  idol  of  the 
people,  whose  irresistible  eloquence  alone  could  reconcile  the  public 
mind  to  novel  or  unwelcome  ideas.  It  would  not  be  the  first  time 
that  Henry's  morning  speech  had  conveyed  to  Virginia  the  results 
of  a  conference  with  Jefferson  the  evening  before.  An  orator  is 
never  so  potent  as  when  he  gives  wings  to  truth  which  minds  more 
patient  than  his  own  have  evolved. 

But  Jefferson  was  not  destined  to  sit  in  the  Williamsburg  Con 
vention.  On  the  road  he  was  taken  sick ;  he  could  not  continue  his 
journey;  and,  for  the  only  time  in  his  life,  he  was  unable  to  perform 
a  public  duty  from  mere  bodily  inability.  The  intense  mental  excite 
ment  under  which  he.had  labored,  the  toil  of  composing  in  haste  so 
extensive  a  piece,  and  the  sudden  change  from  the  airy  height  of 
Monticello  to  the  August  heats  of  the  lower  country,  proved  too 
much  even  for  his  excellent  constitution.  But  an  author  is  strongly 


142  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

attached  to  the  offspring  of  his  brain.  He  sent  forward  to  Williams- 
burg  two  copies  of  his  work,  one  addressed  to  Peyton  Randolph,  who 
was  to  preside  over  the  convention,  and  the  other  to  Patrick  Henry. 
Mr.  Henry  was  an  idle,  disorderly  man  of  genius,  —  "the  laziest 
man  in  reading,"  says  Jefferson,  "  I  ever  knew."  Whether  he  ever 
read  this  mass  of  manuscript  (sixty  or  seventy  pages  of  ordinary 
writing)  will  never  be  known;  for  nothing  was  ever  heard  of  the 
copy  sent  to  him.  But  the  chairman,  Mr.  Randolph,  took  public 
notice  of  his  copy.  He  announced  to  the  Convention  that  he  had 
received  such  a  document  from  a  member  who  was  prevented  from 
attending  by  sickness,  and  he  laid  it  on  the  table  for  members  to 
read  if  they  chose.  Most  of  them  read  it,  and  many  approved  it, 
though  aware  of  its  unsuitableness  to  the  existing  state  of  things. 
Probably  not  one  member  would  have  given  it  the  stamp  of  his 
official  approbation.  It  occurred  to  some,  however,  that  it  would 
make  a  timely  pamphlet  J  and  in  that  form  it  was  published  and 
extensively  circulated,  with  this  title,  "A  Summary  View  of  the 
Eights  of  America."  Copies  were  sent  to  England.  Mr.  Burke, 
who  saw  in  it  a  weapon  of  offence  against  the  ministry,  changed  it 
here  and  there,  added  sentences,  and  caused  it  to  be  published  in 
md,  where  it  ran  through  edition  after  edition.  It  procured 
for  the  author,  to  use  his  own  language,  "  the  honor  of  having  his 
name  inserted  in  a  long  list  of  proscriptions  enrolled  in  a  bill  of 
attainder  commenced  in  one  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  but  sup 
pressed  in  embryo  by  the  hasty  step  of  events."  The  list  included 
about  twenty  names,  among  which  were  John  Hancock,  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Adams,  Peyton  Randolph,  and  Patrick  Henry. 

In  this  pamphlet,  the  truth  concerning  both  the  nature  and  the 
history  of  the  connection  between  the  colonies  and  Great  Britain  — 
the  truth,  without  any  reserves  whatever  —  was  stated  for  the  first 
time ;  and  it  was  so  fully  stated,  that  no  one  was  ever  able  to  add 
any  thing  to  it.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  only  the 
substance  of  this  pamphlet  given  in  a  moderate,  brief,  official  form. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   CONGRESS. 

WHAT  anguish,  what  humiliation,  to  be  laid  aside  at  such  a  time 
by  a  ridiculous  summer  disease,  such  as  children  get  from  eating 
green  apples  !  Such  is  man,  high  and  mighty  as  he  fancies  himself 
to  be  !  It  must  be  owned,  however,  that  the  Convention  accomplished 
its  work  exceedingly  well  without  Jefferson.  Let  us  mark  well  the 
prodigious  fact,  that  Virginia,  in  1774,  knew  how  to  choose  from 
her  people,  or,  as  Colonel  Washington  expressed  it,  her  "  ten  thou 
sand  taxables,"  the  seven  men  who  best  represented  her,  who  could 
best  serve  her,  and  reflect  most  honor  upon  her.  All  the  colonies 
could  do  as  much.  We  cannot.  It  is  one  of  the  Lost  Arts.  These 
seven  were  all  members  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  and  hence  were 
familiarly  known  to  the  members  of  the  Convention.  Mr.  Jefferson 
used  to  say  that  every  individual  of  them  was  chosen  for  a  partic 
ular  reason.  "  Ben  Harrison,"  as  he  styled  him,  was  a  jolly^  self- 
indulgent,  wealthy  planter,  without  much  knowledge  of  ^principles', 
or  capacity  for  business  ;  but  he  perfectly  represented  his  .class,  lortg 
the  ruling  class  of  the  colony,  and  therefore  he  was  chosen  one  of 
the  deputies.  He  had  at  home  a  son,  eighteen  months  old,  who  was 
destined  to  preside  over  th&'hation,  which  the  meeting  of  the  Co^n- 
gress  was  to  create.  Richard  Bland  was  chosen  because  he  was 
considered  the  best  "writer  in  Virginia.  Edmund  Pendleton  was 
regarded  in  the  light  of  ballast ;  since,  besides  possessing  a  vast 
fund  of  legal  knowledge,  he  was  prudence  personified.  Peyton 
Randolph  had  a  genius  for  presiding  over  an  assembly,  —  a  man  of 
weighty  presence  and  imperturbable  courtesy.  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
the  fluent  and.  ornate  orator,  was  sent  to  add  argument,  fact,  and 
persuasion  to' Patrick  Henry's  awakening  peals.  Henry  himself 
was  not  selected  for  his  eloquence  alone,  but  also  because  he  was 

143 


144  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON". 

tin*  man  of  the  people.  He  was  tlie  first  eminent  American  instance 
of  :i  certain  combination  of  qualities  that  renders  a  man  resistless 
before  an  unlettered  people, — a  common  mind,  uncommon  talents, 
and  tin-  instinct  of  beyig  popular.  To  these  six  the  convention 
added  the  shining  figure  of  Colonel  Washington,  now  forty -two 
years  of  age,  who  united  in  himself  the  three  possessions  that  capti 
vate  the  greatest  number  of  persons,  —  military  glory,  great  wealth, 
and  a  fine  person. 

Virginia,  I  repeat,  could  choose  her  seven  best  and  fittest  in 
1774;  hut  she  could  no  more  have  done  it  then  than  New  York 
can  do  it  now,  if  her  grossly  ignorant  laborers  of  foreign  lineage  had 
been  admitted  to  the  suffrage. 

Seldom  hm  an  assembly  so  sedulously  veiled  a  radical  purpose 
under  conservative  forms,  as  this  Williamsbnrg  Convention  of 
1 774.  Still  protesting  "  inviolable  and  unshaken  fidelity  and  attach 
ment  to  our  most  gracious  sovereign,"  still  professing  regard  and 
affection  for  their  friends  and  fellow-subjects  in  other  parts  of  the 
empire,  still  declaring  that  they  opposed  everything  which  might 
have  "  the  most  distant  tendency  to  interrupt  or  in  any  wise  disturb 
his  majesty's  peace,"  they  nevertheless  instructed  their  delegates,- 
that,  if  that  "  despotic  viceroy,"  General  Gage,  should  presume  to 
a' tempt  to  execute  his  threats  against  Massachusetts,  such  conduct 
would  "justify  resistance  and  reprisal."  This  might  be  termed  a 
conditional  declaration  of  war,  and  went  far  beyond  any  thing  in 
Jefferson's  draft  of  Instructions.  The  Convention  also  pledged 
Virginia  to  a  suspension  of  her  business  as  a  tobacco-producing 
State,  if  the  home  government  persisted  in  its  system  of  oppression. 
Xo  more  exportation  of  produce,  no  more  importation  of  merchandise  ! 
The  convention  only  restrained  their  deputies  in  one  particular.  As 
it  was  then  the  first  week  of  August,  the  tobacco  crop  was.  to  use  the 
planters*  term,  "nearly  made;"  and,  what  was  of  more  weight  in 
their  honest  minds,  it  was  eateu  up,  spent,  pledged  to  London 
merchants  for  goods  had  and  consumed.  That  crop,  therefore,  must 
<jo  fin-ward.  Honor  and  necessity  demanded  it.  But  no  more! 
Unless  American  grievances  were  redressed  by  Aug.  1<>,  J77-">, 
not  a  pou::d  of  Virginia  tobacco  should  go  to  England;  and  Virginia 
would  find  some  other  way  of  earning  her  subsistence.  As  for  tea, 
••  \\e  view  it  with  horror!"  From  this  day,  this  very  6th  of  August, 
1771,  we  will  neither  import  it  nor  buy  it,  —  no,  nor  even  use  the 
little  we  have  on  hand  ! 


THE  CONGRESS.  145 

It  is  interesting  to  view  the  action  of  this  convention  in  connec 
tion  with  Jefferson's  paper.  He,  the  philosopher,  the  man  of  books 
and  thoughts,  was  chiefly  concerned  to  get  on  paper  the  correct 
theory  of  the  situation  ;  but  the  practical,  English-minded  men  of 
the  convention,  who  shrank  from  the.  theory,  had  the  clearest  view 
of  what  was  to  &&-done.  If  General  Gage  stirs  to  carry  out  his 
proclamations,  give  him  Lexington  !  Meanwhile,  we  will  retort  the 
starvation  of  Boston  upon  British  merchants  and  manufacturers  ! 
Nothing  could  be  better  than  Jefferson's  theory,  except  this  exqui 
site  practice ;  and  it  was  part  of  that  practice  to  give  the  theory 
wings,  and  so  communicate  to  it  the  intelligence  of  both  coun 
tries. 

Colonel  Washington,  a  very  practical  head,  conceived  the  idea  that 
the  Congress  might  desire  to  know  something  exact  respecting  the 
population,  commerce,  and  resources  of  each  colony.  If  it  should 
come  to  a  fight,  it  would  certainly  be  desirable  to  know  what 
means  the  central  power  would  have  at  command.  He  took  care  to 
ascertain  from  George  Wythe,  Secretary  of  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
how  many  men  Virginia  contained  who  were  subject  to  taxation. 
Before  leaving  Williamsburg  for  Mount  Vernon,  he  sent  off  a 
despatch  to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  who  had  gone  home,  to  ask  him  to 
lend  his  aid  toward  getting  from  the  four  custom-houses  (one  at 
the  mouth  of  each  river,  York,  James,  Eappahannock,  and  Po 
tomac)  a  statement  of  Virginia's  annual  exports  and  imports. 

"P.S.  If  you  should  travel  to  Philadelphia  by  land,  I  should  be 
glad  of  your  company.  Mr.  Henry  is  to  be  at  my  house  on  his  way, 
Tuesday,  the  30th  instant." 

In  those  electric  days  people  were  too  full  of  the  great  business 
in  hand  to  make  any  record  of  their  feelings ;  and  hence  it  is  only 
trifles  recorded  by  chance  that  betray  how  vivid  and  universal  was 
the  interest  in  the  subjects  the  Congress  were  to  discuss.  One 
Sunday  morning,  in  this  very  August,  1774,  an  obnoxious  tool  of 
the  ministry  went  to  church  in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts.  As 
soon  as  he  entered,  a  large  number  of  the  congregation  rose,  left 
the  building,  and  went  home  !  An  act  of  this  nature,  which  might 
not  mean  much  in  some  communities,  indicated  in  New  England  a 
deep  and  unchangeable  resolve.  Journalism  was  then  an  infant 
art.  Interviewing  —  its  latest  acquisition,  and  one  of  its  best, 

10 


14G  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

though  liable  to  abuse  —  had  not  yet  been  borrowed  from  that 
-.  livs^  infi-rviewer,  James  Boswell.  Often,  in  those  primitive 
days,  the  press  could  only  reveal  an  intense  and  general  excitement 
by  silence.  We  know,  from  many  sources,  that  Philadelphia  was 
profoundly  moved  at  the  gathering  of  this  Congress;  that  the  whole 
population  was  astir;  that  two  continents  had  followed  with  atten 
tive  minds  those  little  groups  of  horsemen  making  their  way  through 
the  w<><>ds  from  the  various  colonies  to  this  central  city  ;  that  kings, 
courts,  ministries,  politicians,  philosophers,  and  peoples,  in  London, 
Paris,  J.erlin,  Vienna,  St.  Petersburg,  and  Fernoy  (capital  of 
Voltaire's  empire),  were  speculating  upon  what  might  come  of  this 
unique  proceeding.  But,  when  we  look  into  the  Philadelphia  news 
papers  <>f  tli"  week,  we  find  that  they  mentioned,  in  a  quiet  para 
graph  of  three  lines,  that  "the  gentlemen  appointed  to  meet  in  the 
General  ('nngress  are  arrived."  Nothing  more!  Now  and  then, 
during  the  session  of  fifty-two  days,  some  paper  presented  to  the 
Congress  was  published  without  comment;  but  no  indication  appears 
in  the  press,  cither  of  the  unusual  nature  of  the  assembly,  or  of 
the  peculiar  interest  felt  in  its  proceedings,  or  of  the  measures  it 
discussed. 

The  king  employed  a  similar  device,  it  seems;  for,  when  he 
received  at  length  the  eloquent  and  pathetic  petition  which  the 
Congress  addressed  to  him  in  the  name  of  the  colonies,  he  sent  it 
down  to  Parliament,  as  Franklin  records,  among  a  great  heap  of 
letters,  handbills,  newspapers,  and  pamphlets  from  America,  and  it 
laid  upon  the  table  undistinguished  by  any  recommendation, 
and  unnoticed  in  the  royal  speech. 

The  sick  Jefferson,  while  the  deputies  to  the  Congress  were  mak 
ing  their  way  to  Philadelphia,  resumed  his  journey,  as  it  seems,  and 
reached  \Villiamsburg  a  lew  days  after  the  Convention  adjourned. 
There  he  performed  an  important  act.  The  courts  had  been  closed 
throughout,  Virginia  for  several  months,  which  left  the  lawyers  little 
to  do.  The  law  fixing  the  fees  of  the  various  officers  attached  to 
the  courts  having  expired  by  its  own  limitation,  an  act  renewing  the 
fees  was  ponding  in  the  House  of  Burgesses  when  Lord  Dunmore. 
abruptly  dismissed  the  House  in  May,  1774  ;  and  hence  no  courts 
had  since  been  held.  The  people,  not  unwilling  to  bring  home  to 
their  governor  a  sense  of  the  absurd  precipitancy  of  his  conduct, 
appear  to  have  submitted  with  pleasure  to  the  deprivation.  Jefter- 


THE   CONGRESS.  147 

son  never  resumed  practice.  At  thirty-one,  after  seven  years'  success 
ful  exercise  of  his  profession,  he  gave  up  his  unfinished  business  into 
the  hands  of  his  friend  and  kinsman,  Edmund  Randolph,  and  so 
withdrew  from  the  law,  as  it  proved  forever. 

His  marriage,  as  we  have  seen,  had  doubled  his  estate,  increasing 
the  number  of  his  slaves  to  more  than  eighty;  and  the  profits  of  his 
profession  had  added  three  thousand  acres  to  his  paternal  farm. 
There  had  gathered  about  him,  too,  on  his  mountain -top,  including 
his  own  family,  his  sister's  brood,  his  mother  and  brother,  his  Italian 
gardeners,  the  mechanics  employed  on  his  house,  and  his  overseers, 
a  patriarchal  household  of  thirty-four  persons.  His  presence  at 
home  was  peculiarly  needed  at  all  times  ;  for  his  wife  was  not  one 
of  those  robust  ladies  of  the  Old  Dominion  who  could  conduct  a  plan 
tation  as  well  as  their  husbands,  and  she  was  generally  absorbed  in 
nourishing  a  life  more  feeble  than  her  own.  It  was  for  su'ch  reasons, 
as  we  may  presume,  that  he  now  withdrew  from  a  profession  th'at 
compelled  him  to  be  long  absent  from  Albemarle.  He  felt  himself 
strong  enough  to  trust  his  future  to  glorious  agriculture  and  the 
manly,  homely  arts  that  facilitate  agriculture.  He  might  build  a 
mill  for  his  own  and  his  neighbor's  grain  ;  he  might  keep  a  few  boys 
at  work,  making  nails  for  his  county;  he  might  convert  some  of  his 
wood  into  timber,  and  a  little  of  his  clay  into  bricks;  but  hence 
forth,  to  the  end  of  his  days,  he  derived  the  greatest  part  of  his 
revenue  from  the  culture  of  the  soil.  He  was  a  farmer,  as  his 
fathers  had  been  before  him. 

At  a  time  when  busy  and  capable  men  shrink  from  public  office 
with  a  feeling  resembling  horror,  it  may  be  well  to  note  that  few 
persons  have  ever  performed  public  duty  at  such  a  sacrifice  of  per 
sonal  feeling  and  private  interest  as  Thomas  Jefferson.  Even  in  old 
and  highly-organized  communities,  the  head  of  such  a  household 
can  be  ill  spared;  but  in  Virginia,  in  a  remote  county,  in  a  region 
where  trained  labor  did  not  exist,  and  where  men  of  much  capacity 
could  seldom  be  hired  at  all,  and  neter  for  long,  where  rudest  men 
tilled  a  new  soil  with  rudest  implements,  and  those  men  were  slaves, 
nothing  but  the  master's  eye  could  prevent  the  most  reckless  waste 
and  ruinous  mismanagement.  Every  frontier  plantation  was,  of 
necessity,  a  little  kingdom,  in  which  the  master  had  to  furnish  the 
whole  daily  requirement  of  authority  and  guidance.  If  a  wood- 
chopper  broke  a  leg  or  a  blood-vessel,  it  was  Jefferson  who  was  sum- 


148  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

moned  ;  and,  if  the  baby  bad  the  measles,  it  was  Jefferson  who  must 
prescribe.  When  the  dam  gave  way,  or  a  wli eel-barrow  broke  down ; 
if  a  shop  caught  fire,  or  the  lettuce  was  nipped  by  the  frost ;  if  the 
cattle  got  into  the  wheat,  or  the  small-pox  into  the  negro  quarter, 
—  it  was  still  the  master  who  had  to  furnish  brain  and  nerve  for  the 
emergency.  There  was  never  a  period,  during  his  public  life,  when 
In-  hud  not  reasons  for  remaining  at  home  which  most  men  would 
have  felt  to  be  sufficient. 

An  incident  of  this  period  shows  the  temper  of  the  times  and  of 
the  man.  A  copy  of  the  non-importation  agreement  having  reached 
him  in  August,  1774,  he  wrote  to  London  to  countermand  the  order 
which  he  had  despatched  in  June  for  fourteen  pairs  of  sashes  ready 
glazed,  and  a  little  glass  to  mend  with.  Despatched,  do  I  Say  ? 
Jefferson's  way  of  getting  a  letter  across  the  ocean  at  this  time  had 
nothing  in  it  that  could  be  called  despatch.  When  he  had  written 
his  letter,  the  next  thing  was  to  find  some  one  going  into  the  lower 
country,  who  would  take  the  trouble  to  get  it  on  board  a  ship  lying 
in  one  of  the  rivers,  bound  for  London.  A  letter  could  be  many  a 
long  day  reaching  salt  water  by  this  method.  Before  his  letter  had 
hern  long  gone,  word  came  that  his  sashes  were  finished,  but  the 
puttv  was  not  hard  enough  yet  to  brave  the  perils  of  the  deep.  It 
must  harden  "  about  a  month."  Hence  the  sashes,  which  were 
ordered  on  the  1st  of  June,  before  the  non-importation  agreement 
had  been  contemplated,  threatened  to  arrive  about  Christmas,  when 
that  agreement  had  become  the  main  hope  of  a  roused  and  patriotic 
continent.  In  these  circumstances,  he  explained  the  matter  to  the 
committee  in  charge  of  the  county  where  the  sashes  would  be  landed, 
and  placed  them  at  their  disposal.  "  As  I  mean,"  said  he,  "  to  be  a 
conscientious  observer  of  the  measures  generally  thought  requisite 
for  the  preservation  of  our  independent  rights,  so  I  think  myself 
bound  to  account  to  my  country  for  any  act  of  mine  which  might 
wear  an  appearance  of  contravening  them." 

II  is  own  county  was  to  have*  its  committee  of  safety,  elected,  as 
in  all  the  counties,  by  the  freeholders,  with  due  form  and  solemnity; 
for,  if  the  worst  came  to  the  worst,  the  committees  of  safety  would 
wield,  during  an  interregnum,  the  sovereign  power.  On  New-Year's 
Day.  177."»,  this  <^n-at  hu>iness  was  done  in  Alhemarle.  A  committee 
of  fifteen  was  elected,  with  Thomas  Jefferson  at  its  head.  For  him, 
two-hundred  and  eleven  votes  wore  cast,  which  was  eleven  more  than 
any  one  else  received ;  one  member  getting  but  sixty-four. 


THE   CONGRESS.  149 

A  public  duty  of  eminent  importance  called  him  away  from  home 
in  the  early  days  of  the  spring  of  1775.  The  Williamsburg  Conven 
tion  of  August,  1774,  which  had  elected  deputies  to  the  first 
Congress,  had  adjourned  to  meet  March  20,  1775.  But  not  at  Wil 
liamsburg  !  Not  at  the  capital  of  the  Old  Dominion !  Not  under 
the  eye  of  Dunmore,  nor  within  easy  reach  of  the  marines  of  the 
men-of-war  that  lay  in  York  River.  During  these  years  of  agita 
tion,  a  village  had  been  slowly  gathering  upon  the  site  of  Virginia's 
future  capital, — its  natural  capital,  —  where  the  navigation  of  the 
James  is  interrupted,  about  midway  between  the  ocean  and  the 
mountains,  by  islands  and  impassable  rapids.  Sea-going  vessels  of 
a  hundred  and  fifty  tons  can  ascend  the  winding  river  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  as  far  as  those  rapids;  and,  above  them  for  two 
hundred  miles  farther,  barges  could  be  poled  and  towed.  Here 
then,  at  this  "  carrying-place,"  was  the  spot,  of  all  others  in  Virginia, 
for  Virginia's  mart,  store-house,  and  counting-room.  The  banks  of 
the  river  rise  here  into  commanding  heights,  which  afford  a  site  as 
peculiar  and  picturesque  as  that  of  Edinburgh.  Richmond  was  still 
but  a  straggling  village,  when  the  Convention  met  there  in  March, 
1775 ;  and  there  was  only  one  building  in  it  fit  for  such  an  assem«- 
bly,  —  the  parish  church  "of  St.  John,  —  which  is  still  standing,  little 
changed,  surrounded  by  its  spacious,  ill-kept  churchyard.  It  shows 
to  what  a  point  of  excitement  the  Province  had  been  wrought,  that 
a  parish  church  should  have  been  used  for  such  a  purpose. 

The  Convention  sat  eight  days,  —  long  enough  to  give  an  impulse 
to  the  course  of  events,  and  to  decide  the  future  career  of  Thomas 
Jefferson. 

When  we  read  of  Patrick  Henry's  wonderful  displays  of  elo 
quence,  we  naturally  figure  to  ourselves  a  spacious  interior  and  a 
great  crowd  of  rapt  listeners.  But,  in  truth,  those  of  his  orjations 
which  quickened  or  changed  the  march  of  events,  and  the  thrill  of 
which  has  been  felt  in  the  nerves  of  four  generations,  were  alP 
delivered  in  small"  rooms  and  to  few  hearers,  never  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty.  The  first  thought  of  the  visitor  to  St.  John's 
church  in  Richmond  is :  Could  it  have  been  here,  in  this  oaken 
chapel  of  fifty  or  sixty-pew^  that  Patrick  Henry  delivered  the 
greatest  and  best  known  of  all  his  speeches  ?  Was  it  here  that  he 
uttered  those  words  of  doom,  so  -unexpected,  so  unwelcome,  "  We 
must  fight "  ?  Even  here.  And  the  words  were  spoken  in  a  tone 


150  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

and  manner  worthy  of  the  men  to  whom  they  were  addressed, — 
with  quiet  and  profound  solemnity.  The  mere  outline  of  the  speech 
which  we  possess  (with  here  and  there  a  sentence  or  a  phrase  of  such 
concentrated  power  that  their  every  syllable  is  stamped  indelibly 
upon  the  mind)  shows  that  this  untaught  orator  practised  all  the  art 
of  Demosthenes,  while  exhibiting  all  his  genius.  How  strangely 
prophetic  the  sentence,  "  The  next  gale  that  sweeps  from  the  North 
will  bring  to  our  ears  the  clash  of  resounding  arms"  !  These  words 
were  spoken  on  the  23d  of  March,  1775,  while  the  people  were  joy 
ously  repeating  the  news  that  the  king  had  been  so  good  as  to 
ive  the  petition  of  the  Congress.  Nothing  at  the  moment  fore 
told  the  coming  conflict,  except  the  intuitive  sense  of  this  inspired 
yeoman. 

He  carried  the  Convention  with  him.  It  was  agreed  that  Virginia 
should  arm;  and  a  committee  of  thirteen  —  a  magical  number 
henceforth  —  was  named  to  concert  a  plan.  Along  with  Patrick 
Henry,  George  Washington,  It.  H.  Lee,  Harrison,  Pendleton,  and 
others,  the  young  member  from  Albemarle  was  appointed  to  serve 
on  this  committee.  They  agreed  upon  this  :  The  more  densely 
peopled  counties  should  enroll,  equip,  supply,  and  drill  companies  of 
infantry ;  the  other  counties  should  raise  troops  of  horsomen ;  all 
should  wear  the  hunting-shirt,  which,  Colonel  Washington  told  them, 
was  the  best  possible  uniform  j  and  all  should  set  about  the  work 
of  preparation  at  once. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

HOSTILITIES    PRECIPITATED    BY    THE   ROYAL    GOVERNORS. 

Ox  the  last  day  of  the  session  the  Convention  performed  the  act 
which  proved  momentous  to  Mr.  Jefferson.  Lord  Dimmore  was 
governing  Virginia  without  the  assistance  of  its  legislature  ;  but 
the  necessities  of  the  Province  were  such,  that  it  was  thought  he 
might  be  induced  or  compelled  to  summon  it.  Peyton  Randolph, 
the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  had  presided  over  the  delib 
erations  of  the  Congress ;  and  it  accorded  with  the  spirit  and 
custom  of  that  age  (as  with  justice  and  good  sense)  never  to  change 
public  servants  except  for  a  good  reason.  Hence  it  was  certain  he 
would  be  elected  chairman  of  the  next  Congress,  to  meet  on  the 
10th  of  May.  The  Convention,  not  disposed  to  give  a  royal  govern 
or  any  fair  occasion  to  complain,  provided  for  his  return  to  Virginia, 
by  voting,  that,  in  case  Peyton  Randolph  should  be  obliged  to  leave 
the  Congress  before  its  adjournment,  Thomas  Jefferson  should 
supply  his  place. 

How  graciously  the  king  had  received  the  Congress  petition,  the 
members  of  this  Convention  may  have  learned  before  they  left 
Richmond.  Perhaps  in  the  very  hour  when  Patrick  Henry  was 
warning  them  not  to  indulge  in  the  illusions  of  hope,  nor  suffer 
themselves  to  be  betrayed  by  a  kiss,  Lord  Dunmore  was  penning  a 
ridiculous  proclamation,  which  showed  the  king's  antipathy  to  the 
Congress,  and  to  every  thing  that  emanated  from  it :  "  Whereas  cer 
tain  persons  have  presumed,  without  his  majesty's  authority  or 
consent,  to  assemble  together  at  Philadelphia,"  and  have  called 
another  and  similar  meeting  for  May  next,  "  I  am  commanded  by 
the  king  to  require  all  magistrates  and  other  officers  to  use  their 
utmost  endeavors  to  prevent  any  such  appointment  of  deputies,  and 
to  exhort  all  persons  whatever  within  this  government  to  desist 


- 

l~>l!  LITE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

from  such  an  unjustifiable  proceeding  as  highly  displeasing  to  his 
majesty." 

This  document. provoked  derision  only.  But  the  governor's  next 
act  was  an  act  of  war,  which  every  man  in  Virginia  felt  like  a  blow. 
In  one  of  the  public  squares  in  Williamsburg,  in  the  very  middle  of 
the  town,  was  the  powder-magazine,  containing  twenty  barrels  of 
gunpowder,  the  property  of  the  colony,  and  part  of  its  usual  means 
of  defence  against  the  Indians.  This  store,  always  precious,  had 
now  become  an  object  of  intense  and  even  morbid  interest.  It  was 
not  merely  that  the  Province  was  arming,  and  that  every  thing 
relating  to  arms  had  acquired  new  .value  ;  but,  in  times  of  public  com 
motion,  a  community  maintained  by  the  labor  of  slaves  is  haunted 
by  a  dread  of  insurrection.  Conscience  makes  cowards  of  us  all. 
This  fear,  always  latent,  had  recently  become  omnipresent  in  Vir 
ginia  ;  and  every  man  shuddered  to  think  of  the  deluge  of  mischief 
and  horror  a  rash  coward  like  Dunmore  could  bring  upon  the  Prov 
ince,  by  luring  the  negroes  to  his  aid  with  the  promise  of  freedom. 
To  Dunmore,  too,  that  powder  had  become  interesting  ;  for  he  was 
almost  alone  in  a  community  that  looked  upon  him  as  the  enemy  of 
all  which  they  most  prized.  True,  it  was  a  community  in  which 
regard  for  law  had  become  an  instinct;  and  he  was,  if  possible,  the 
more  safe  in  their  midst  because  he  was  their  enemy.  But  con 
science  made  a  coward  of  him  also.  He,  too,  feared  the  people  he 
had  wronged,  as  they  feared  the  people  whom  they  were  always 
wronging. 

In  the  dead  of  night,  April  20,  a  small  party  of  marines  filed 
from  "  the  palace  "  grounds,  followed  by  a  small  wagon  belonging  to 
Dunmore  himself,  and  marched  towards  the  magazine.  For  some 
time  past  a  patrol  of  patriotic  citizens  had  guarded  the  magazine  at 
night ;  but,  as  no  alarm  occurred,  they  had  gone  home  a  little  earlier 
every  night,  until,  on  this  occasion,  the  streets  of  William.-lmrg  were 
silent  an  hour  after  midnight.  The  noble  governor  had  apparently 
been  watching  for  such  a  chance  to  steal  the  public  property  ;  for, 
like  General  Ga^e,  he  wished  to  disarm  his  Province  in  a  quiet  way. 
That  very  night,  Gage  in  Boston  was  reckoning  up  the  cost  of  his 
attempt,  in  British  dead  and  wounded.  Dunmore  Inn  I  the  key  of 
the  Williamsburg  magazine.  About  three  in  the  morning  of  the 
day  alter  the  battle  of  Lexington,  Dunmore's  wagon,  loaded  with 
iilteen  halt-barrels  of  Virginia's  powder,  was  driven  out  of  town, 


HOSTILITIES   PKECIPITATED.  153 

guarded  by  marines,  and,  soon  after  daylight,  was  conveyed  on 
board  of  an  English  man-of-war,  that  lay  in  the  James  Kiver,  seven 
miles  distant.  The  rest  of  the  powder,  which  the  noble  lord's 
noble  "  little  wagon  "  would  not  hold,  was  buried,  as  it  seems,  in  the 
magazine  itself. 

In  the  morning,  as  soon  as  this  puerile  act  was  known,  there 
arose  a  contest,  not  between  the  robbed  and  the  robber,  but  between 
the  cool  heads  and  the  hot  heads  of  the  town.  The  people  filled 
the  streets,  excited  and  angry ;  the  patrol  resumed  their  arms,  and 
gathered  in  the  public  square  ;  and  every  thing  was  ripe  for  tumult. 
But  the  elders  and  chief  men  of  the  place,  above  all  others  Peyton 
Randolph,  chairman  of  the  Congress,  and  Mr.  Nicholas,  the  head  of 
the  bar,  moved  about  among  the  people,  advising  moderation  and 
order ;  and,  early  in  the  day,  a  safety-valve  was  found.  Williams- 
burg,  small  as  it  was,  was  a  city  blessed  with  a  mayor,  recorder, 
aldermen,  and  councilmen,  who,  on  great  emergencies,  met  in 
a  common  hall,"  and  acted  as  one  body.  They  met  on  this  wild 
day,  and  agreed  to  present  an  humble  address  to  His  Excellency, 
the  Right  Honorable  John,  Earl  of  Dunmore,  asking  him  why  the 
colony's  powder  was  taken  away  from  its  proper  repository,  and 
asking  him  to  have  it  brought  back.  In  his  reply,  this  right 
honorable  personage  lied.  He  said  he  had  heard  of  an  insurrec 
tion  in  a  neighboring  county,  and  had  thought  it  best  to  remove  the 
powder  to  a  place  of  greater  safety.  Having  uttered  this  falsehood, 
he  proceeded  to  show  that  it  was  a  falsehood  by  promising,  upon  his 
word  and  honor,  that,  if  the  powder  should  be  wanted  for  an  insur 
rection,  it  should  be  brought  back  in  half  an  hour.  But  the  cool 
heads  succeeded  in  dispersing  the  people,  and  leaving  the  town  for 
the  night  in  charge  of  the  patrol. 

Dreadful  rumors  were  in  the  air.  The  news  of  the  plunder  of  the 
magazine  sped  from  county  to  county,  inflaming  minds  which  no 
considerations  of  abstract  tea  could  reach.  He  has  taken  our 
powder,  our  own  powder,  bought  with  our  money,  and  stored  for  our 
common  defence !  The  dullest  mind  could  feel  all  the  wrong,  and 
much  of  the  complex  indignity,  of  the  act.  In  the  night,  too,  while 
honest  men  were^asleep  ! 

And. what  tidings  were  on  their  way  from  the  North!  Gage, 
also  in  the  dead  of  night,  had  sent  an  armed  force  to  disarm  Massa 
chusetts  !  Her  yeomen  had  risen  upon  them,  and  driven  them  back 


154  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

again,  a  chase  of  thirty  miles ;  and  they  had  left  a  dead  or  wounded 
soldier  oil  every  furlong  of  the  road  !  This  intelligence,  following 
so  quick  upon  the  news  of  Dunmore's  exploit,  startled  every  one 
into  the  conviction  that  the  plunder  of  the  magazine  and  the  march 
of  Gage's  troops  were  parts  of  a  general  scheme  to  deprive  the 
colonies  of  the  means  of  defence.  The  newly-formed  companies 
seized  such  arms  as  they  had,  and  rushed  to  their  several  rendez 
vous  without  waiting  for  orders,  demanding  to  be  led  to  the  Capitol, 
and  recover  their  stolen  powder.  Never  was  a  widely-scattered 
community  so  instantly  kindled;  for,  before  the  news  of  Lexington 
had  been  in  Virginia  four  days,  there  were  assembled  at  Fredericks- 
burg  fourteen  companies  of  horsemen  ready  to  march  to  Williams- 
burg,  seventy  miles  distant.  And  yet  the  cool  heads  triumphed 
once  more.  A  letter  from  Peyton  Randolph  arrived  in  the  nick  of 
time,  informing  them  that  the  governor  had  engaged  to  arrange  the 
affair  of  the  powder  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  the  colony,  and 
entreating  the  troops  to  return  to  their  homes.  By  one  majority,  in 
a  meeting  of  one  hundred  and  two  officers,  this  advice  was  accepted, 
and  the  troopers  rode  homeward.  The  Congress  was  to  meet  again 
in  eleven  days.  It  seemed  best  not  to  precipitate  the  colony  into 
war. 

There  was  a  man  in  Virginia,  the  King  of  Virginia  we  may  call 
him,  Patrick  Henry,  who  saw  in  this  affair  of  the  powder  the  best 
opportunity  that  had  yet  occurred  of  bringing  home  the  controversy 
to  the  minds  of  the  unthinking.  "  You  may  talk  in  vain  to  them," 
said  he  to  his  friends,  "about  the  duties  upon  tea;  but  tell  them  of 
the  robbery  of  the  magazine,  and  that  the  next  step  will  be  to  dis 
arm  them,  and  }'ou  bring  the  subject  home  to  their  bosoms."  He 
called  together  the  horsemen  of  his  county  of  Hanover,  harangued 
them,  and  began  his  march  toward  Williamsburg,  joined,  as  he 
advanced,  by  squads  of  other  companies,  until  his  band  amounted  to 
u  hundred  and  iit'ty  men.  By  the  time  the  news  of  this  movement 
reached  tin-  capital,  rumor  had  swelled  his  force  to  five  thousand 
infuriate  patriots,  armed  to  the  teeth.  Consternation  filled  the 
palace  of  the  governor.  He  sent  his  wife  and  daughters  on  board 
the  Fuwey,  man-of-war.  The  captain  of  that  famous  vessel  gar 
risoned  tin-  palace  with  marines,  and  threatened,  iii  case  of  un  out 
break,  t.»  lire  upon  the  town.  Several  of  Patrick  HI-UIT'S  friends 
rode  in  hot  haste  to  induce  him  to  turn  back;  but  he  held  to  his  pur- 


HOSTILITIES  PRECIPITATED.  155 

pose,  until,  at  the  close  of  the  second  day's  march,  he  halted  sixteen 
miles  from  Williamsburg. 

Lord  Dunmore,  in  this  extremity,  called  his  Council  together,  — 
that  select  body  whom  the  governor  himself  nominated,  and  the 
king  appointed.  Being  summoned,  they  repaired  to  the  Council 
Chamber  in  the  Capitol,  their  invariable  place  of  meeting  ;  but  the 
governor,  panic-stricken,  would  not  venture  out,  and  commanded 
the  Council  to  attend  him  in  the  palace.  When  they  were  seated 
in  his  presence,  he  stated  the  case,  and  said  he  was  afraid  the 
excited  troopers  who  were  approaching  might,  in  their  frenzy,  seize 
upon  a  public  magazine,  which  would  infallibly  bring  down  upon 
the  Province  the  direst  vengeance  of  an  insulted  king.  To  ward  off 
this  fearful  peril  from  Virginia,  he  suggested  that  panacea  of  fall 
ing  governments,  a  proclamation.  The  youngest  member  of  this 
Council  of  seven,  and  the  only  Whig  among  them,  was  John  Page, 
the  college  friend  of  Jefferson,  and  the  confident  of  his  youthful  love 
for  Belinda.  It  was  he  who  broke  the  long  and  awkward  pause  that 
followed  the  governor's  address  by  asking  whether,  in  case  the 
Council  should  agree  to  advise  a  proclamation,  his  Lordship  would 
consent  to  restore  the  powder.  The  removal  of  the  powder,  con 
tinued  Mr.  Page,  having  caused  the  present  tumult,  tranquillity 
would  be  instantly  restored  by  its  restoration.  "  Mr.  Page,"  ex 
claimed  the  governor,  with  the  fury  natural  to  such  a  brain  at  the 
reception  of  advice  so  simple  and  so  wise,  — "  Mr.  Page,  I  am 
astonished  at  you !  "  And  he  brought  down  his  lordly  fist  upon  the 
table  with  a  prodigious  thump.  To  which  the  young  councillor 
quietly  replied,  that,  in  giving  his  opinion,  he  had  done  his  duty, 
and  he  had  no  other  advice  to  give. 

The  curtain  falls  upon  this  scene.  The  next  morning  at  sunrise, 
a  messenger  from  the  capital  sought  an  interview  with  Patrick 
Henry  in  the  tavern  where  he  had  passed  the  night.  When  the 
messenger  left  the  tavern,  he  bore  with  him  a  written  paper,  of 
which  the  following  is  a  copy  :  — 

"  Doncastle's  Ordinary,  New  Kent,  May  4,  1775.  Eeceived  from 
the  Honorable  Richard  Corbin,Esq.,  His  Majesty's  Eeceiver-General, 
330  pounds,  as  a  compensation  for  the  gunpowder  lately  taken  out 
of  the  public  magazine  by  the  governor's  order ;  which  money  I 
promise  to  convey  to  the  Virginia  delegates  at  the  General  Congress, 


156  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

to  be,  under  their  direction,  laid  out  in  gunpowder  for  the  colony's 
use,  and  to  be  stored  as  they  shall  direct,  until  the  next  Colony 
Convention  or  General  Assembly,  unless  it  shall  be  necessary,  in  the 
mean  time,  to  use  the  same  in  defence  of  the  colony.  It  is  agreed, 
that,  in  case  the  next  Convention  shall  determine  that  any  part  of 
the  said  money  ought  to  be  returned  to  the  said  Receiver-General, 
that  the  same  shall  be  done  accordingly.  Patrick  Henr}',  jun."  * 

Such  was  Virginia's  bloodless  Lexington.  The  volunteers  re 
turned  to  their  homes  at  once  ;  and  their  leader,  a  few  days  after, 
set  out  for  the  Congress,  escorted  by  a  great  retinue  of  horsemen,  as 
far  as  the  Potomac  River.  There  was  a  neatness  and  finish  to  this 
triumph  that  captivated  the  continent,  and  made  Patrick  Henr}' 
inexpressibly  dear  to  Virginia.  The  Province  would  have  at  once 
resumed  its  tranquillity,  but  for  the  incredible  folly  of  the  governor, 
who,  totally  bereft  of  sense  and  judgment,  and  emboldened  by  the 
presence  of  a  royal  squadron,  still  kept  the  peninsula  in  a  broil. 

From  the  distant  summit  of  Monticello,  Jefferson  watched  the 
course  of  events  with  the  interest  natural  to  such  a  person,  ever 
longing  for  a  restoration  of  the  ancient  harmony  and  good-will 
between  the  two  countries.  Lord  Chatham's  bill  of  January,  1775, 
inspired  by  Franklin,  which  conceded  every  thing  the  colonies 
deemed  essential,  had  given  him  hope,  until  the  next  ship  brought 
the  tidings  of  its  summary  and  contemptuous  rejection.  The  news 
of  Lexington  was  fourteen  days  in  reaching  Albemarle  ;  and  then  it 
arrived  loaded  with  exaggeration, — afive  hundred  of  the  king's 
troops  slain."  In  writing,  a  few  days  after,  to  the  honored  instruct 
or  of  his  youth,  Professor  Small,  then  physician  and  man  of  science 
in  Birmingham,  he  spoke  of  Lexington  as  an  "accident"  that  had 
"  cut  off  our  last  hope  of  reconciliation  ;  "  since  "  a  frenzy  of  revenge 

*  Tin-  sum  received  for  the  powder  proved  to  be  too  much.  The  following  is  an  extract 
from  the  .T«.un>;il  of  thr  Convention  held  at  Richmond  in  August,  1773. 

"  It  appearing  to  this  Convention,  by  n  receipt  of  Patrick  Henry,  Esq.,  and  other  testi 
mony  *th.n  it  was  referral  to  them  at  this  meeting  to  determine  how  much  of  the  three  hun- 
dred  and  thirty  poundfl  which  had  been  received  by  the  KeceiveMirneral,  on  the  4th  of 
May,  1:.M,  to  e.,mpcn.-ate  for  the  powder  taken  out  of  the  maga/ine  by  the  governor's  order*, 
Khoiild  be  re.-torcd  to  the  N.'iid  Kcceiver-tJciKTal,  KiXM.VKD,  as  the  opinion  of  tin-  ('t.nveii- 
tion,  that  sullicient  proof  being  had  of  their  being  only  fifteen  half-barrels  of  powder  so 
taken  by  Lord  Dimmore's  order,  that  no  more  money  should  be  retained  than  one.  hundred 
and  twelve  pounds  ten  nhil  ing-,  which  \vejudge  fully  adequate  to  the  payment  of  the  t-aid 
powder,  and  that  tile  n  Mdue  of  the  said  three  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  ought  to  be 
return -d  toth«-  -aid  Receiver-General;  and  it  is  hereby  directed  to  be  paid  to  him  by  the 
.  r  of  this  Colony." 


HOSTILITIES   PRECIPITATED.  15 T 

seemed  to  have  seized  all  ranks  of  people."  We  may  judge  of  the 
strength  of  the  tie  between  the  mother-country  and  the  colonies,  by 
the  fact  that  so  un-English  a  mind  as  Jefferson's  clung  with  senti 
mental  fondness  to  the  union  long  after  there  was  any  reasonable 
hope  of  their  preserving  it.  "  My  first  wish,"  he  still  wrote,  late  in 
1775,  "  is  a  restoration  of  our  just  rights."  His  second  wish  was  to 
.be  able,  consistently  with  honor  and  duty,  to  withdraw  totally  from 
the  public  stage,  and  pass  the  rest  of  his  days  in  domestic  ease  and 
tranquillity.  He  did  not  claim  to  possess  a  disinterested  patriotism, 
but  avowed  that  the  warmth  of  his  wish  for  reconciliation  with 
England  was  increased  by  his  intense  desire  to  stay  at  home.  His 
pride  as  a  citizen,  too,  was  involved.  He  saw,  as  clearly  as  the 
imperial-minded  Chatham,  that  Britain's  chance  of  remaining 
imperial  lay  in  America.  This  truth  was  hidden  from  the  world 
during  England's  contest  with  Bonaparte,  because  she  was  able  to 
waste  in  twenty  years  the  revenue  of  three  centuries,  keeping  a 
thousand  ships  in  commission,  and  subsidizing  a  continent.  That 
looked  imperial,  but  it  was  mere  reckless  waste.  The  whole  world 
now  perceives,  that,  when  Great  Britain  threw  her  American  colonies 
away,  she  lapsed  into  insularity;  or,  to  use  Jefferson's  words  of 
1775,  she  "  returned  to  her  original  station  in  the  political  scale  of 
Europe."  With  the  fond  pride  natural  to  the  citizen,  he  desired  his 
country  to  be  vast,  imposing,  and  powerful. 

Brooding  over  Lexington  and  its  consequences,  he  was  startled  by 
the  intelligence  that  the  contingency  which  would  oblige  him  to 
become  a  member  of  Congress  was  actually  to  occur  :  Lord  Dunmore, 
in  his  panic  and  distraction,  had  been  induced  to  summon  the  House 
of  Burgesses.  This  would  recall  Peyton  Randolph  from  Philadel 
phia,  and  send  Thomas  Jefferson  thither  to  supply  his  place.  The 
rash  insolence  of  the  captains  of  the  king's  ships  lying  in  the  York 
River  having  roused  the  people  of  the  peninsula  nearly  to  the  point 
of  investing  the  capital  with  an  armed  force,  Lord  Dunmore  called 
together  the  Council,  and  asked  their  advice.  Summon  the  bur 
gesses,  suggested  a  member.  His  Lordship,  as  usual  with  him  when, 
he  was  well  advised,  broke  into  a  furious  and  senseless  harangue  ; 
and  when  he  had  finished,  John  Page  calmly  replied  to  him,  point 
by  point,  his  best  argument  being  this :  If  you  deprive  the  people 
of  their  usual,  legal,  constitutional  representation,  they  will  resort 
to  conventions,  which  itself  is  revolution.  The  whole  Council  joined 


158  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

in  this  sentiment;  and,  at  length,  the  governor  accepted  their  advice, 
the  writs  were  issued,  and  the  first  of  June  named  as  the  day  of 
meeting. 

The  air  was  highly  electric.  These  rural  Virginians  had  been 
slow  to  kindle;  for,  until  the  foolish  Dunmore  and  his  naval  captains 
had  joined  hands  to  threaten  and  insult  them,  Virginia's  part  had 
been  to  sympathize  with  the  victims  of  distant  oppression,  and  resent 
wrongs  done  to  a  sister  colon}'.  But  these  vessels  of  war  in  their 
own  rivers  were  now  as  maddening  to  them  as  Gage's  regiments 
were  to  Massachusetts.  How  welcome  English  men-of-war  had  been 
in  other  days,  when,  under  an  awning,  Virginian  beauty  had  de 
lighted  to  tread  a  spotless  quarter-deck,  and  when  at  the  balls  in  the 
Apollo  no  partners  could  be  so  agreeable  as  naval  officers,  splendid  in 
the  cumbrous  uniform  of  the  time  !  All  that  was  over  forever. 
WillMknsborg  had  ever  been  most  lavish  of  politeness  and  hospitality 
to  the  king's  navy ;  but,  at  the  mere  rumor  of  Patrick  Henry's 
approach,  Captain  Montagu  had  threatened  to  fire,  not  upon  1dm,  but 
upon  the  town.  In  making  this  threat,  the  captain,  in  the  language 
of  a  Williamsburg  Committee,  "had  discovered  the  most  hellish 
principles  that  can  actuate  a  human  mind;  "  and  they  advised  the 
people  to  show  him  no  "other  mark  of  civility  besides  what  common 
decency  and  absolute  necessity  require."  Captain  Montagu  was 
cut  in  Williamsburg  by  every  Whig. 

Tin-  1st  of  June  arrived.  It  had  been  a  question  with  distant 
constituencies  whether  it  would  be  safe  for  patriotic  burgesses  to 
venture  down  into  that  narrow  peninsula,  with  men-of-war  in  both 
rivers,  and  bodies  of  marines  at  the  beck  of  a  savage  governor; 
particularly  as  some  members — Pe}'ton  Randolph,  Patrick  Henry, 
and  Thomas  Jefferson  —  had  been  menaced  with  a  prosecution  for 
treason.  A  paragraph  advised  every  member  to  come  "prepared  as 
an  American;"  and,  accordingly,  many  members  arrived  at  the 
capital  clad  in  the  hunting-shirt,  and  carrying  the  rifle,  to  which 
they  had  become  accustomed  in  the  training-field.  Jefferson,  now  a 
member  both  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  and  of  the  General 
Congress,  took  Williamsburg  on  his  way  to  Philadelphia,  and  there 
IK-  ni"t  Peyton  Randolph.  IVesh  from  the  Congress.  The  speaker 
asked  him  to  delay  his  journey,  and  remain  for  a  short  time  in  his 
seat  in  the  House  of  Burgesses.  Lord  Norlh's  conciliatory  proposi 
tion,  as  it  was  called,  hud  been  Dunmore's  pretext  for  summoning 


HOSTILITIES  PRECIPITATED.  159 

the  House  ;  and  the  speaker  desired  the  aid  of  Jefferson's  pen  in 
drawing  up  Virginia's  answer  to  the  same. 

On  Thursday,  the  1st  of  June,  for  the  last  time,  a  royal  governor 
and  a  loyal  House  of  Virginia  Burgesses  exchanged  the  elaborate 
civilities  usual  on  the  first  day  of  a  session.  The  usual  committee 
was  appointed  to  reply  to  the  governor's  courteous,  conciliatory 
speech.  Jefferson  was  a  member  of  this  committee,  but  he  was 
charged  to  make  a  separate  reply  to  the  part  of  it  which  related  to 
Lord  North's  proposition  ;  and  to  this  important  duty  he  addressed 
himself.  The  duty,  indeed,  was  doubly  important,  since  the  docu 
ment  he  was  to  prepare  would  not  only  be  the  reply  of  Virginia  to 
the  ministerial  scheme,  but  it  would  be  America's  first  response 
to  it,  as  no  other  colonial  legislature  had  been  in  session  since  its 
arrival. 

Tlrarsdayj  Friday,  Saturday,  and  Monday,  the  first  days  of  the 
session,  passed  harmoniously  enough.  If  the  House  was  less  hum 
ble  than  usual  in  the  tone  of  its  communications  with  the  governor, 
it  still  protested  its  unshaken  attachment  to  the  king;  and  there 
seemed  a  fair  prospect  of  the  session  proceeding  agreeably  to  its 
close.  But,  as  I  have  observed,  the  air  was  electric.  There  was  a 
revolution  in  the  clouds.  On  Monday  evening  several  young  men 
went  to  the  magazine  in  Williamsburg,  intending  to  supply  them 
selves  with  arms  from  the  few  weapons  still  remaining  in  the  public 
store.  Arms,  at  the  moment,  were  in  extreme  request,  and  only  he 
was  happy  who  had  a  good  weapon.  On  opening  the  door  of  the 
magazine,  a  spring-gun  was  discharged,  loaded  deep  with  swan-shot, 
and  two  of  the  young  men  were  badly  wounded.  One  of  them 
received  two  balls  in  his  shoulder  and  another  in  his  wrist ;  the  other 
had  one  finger  cut  off  and  another  shattered.  Upon  examining  the 
magazine,  the  party  discovered  that  other  spring-guns  were  set  in  it, 
and  that  no  notice  had  been  written  up,  warning  intruders  of  the 
danger.  The  setting  of  these  guns,  it  was  immediately  ascertained, 
was  Dunmore's  work,  done  by  his  orders  soon  after  Patrick  Henry 
had  disbanded  his  troop. 

The  cloud  burst.  The  revolution  had  come.  .  The  Williamsburg 
companies  seized  their  arms,  and  rushed  to  the  public  squares.  The 
indignation  of  the  people  at  this  dastardly  act  of  their  governor  was 
not  lessened  by  the  consideration  that  the  young  men  had  been 
wounded  while  they  were  breaking  the  law.  They  might  have 


160  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

fallen  dead  under  the  coward  fire  of  those  guns;  and  the  insult  of 
fighting  a  patriotic  and  loyal  people  with  weapons  usually  employed 
against  poaebera  and  trespassers  was  felt  by  every  person.  Curses 
both  loud  and  deep  were  hurled  at  the  palace  and  its  inmates :  and 
though  the  cool  heads  again  contrived  to  prevent  any  thing  like  a 
breach  of  the  peace,  yet,  at  such  a  time,  no  potentate  can  so  wall 
himsrlr'  in,  that  the  hatred  and  contempt  of  the  people  cannot  reach 
him.  "The  next  morning,  two  hours  before  the  early  June  dawn,  the 
governor,  his  family,  his  abhorred  secretary,  and  his  chief  servants, 
all  fled  in  silence  from  the  palace,  and  were  driven  ten  miles  down 
the  peninsula  to  Yorktown,  whence  they  were  rowed  off  to  the  flag 
ship  of  the  armed  squadron  anchored  there.  He  was  governor  of 
Virginia  never  again.  He  had  still  some  savage  mischief  to  do  in 
the  Province,  as  a  mere  marauder;  but  when,  at  daybreak  on  the 
8th  of  June,  Lord  Dun  more  stepped  on  the  quarter-deck  of  the  king's 
ship,  George  III.  ceased  to  reign  over  Virginia.  His  governor  had 
run  away. 

The  House  of  Burgesses,  with  inexhaustible  patience  and  courtesy, 
attempted  to  woo  him  back  by  assuring  him  that  he  would  be,  as  ho 
ever  had  been,  safe  in  his  palace,  and  that  his  residence  on  board  a 
distant  ship  was  in  the  highest  degree  inconvenient  to  them  and 
irritating  to  the  people.  His  reply  amounted  to  this :  Let  the 
House  frankly  accept  Lord  North's  proposition,  dismiss  the  militia 
companies,  and  rescind  the  non-importation  agreement,  and  he  would 
not  only  return  to  Williamsburg,  but  do  all  in  his  power  to  soothe 
the  just  anger  of  a  gracious  king  against  a  rebellious  Province. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  meanwhile,  had  completed  his  paper  upon  Lord 
North's  scheme.  That  scheme  merely  proposed  to  let  the  colonies 
tax  themselves  for  the  general  expenses  of  the  empire,  instead  of 
being  taxed  by  Parliament ;  Parliament  to  fix  the  amount  to  be 
raised,  and  to  have  the  spending  of  the  money.  Mr.  Jefferson's 
answer  was  courteous,  clear,  and  decided.  It  was  incomparably  the 
best  paper  he  had  yet  drawn|  and  it  was  adopted  by  the  House  with 
only  a  f«-w  verbal  changes;  or,  as  the  author  expresses  it,  with  "a 
dash  of  cold  water  on  it  here  and  there,  enfeebling  it  somewhat." 
His  paper  may  be  summed  up  in  two  sentences :  1.  The  ministerial 
scheme  "  changes  the  form  of  oppression,  without  lightening  ita 
burden  ;  "  L'.  It  leaves  our  other  wrongs  unredressed.  Having 
duly  elaborated  these  points,  he  closed  with  a  paragraph,  which,  we 


HOSTILITIES   PRECIPITATED.  161 

presume,  he  meant  to  be  tender  and  conciliatory,  but  which,  we 
know,  was  the  quintessence  of  exasperation  to  the  king  and  his 
party,  since  it  referred  the  subject  for  "  final  determination  to  the 
General  Congress  now  sitting,  before  whom  we  shall  lay  the  papers 
your  lordship  has  communicated  to  us." 

"  For  ourselves,"  he  continued,  "  we  have  exhausted  every  mode 
of  application  which  our  invention  could  suggest  as  proper  and 
promising.  We  have  decently  remonstrated  with  Parliament :  they 
have  added  new  injuries  to  the  old.  We  have  wearied  our  king 
with  our  supplications  :  he  has  not  deigned  to  answer  us.  We  have 
appealed  to  the  native  honor  and  justice  of  the  British  nation:  their 
efforts  in  our  favor  have  hitherto  been  ineffectual.  What,  then,  re 
mains  to  be  done  ?  That  we  commit  our  injuries  to  the  even-handed 
justice  of  that  Being  who  doeth  no  wrong,  earnestly  beseeching  him 
to  illuminate  the  councils  and  prosper  the  endeavors  of  those  to 
whom  America  hath  confided  her  hopes,  that,  through  their  wise 
directions,  we  may  again  see  re-united  the  blessings  of  liberty,  pros 
perity,  and  harmony  with  Great  Britain." 

The  governor's  reply  to  this  eloquent  and  most  reasonable  address 
was  in  these  words  :  "  Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  it  is 
with  real  concern  that  I  can  discover  nothing  in  your  address  that 
I  think  manifests  the  smallest  inclination  to,  or  will  be  productive 
of,  a  reconciliation  with  the  mother-country." 

Jefferson  did  not  wait  to  learn  the  governor's  opinion.  The  docu 
ment  which  he  had  composed  was  accepted  by  the  House,  on  the  10th 
of  June,  as  Virginia's  reply  to  Lord  North's  proposition  ;  and  the 
next  morning,  in  a  one-horse  chaise,  with  a  copy  of  his  address  duly 
signed  and  certified  in  his  pocket,  he  left  Williamsburg  for  Phila 
delphia.  With  the  assistance  of  two  led  horses  to  change  with,  he 
could  not  average  more  than  twenty-two  miles  a  day;  and  so  im 
perfectly  marked  were  some  parts  of  the  road,  that  twice  he  employed 
a  guide.  He  reached  Philadelphia  on  that  memorable  20th  of  June 
when  George  Washington  received  his.  commission  from  the  Con 
gress  ;  and  we  may  be  sure,  that,  before  the  general  slept  that  night, 
Jefferson  had  communicated  to  him  the  substance  of  Virginia's 
response' to  the  Parliamentary  schema  He  could  not  have  let  the 
general  depart  for  Massachusetts  without  informing  him  that  his 
own  native  Province  was  at  his  back:  The  next  morning,  before 
taking  his  seat  with  the  Congress,  he  could  not  but  have  seen  Wash- 
11 


162  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

ington  review  the  military  companies  of  Philadelphia,  and  then  ride 
away  on  his  long  journey,  accompanied  by  General  Schuyler  and 
Charles  Lee,  and  escorted  by  a  Philadelphia  troop  of  horsemen. 

Twenty  miles  from  Philadelphia  (General  Washington  met  a  mes 
senger  from  the  North,  spurring  forward  to  bear  to  Congress  the 
news  of  Bunker  Hill.  Jefferson  heard  it  before  night.  He  was 
himself  the  bearer  of  tidings  for  which  Congress  had  wjjited  with 
solicitude;  but  this  was  news  to  cast  into  tire  shade  all  bloodless 
events.  How  he  gloried  in  the  Yankees !  What  a  warmth  of 
affection  there  was  then  —  and  will  be  again  —  between  Massachu 
setts  and  Virginia  !  ('  The  adventurous  genius  and  intrepidity  of 
those  people  is  amazing,'\  Jefferson  wrote  to  his  brother-in-law,  when 
th«>  details  of  the  action  were  known.  They  were  fitting  out,  he 
said,  light  vessels,  armed,  with  which  they  expected  to  clear  the 
coast  of  "  every  thing  below  the  size  of  a  ship-ofrwar."  So  magnani 
mous  too!  "  They  are  now  intent  on  burning  Boston  as  a  hive 
which  gives  cover  to  regulars ;  and  none  are 'more  Jjent  on  it  than 
the  very  people  who  come  out  of  it,  and  whose  whole  prosperity  lies 
there." 

America  did  not  feel  it  necessary  or  becoming,  in  those  days,  to 
scrimp  her  public  men  in  the  matter  of  salary.  It  was  not,  indeed, 
supposed  possible  to  compensate  an  eminent  public  servant  by  any 
amount  of  money  whatever ;  but  it  was  considered  proper  to  fa<-Ui- 
tate  A/.s1  faliot's  so  far  as  money  could  do  it.  Virginia  allowed  her 
representatives  in  the  Continental  Congress  forty-five  shillings  a  day 
each,  and  a  shilling  a  mile  for  their  travelling  expenses,  besides  ''all 
ferriages,"  then  no  small  item ;  and  the  treasurer  was  authorized  to 
advance  a  member  two  hundred  pounds,  if  it  would  be  convenient 
to  him,  before  he  left  Virginia,  the  member  to  refund  oh  his  return 
home,  if  the  sum  advanced  "  shall  happen  to  exceed  his  allowance." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

JEFFERSON    IX    THE    CONTINENTAL    CONGRESS. 

SIXTY  gentlemen,  in  silk  stockings  and  pigtails,  sitting  in  a 
room  of  no  great  size  in  a  plain  brick  building  up  a  narrow  alley, 
—  such  was  the  Continental  Congress  ;  "the  Honorable  Congress," 
as  its  constituents  made  a  point  of  calling  it;  "the  General  Con 
gress  at  Philadelphia,"  as  I^ord  Chatham  styled  it,  when  he  told 
an  incredulous  House  of  Lords  that  no  body  of  men  had  ever  sur 
passed  it  '( in  solidity  of  reasoning,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom 
of  conclusion."  ^  The  present  generation  of  Philadelphians  has  seen 
the  hall  wherein  Peyton  Randolph  presided  and  Patrick  Henry 
spoke,  a  second-hand  furniture  sales-room,  and  none  too  large  for 
the  purpose ;  while  the  committee-rooms  up  stairs,  to  which 
Franklin  and  Samuel  Adams  repaired  for  consultation,  were  used 
for  a  school.  The  principal  apartment  must  have  been  well  filled 
when  all  the  members  were  present ;  and  we  may  be  sure  that  the 
Society  of  House  Carpenters,  to  whom  the  building  belonged,  did 
not  violate  the  proprieties  of  the  Quaker  City  so  far  as  to  furnish 
it  sumptuously. 

The  Congress  was  not  an  assemblage  of  aged  sires  with  snowy 
locks  and  aspect  venerable,  such  as  art  has  represented  the  Roman 
Senate.  Old  men  could  neither  have  done  the  work  nor  borne  the 
journeys.  Franklin,  the  oldest  member,  was  seventy-one,  though 
still  ruddy  and  vigorous ;  and  there  were  two  or  three  others  past 
sixty  ;  but  the  members  generally  were  in  the  prime  of  their  years 
and  powers,  with  a  good  sprinkling  of  young  men  among  them, 
as  there  must  be  in  representative  bodies  which  truly  represent. 
John  Jay  was  thirty,  not  too  old  to  be  a  little  vain  of  the  papers 
he  drew.  Maryland  had  sent  two  young  men,  —  Thomas  Stone, 
thirty-two,  and  William  Paca,  thirty-five.  From  South  Carolina 

163 


1G4  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

came  eloquent  John  Rutledge,  thirty-six,  and  his  brother,  Edward 
Rutledge,  twenty-six.  Patrick  Henry  was  not  quite  forty;  John 
Adamsp  only  forty;  John  Langdon,  thirty-five ;  and  Jefferson, 
thirty-two.  Nor  could  the  Congress  be  called  a  learned  body, 
though  about  one-half  of  the  members  had  had  college  and  pro- 
frssicmal  training.  By  various  paths  these  men  had  made  their 
way  to  the  confidence  of  their  fellow-citizens ;  and  the  four  powers 
that  conjointly  govern  the  world  —  knowledge,  character,  talents, 
and  wealth  —  were  happily  combined,  as  well  in  the  whole  body  as 
in  some  individuals.  Franklin  had  them  all.  Patrick  Henry 
wielded  one  most  brilliant  and  commanding  gift;  and  there  were 
two  or  three  members,  now  dropped  even  from  biographical  dic 
tionaries,  who  fulfilled  the  definition  of  "good  company  "  reported 
by  Crabb  Robinson,  —  persons  who  "  lived  upon  their  own  estates 
and  other  people's  ideas."  Some  sturdy  characters  were  there,  who 
had  fought  their  way  from  the  ranks,  like  Roger  Sherman  of  Con 
necticut,  farmer's  son,  shoemaker's  apprentice,  store-keeper,  sur 
veyor,  lawyer,  judge,  member  of  the  Congress;  or  like  John 
Langdon  of  New  Hampshire,  another  farmer's  son,  mariner  and 
merchant  till  the  British  cruisers  drove  him  ashore  and  to  the 
Congress.  It  was,  indeed,  a  wonderful  body  of  sixty  men,  that 
could  send  forth  to  command  its  armies  one  of  its  own  members, 
and  retain  orators  like  Lee,  Henry,  John  Adams,  and  John  Rut- 
ledge  ;  writers  of  the  grade  of  Dickinson,  Jefferson,  William  Liv 
ingston,  and  Jay;  lawyers  like  Sherman,  Wilson,  and  Chase;  men 
of  business  such  as  Hopkins,  Langdon,  and  Lewis  ;  a  philosopher 
like  Franklin;  and  such  an  embodiment  of  energetic  and  untiring 
will  as  Sainnt-1  Adams. 

The  new  member  from  Virginia  was  most  welcome  in  the  Con 
gress.  Besides  being  the  bearer  of  encouraging  news  from  home, 
he  brought  with  him  a  kind  of  reputation  which  then  gave  per 
haps  even  more  prestige  than  it  does  at  present,  —  "a  reputa 
tion/'  as  John  Adams  records,  "for  literature,  science,  and  a  happy 
talent  for  composition."  Even  now  a  new  member  of  good  presence 
and  liberal  fortune  would  be  regarded  as  an  acquisition  to  Congress 
and  to  the  capital,  concerning  whom  it  should  be  whispered  about, 
that,  besides  the  usual  Latin  and  Gr-M-k,  he  .had  acquired  French, 
Italian,  and  Spanish,  and  was  going  on  to  learn  German,  and  even 
Gaelic  if  he  could  only  get  the  books  from  Scotland ;  a  gentleman 


JEFFERSON  IN  THE   CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS.          165 

of  thirty-two  who  could  calculate  an  eclipse,  survey  an  estate,  tie  an 
artery,  plan  an  edifice,  try  a  cause,  break  a  horse,  dance  a  minuet, 
and  play  the  violin.  The  papers  which  he  had  written  for  the  Vir 
ginia  Legislature,  one  of  which  he  brought  with  him,  and  another 
of  which  had  been  widely  scattered  in  both  countries,  were  known 
to  members.  Moreover  he  was  an  accession  to  the  radical  side. 
His  mind  was  keeping  pace  with  the  march  of  events.  There  were 
orators  enough  already,  and  no  lack  of  writers ;  but  Jefferson  came, 
not  only  surcharged  with  that  spirit  which  was  to  carry  the  country 
through  the  crisis,  but  full  of  the  learning  of  the  case,  up  in  his 
Magna  Charta,  versed  in  the  lore  of  the  lawyers  of  the  Common 
wealth,  and  conversant  with  Virginia  precedents,  lie  could  only 
take  part  in  conversational  debates ;  there  was  neither  fluency  nor 
fire  in  his  public  utterances ;  but,  to  quote  again  the  language  of 
John  Adams,  "he  was  so  prompt,  frank,  explicit,  and  decisive  upon 
committees  and  in  conversation,  —  not  even  Samuel  Adams  was 
more  so,  —  that  he  soon  seized  upon  my  heart."  He  was  a  Vir 
ginian  too ;  and  that  was  a  proud  title  then,  and  most  dear  to  the 
people  of  New  England.  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  —  Massa 
chusetts  oppressed,  and  Virginia  sympathizing,  —  that  was  the 
most  obvious  fact  of  the  situation.  And  Virginia  had  espoused  the 
cause  of  persecuted  Boston  with  so  eloquent  a  tongue,  and  poured 
supplies  into  her  lap  with  a  hand  so  bountiful  and  untiring,  and 
brought  to  her  support  so  respectable  a  name  and  such  imposing 
wealth  and  numbers,  and  sent  men  to  the  Congress  of  such  splen 
did  gifts  and  various  worth,  that  to  be  a  Virginian  was  itself  an 
honorable  distinction.  Jefferson,  too,'  united  in  himself  the  method 
and  plod  of  a  Yankee  lawyer  with  the  ease  and  grace  which  man 
began  to  acquire  when  he  first  bestrode  the  horse. 

The  greatness  of  this  Congress  is  shown  in  its  consideration  for  its 
weakest  members.  An  ordinary  parliament  is  controlled  l>y  its 
strongest;  but  this  Congress  deliberately  allowed  itself  to  be  domi 
nated  by  John  Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania,  timidest  of  gentlemen, 
though  a  man  of  ability  and  worth.  He  dared  not  face  the  crisis. 
"  Johnny/'  his  mother  used  to  say  to  him  (so  reports  John  Adams), 
"you  will  be  hanged;  your  estate  will  be  forfeited  and  confiscated; 
you  will  leave  your  excellent  wife  a  widow,  and  your  charming  chil 
dren  orphans,  beggars,  and  infamous."  And  this,  too,  while  the 
excellent  wife  stood  by  with  confirmatory  anguish  visible  in  her 


166  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

countenance.  Mr.  Adams  confesses,  that,  if  his  wife  and  mother 
had  held  such  language,  it  would  have  made  him  the  most  miserable 
of  men,  even  if  it  did  not  render  him  an  apostate.  The  Congress, 
if  it  could  not  regard  Mr.  Dickinson's  scruples  as  purely  disinter 
ested  and  patriotic,  knew  that  they  were  representative,  and  felt  the 
necessity  of  opposing  to  the  king's  insensate  obstinacy  a  united 
front.  Hence  it  was,  that,  when  these  lions  and  lambs  sat  down 
together,  it  was  a  little  child  that  led  them ;  and,  for  his  sake,  they 
committed  the  sublime  imbecility  of  a  second  petition  to  the  king. 
It  was  a  wonderful  condescension.  Ben  Harrison  expressed  the 
feeling  of  nearly  every  member  when  he  said,  in  reply  to  Dickin- 
'a  exulting  remark,  that  there  was  but  one  word  in  the  petition 
which  he  disapproved,  and  that  was  the  word  Congress,  "  There  is 
but  one  word  in  the  paper,  Mr.  President,  of  which  I  approve,  and 
that  is  the  word  Congress"  It  is  only  the  great  who  can  thus  bend 
and  accommodate  themselves  to  the  scruples  of  the  little. 

Xor  was  it  timidity  alone  that  influenced  the  excellent  ladies  of 
Mr.  Dickinson's  family.  It  was  sentiment  as  well.  In  looking  over 
the  newspapers  of  that  year,  1775,  we  gather  the  impression  that 
the  ministry  endeavored  to  turn  to  account  the  personal  popularity 
of  the  king  and  queen,  which  was  very  great,  particularly  with 
mothers;  for  were  they  not  the  parents  of  ten  children,  —  the  oldest 
thirteen,  the  youngest  a  baby  in  arms?  It  is  not  possible  for  the 
scoffing  readers  of  this  generation  to  conceive  of  the  tender  emotions 
awakened  in  the  maternal  bosom  of  1775  upon  reading  paragraphs 
in  the  newspapers  describing  the  family  life  led  at  Kew  by  the  royal 
parents  and  their  numerous  brood:  how  their  Majesties  rose  at  six  in 
the  morning,  and  devoted  the  next  two  hours,  which  they  called  their 
own,  to  Arcadian  enjoyment;  how,  at  eight,  the  five  elder  children 
were  brought  from  their  several  abodes  to  break  fa>t  with  their  illus 
trious  parents.  "At  nine,1'  as  one  reporter  of  the  period  has  it, 
'•'  the  younger  children  attend  to  lisp  or  smile  their  good-morrow- ; 
and  while  the  five  eldest  are  closely  applying  to  their  tusks,  the 
little  ones  and  their  nurses  pass  the  whole  morning  in  Richmond 
Gardens.  The  king  and  queen  frequently  amuse  thi-niselvcs  with 
sitting  in  the  room  while  the  children  dine,  and  once  a  week, 
attended  !>>/  tJic,  u-hole  offspring  in  pairs,  make  the  little  delightful 
tour  of  Richmond  Gardens  "  !  Who  but  a  republican  savage  could 
resist  such  a  picture?  The  same  faithful  reporter  bade  a  lo^al 


JEFFERSON  IN  THE  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS.          167 

empire  take  note  that  the  Prince  of  Wales,  aged  thirteen,  and  the 
Bishop  of  Osnaburgh,  aged  twelve,  promised  to  excel  the  generality 
of  mankind  as  much  in  learning  as  in  rank,  for  they  were  kept  at 
their  books  eight  hours  a  day,  and  were  so  fond  of  their  lessons  ! 
"All  the  ten  are  indeed  fine  children." 

We  observe,  also,  that  there  was  much  petitioning  this  year,  both 
for  and  against  the  Americans ;  which  gave  the  king  opportunities 
to  indicate  his  own  sentiments :  for,  when  a  petition  was  presented 
adverse  to  the  royal  policy,  no  notice  was  taken  of  it ;  but  when  a 
delegation  came  to  the  palace,  charged  to  say  that  a  malignant 
spirit  of  resistance  had  gone  forth  in  America,  fomented  by  selfish 
men  resolved  to  rise  upon  the  ruins  of  their  country;  or  when  a 
committee  of  aldermen  gave  utterance  to  the  opinion  that  clemency 
was  thrown  away  upon  colonists  who  raised  parricidal  hands  against 
a  parent  State  to  which  they  owed  existence  and  every  blessing ;  or 
when  nine  tailors  from  Tooley  Street  laid  "their  lives  and  fortunes 
at  the  foot  of  the  throne,"  for  a  gracious  king  to  employ  in  main 
taining  the  authority  of  Parliament  in  every  part  of  the  empire,  — 
then  the  Majesty  of  Britain  uiiknit  its  troubled  brow,  and  the  news 
papers  were  enabled  to  state  that  "  His  Majesty  received  the  address 
very  graciously,  and  the  gentlemen  of  the  deputation  had  the  honor 
to  kiss  His  Majesty's  hand."  The  king's  deliberate  opinion  of  the 
troubles  in  America  was  that  Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  the 
Adamses,  Jefferson,  Peyton  Randolph,  John  Dickinson,  and  the 
Congress  generally,  had  entered  into  "  a  desperate  conspiracy,"  to 
Use  the  language  of  the  royal  speech  of  1775,  for  the  purpose  of 
wresting  from  him  a  valuable  part  of  his  dominions.  All  this  peti 
tioning,  and  all  these  tender  or  timid  scruples  of  the  Dickinson 
party,  he  thought,  were,  "  meant  to  amuse  "  a  too  confiding  British 
people;  while  the  leaders,  Dickinson  himself  being  one  of  them, 
were  "  preparing  for  a  general  revolt."  Thus  do  the  stupid  usually 
interpret  the  wise. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  talent  for  composition  was  called  into  requisition 
on  the  fifth  day  of  his  attendance.  The  Congress  was  extremely 
solicitous  concerning  the  wording  of  the  documents  which  they 
issued,  not  because  they  felt  the  eyes  of  the  universe  to  be  upon 
them,  though  every  thing  they  published  was  printed  in  all  the 
newspapers  of  Christendom  that  dared  insert  it,  but  because  they 
had,  in  all  their  formal  utterances,  to  avoid  many  possible  errors, 


168  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

and  try  for  many  desirable  objects.  They  were  resolved  to  remain 
in  the  right,  to  be  the  party  sinned  against;  and  they  meant  to 
make  this  clearly  appear.  They  had  to  satisfy  English  Whigs  with 
out  giving  a  handle  to  English  Tories,  and  express  the  feeling  of 
Samuel  Adams  without  repelling  John  Dickinson.  They  had  to 
resist  General  Gage,  without  appearing  as  rebels  in  the  eyes  of 
kings  whose  countenance  and  succor  might  become  important  to 
them.  Hence,  nothing  was  so  much  valued  at  the  moment,  next  to 
the  art  of  making  saltpetre,  as  skill  in  the  use  of  written  words. 

On  the  very  day  when  Jefferson  took  his  seat  came  the  first  tid 
ings  of  Hunker  Hill.  How  powerless  is  language  to  recall  the  thrill, 
the  alarm,  the  rapture,  the  apprehension,  the  triumph,  the  tumult, 
of  those  days  when  the  tremendous  and  incredible  details  were  arriv 
ing  !  One  thousand  and  fifty-four  of  the  king's  own  red-coated 
soldiers  dead  and  wounded !  Thirteen  officers,  bearing  the  king's 
commission,  killed,  and  seventy  wounded  !  The  king's  general  and 
army  shut  up  in  Boston,  impotent !  The  Honorable  Congress  felt 
it  necessary  to  get  upon  paper,  at  once,  the  correct  theory  of  these 
events,  with  which  the  world  would  soon  be  ringing;  for  there  had 
never  before  been  such  a  slaughter  as  this  in  British  America,  —  not 
in  the  bloodiest  of  the  Indian  fights,  nor  when  Wolfe  completed  the 
conquest  of  Canada  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham.  A  committee  was 
appointed  to  draw  up  a  statement  of  the  causes  of  taking  up  arms. 
This  committee,  on  June  24.  Jefferson's  third  day  in  the  Congress, 
presented  a  draft,  written  by  a  great  orator,  John  Eutledge.  Great 
orators  have  not  the  desk-patience  to  be  great  writers.  The  paper 
not  being  approved,  the  committee,  t\vo  days  after,  was  ordered  to 
try  again  ;  and  two  gentlemen  noted  for  their  writing  talent,  John 
Dickinson  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  were  added  to  the  committee. 

The  members  of  this  famous  Congress,  nobly  as  they  acquitted 
themselves  of  their  task',  were  not  exempt  from  the  foibles  of  human 
nature.  They  had  their  little  vanities,  antipathies,  and  resentments, 
like  th«  rest  of  our  limited  race. 

When  the  Congress  adjourned  that  day,  the  members  of  the  com 
mittee  remained;  and  .Jell'erson  found  himself  next  to  William 
Livingston  of  New  Jersey,  a  lawyer  of  about  his  own  ago,  nnieh 
admired  for  the  sweeping  vigor  of  his  written  style.  Jefferson 
regarded  him  with  particular  interest.  Among  the  papers  issued  by 
the  first  Congress,  the  one  he  had  liked  best  was  the  Address  to  the 


JEFFERSON   IN  THE  CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS.          169 

People  of  Great  Britain,  the  most  extensive  and  complete  version 
of  the  case  yet  given  to  the  world.  Without  being  particularly  well 
written,  it  was  a  plain,  straightforward  piece  of  work,  free  from  those 
reserves  and  softenings  supposed  to  be  requisite  in  petitions  to  the 
king.  When  the  Virginia  delegates  returned,  he  had  inquired  con 
cerning  the  authorship  of  a  paper  so  much  to  his  mind ;  and  Ben 
Harrison  had  told  him  that  William  Livingston  was  the  author. 
Hence  he  now  turned  to  Livingston,  and  urged  him  to  undertake 
the  important  and  difficult  draught  committed  to  them.  The  member 
from  New  Jersey  excused  himself,  and  proposed  the  work  to  Jeffer 
son.  Upon  this  he  renewed  his  request  with  such  urgency,  that 
Livingston  was  puzzled.  "  We  are  as  }ret  but  new  acquaintances, 
sir,"  said  the  Jerseyman  :  "  why  are  you  so  urgent  for  my  doing 
it?"  He  replied,*  "  Because  I  have  been  informed  that  you  drew 
the  Address  to  the  People  of  Great  Britain,  — a  production,  certainly, 
of  the  finest  pen  in  America."  Livingston  had,  indeed,  presented 
the  paper  to  the  house ;  but,  as  it  was  the  composition  of  John  Jay 
of  New  York,  he  was  compelled  to  waive  the  compliment.  "  On 
that,  perhaps,  sir,"  said  he,  "you  may  not  have  been  correctly  in 
formed." 

The  next  morning,  as  Jefferson  himself  reports,  he  discovered  that 
Mr.  Jay  was  not  disposed  to  lose  the  honor  of  his  performance.  As 
he  was  walking  about  in  the  hall,  before  the  House  had  been  called 
to  order,  he  observed  Mr.  Jay  leading  towards  him,  "  by  the  button 
of  his  coat,"  Mr.  K.  H.  Lee  of  Virginia.  These  gentlemen  were 
not  the  best  friends.  "  I  understand,  sir,"  said  Jay  to  Jefferson, 
when  he  had  brought  up  the  Virginia  orator,  "  that  this  gentleman 
informed  you  that  Mr.  Livingston  drew  the  Address  to  the  People 
of  Great  Britain."  Mr.  Jefferson  set  him  right  on  the  point ;  but 
Jay  and  Lee  remained  "ever  very  hostile  to  one  another." 

It  is  a  relief  to  catch  Mr.  John  Jay,  who  comes  down  to  us  with 
a  reputation  for  austerest  virtue,  behaving  so  much  like  a  sophomore. 
The  truth  is,  however,  that  at  thirty  he  was  a  merry  gentleman 
enough,  who  smoked  his  pipe,  loved  his  jest,  could  be  vain  of  his 
"  composition,"  and  was  actually  —  if  the  reader  can  believe  it  — 
called  by  his  intimate  friends  Jack  ! 

The  committee  asked  the  new  member  from  Virginia  to  try  his 
hand  at  the  draught,  and  put  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill  into  docu 
mentary  form  for  general  circulation.  He  did  his  best,  but  his 


170  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

usual  ill  luck  pursued  him.  Mr.  Dickinson  thought  the  paper  "  too 
strong."  No  one,  as  yet,  expected  or  desired  any  other  ending  of 
the  controversy  than  reconciliation  with  Great  Britain  on  the  old 
terms.  Why,  then,  asked  Dickinson,  make  reconciliation  more  dif 
ficult  by  offensive  words  ?  "  He  was  so  honest  a  man,"  says  Mr. 
Jefferson,  "  and  so  able  a  one,  that  he  was  greatly  indulged,  even  by 
those  who  could  not  feel  his  scruples."  The  committee  asked  him 
to  take  Mr.  Jefferson's  draught,  which  all  seem  to  have  approved  but 
I  >ickinson,  and  put  it  into  a  form  he  could  adopt.  The  result  was  a 
much  better  document  for  the  purpose  than  either  of  them  alone 
could  have  prepared;  for  in  nothing  that  men  does  is  -the  saying 
truer,  than  in  the  preparation  of  official  documents,  that  two  heads 
are  better  than  one.  Mr.  Dickinson  restated  the  course  of  events, 
but  appended  to  his  mild  version  of  the  facts  fou.r  and  a  half  para 
graphs  of  Jefferson's  flowing  eloquence,  which  came  in  well  when  the 
document  was  read  in  town  meetings  and  at  the  head  of  departing 
regiments.  But  Dickinson's  part  was  not  less  effective.  The  very 
awkwardnesses  of  a  piece  of  writing  have  convincing  power  when 
they  arise  from  the  struggle  of  an  honest  mind  to  get  upon  paper 
the  exact  truth.  How  effective  and  affecting  some  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
messages  for  this  very  reason  !  It  was  not  eloquent  to  describe  the 
affair  of  Lexington  as  "  an  unprovoked  assault  upon  the  inhabit 
ants  of  tlie  said  Province,  as  appears  by  the  affidavits  of  a  great 
number  of  persons;"  nor  was  it  a  fine  stroke  of  rhetoric  to  speak 
of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  as  a  butchery  of  our  countrymen  (say 
ing  nothing  of  the  1,054  British  dead  and  wounded)  ;  but  Homer 
could  not  have  stated  it  in  a  better  way  to  reach  the  minds  of  the 
plain,  scrupulous  people  of  Pennsylvania.  The  committee  and  the 
Congress  adopted  Mr.  Dickinson's  draught.  If  the  reader  will  turn 
to  the  document)  lie  will  easily  discover  the  precise  point  where  Dick 
inson's  labored  statement  ends,  and  Jefferson's  glowing  utterance 
begins. 

There  is  one  word  of  three  letters  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  portion,  which 
I  wonder  the  cautious  Pennsylvania!!  did  not  erase.  It  is  the  word 
of  threat  italicized  in  this  passage  :  "  We  mean  not  to  dissolve  that 
union  which  has  so  long  and  so  happily  subsisted  between  us,  and 
which  we  Miicerely  wish  to  see  restored.  Necessity  has  not  yet 
driven  us  into  that  desperate  measure,  nor  induced  us  to  excite  any 
other  nation  to  war  against  them.  \Ve  have  not  raised  armies  with 


JEFFERSON  IN  THE  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS.          171 

ambitious  designs  of  separating  from  Great  Britain,  and  establish 
ing  independent  States."  These  words  render  the  date  of  the  docu 
ment  interesting.  The  attested  copy  bears  date  July  6,  1775.  If 
John  Hancock  had  found  it  convenient  to  sign  two  days  before,  he 
would  have  furnished  the  orators  and  historians  of  future  ages  with 
a  "point"  !  A  year  later  he  put  his  name  to  a  document  of  dif 
ferent  tenor. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  session,  it  fell  to  Jefferson  to  do  for  the 
Congress  what  he  had  already  done  for  Virginia,  —  draught  an 
answer  to  Lord  North's  Conciliatory  Proposition.  As  there  was  no 
Dickinson  upon  the  committee,  his  draught  was  approved  ;  and  the 
adoption  of  this  paper  was  among  the  last  acts  of  the  session. 
August  1,  seventy-one  days  after  Jefferson  had  taken  his  seat,  the 
Congress  adjourned. 

Besides  participating  in  the  daily  unreported  debates,  he  had 
penned  two  important  papers,  one  of  which  had  been  rejected,  and 
the  other  accepted.  His  presence  in  the  House  was  his  best  service 
to  the  cause.  His  clear  conception  of  the  situation,  his  knowledge 
of  the  laws  and  precedents  bearing  on  the  controversy,  the  native 
fearlessness  of  his  intellect,  his  curious  freedom  from  some  of  the 
troublesome  foibles  of  our  nature,  particularly  his  indifference  as  to 
who  should  have  the  credit  of  doing  the  best  thing,  provided  the 
best  thing  was  done,  and  a  certain  conciliatory  habit  of  mind  and 
manner,  — made  him.  a  valuable  member  of  such  a  body  as  this  ;  and 
he  was  happy,  too,  in  being  in  a  situation  where  his  special  gift  was 
the  one  in  request.  With  the  good-will  of  all  his  colleagues,  he  set 
out  for  Virginia,  Ben  Harrison  riding  with  him  in  his  carriage,  and 
the  other  Virginia  delegates  not  far  behind.  These  Virginians  were 
wanted  at  home.  They  were  waited  for,  and  anxiously  desired. 

For  in  the  Church  of  St.  John,  on  the  loftiest  height  of  Richmond, 
the  Virginia  convention  had  been  for  several  days  in  session,  electing 
colonels  to  the  regiments,  examining  specimens  of  saltpetre,  preparing 
to  frustrate  the  fell  designs  of  Dunmore,  and  yet  reluctant  to  go  on 
until  the  arrival  of  the  honorable  delegates  from  Philadelphia. 
Patrick  Henry,  in  grateful  remembrance  of  his  powder  exploit,  was 
elected  colonel  of  the  First  Regiment. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

IN   VIRGINIA   AGAIN. 

IT  took  the  delegates  eight  days  to  perform  the  journey  from 
Philadelphia  to  Richmond.  August  9,  in  the  midst  of  the  morn 
ing  session,  four  of  them,  as  the  Journal  records,  "  Patrick  Henry, 
Edmund  Pendleton,  Benjamin  Harrison,  and  Thomas  Jefferson, 
Esquin-s,  appeared  in  convention,  and  took  their  seats;  and  the  gen 
tlemen  appointed  to  represent  their  counties,  in  their  necessary 
absence,  retired."  At  once  the  four  gentlemen  were  added  to  the 
important  committee  of  the  moment,  and  resumed  legislative  duty. 
On  the  llth  arrived  another  delegate,  R.  H.  Lee,  who  took  his  seat. 
And  this  was  the  last  of  the  arrivals;  for  George  Washington  was 
on  other  duty,  and  was  not  expected  home  that  summer. 

It  was  a  great  day  in  the  Convention,  this  llth  of  August, 
meagre  as  the  record  is.  Again  the  Convention  was  to  elect  seven 
members  to  represent  the  colony  in  the  next  Congrexs,  which  was 
to  meet  in  September.  First,  three  of  the  last  delegation,  no  longer 
eligible,  —  General  Washington,  Colonel  Patrick  Henry,  and 
Edmund  lYndleton,  the  last  named  being  in  infirm  health,  —  were 
solemnly  thanked  by  the  chairman,  on  behalf  of  the  Convention,  for 
their  services  in  the  Congress.  The  new  soldier  and  the  old  lawyer 
becomingly  responded  ;  and  then  the  chairman  was  "  desired  to  trans 
mit  the  thanks  of  this  convention,  by  letter,  to  His  Excellency 
General'  Washington."  These  high  courtesies  performed,  the  ballot 
ing  began.  The  result  showed  that  Virginia  was  well  pleased  with 
the  youngest  of  her  representatives  :  Peyton  Kaiulolph.  eighty-nine; 
R.  H.  Lee.  eighty-eight;  Thomas  Jefferson,  eighty-five;  Benjamin 
Harrison,  eighty-three ;  Thomas  Xel.-on,  sixty-six  ;  Richard  Bland, 
sixty  one  ;  G''«rge  Wythe,  fifty-eight  Thus  the  delegate,  \vho,  a  few 
months  before,  had  been  sent  to  the  Congress  to  fill  a  brief  vacancy, 

'    172 


IN  VIRGINIA   AGAIN.  173 

stood  now  third  in  the  list ;  above  Nelson,  one  of  the  richest  men  in 
Virginia ;  above  Harrison,  the  favorite  representative  of  the  plant 
ing  interest;  above  Wythe,  his  instructor  in  the  law;  above  Bland, 
long  regarded  as  the  ablest  political  writer  in  Virginia,  now  venera 
ble  in  years. 

Virginia,  we  observe,  stood  by  her  faithful  servants.  The  fatal 
notion  of  rotation  in  office  had  not  yet  been  evolved.  The  delegates 
who  could  no  longer  serve  were  publicly  applauded ;  those  who 
could  were  re-elected  with  a  near  approach  to  unanimity,  except  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Bland,  whose  age  and  infirmities  rendered  him  incapable 
of  efficient  service.  His  re-election  was  probably  only  another  form 
of  honorable  dismission.  Calumnious  reports  had  been  circulated  of 
late,  casting  doubt  upon  the  sincerity  of  his  attachment  to  the  great 
cause.  The  Convention,  promptly  yielding  to  his  demand  for  an 
investigation,  had  "  considered  it  their  duty  to  bear  to  the  world 
their  testimony,  that  the  said  Bichard  Bland  had  manifested  him 
self  the  friend  of  his  country,  and  uniformly  stood  forth  an  able 
asserter  of  her  rights  and  liberties."  Copies  of  this  vindication  were 
ordered  to  be  sent  to  the  Congress,  and  to  Arthur  Lee,  the  London 
agent  of  the  Province,  in  whose  suspicious  mind  the  slanders  had 
probably  originated.  The  re-election  was  an  additional  testimony 
which  touched  the  old  man's  heart.  The  next  morning  he 
rose  in  the  Convention  to  decline  the  honor  conferred  upon  him. 
This  fresh  instance  of  the  approval  of  the  Convention,  he  said, 
was  enough  for  an  old  man,  almost  deprived  of  sight,  whose  highest 
ambition  had  ever  been  to  receive,  when  he  should  retire  from  pub 
lic  life,  "  the  plaudit  of  his  country  ; "  and  he  begged  the  Conven 
tion  to  appoint  "  some  more  fit  and  able  person  to  supply  his  place." 
The  Convention  declared  that  their  thanks  were  due  to  Richard 
Bland  for  his  able  and  faithful  service,  and  that  they  Were  induced 
to  accept  his  resignation  only  by  consideration  for  his  advanced  age. 
The  old  man  then  rose,  and  remained  standing,  while  the  chairman 
pronounced  the  thanks  of  the  Convention  in  fit,  impressive  words. 
A  community  is  not  apt  to  be  ill  served  that  treats  its  servants  in 
this  spirit. 

Impatient  for  his  home,  Jefferson  obtained  leave  of  absence  on 
the  fifth  day  of  his  attendance  in  the-  Convention  ;  but,  before  he 
left  Richmond,  he  gave  his  voice  and  vote  for  a  measure  which 
proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  revolution  in  Virginia,  of  which  he 


174  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

was  to  be  the  soul  and  director.  Dissenters  from  the  Established 
Chun-h  had,  as  yet,  neither  rights  nor  recognition,  and  in  ordinary 
times  both  would  have  been  denied  them  ;  but  at  such  a  time  as 
this,  when  the  fundamental  rights  of  man  become  living  truths  in  all 
but  the  dullest  minds,  enthusiasm  lifts  men  above  the  trivialities  of 
sectarian  difference,  and  enables  them  to  lay  aside  sectarian  arro 
gance.  August  16,  1775,  an  address  from  the  Baptists  was  presented 
to  the  Convention.  Of  this,  the  most  numerous  body  of  dissent 
ers  in  the  colony,  Rev.  John  Clay,  father  of  the  renowned  Kentuck- 
ian,  was  then  an  active  member;  and  doubtless  his  name  was 
appended  to  the  document.  Differ  as  we  may,  said  the  Baptists  of 
Virginia  in  this  petition,  we  are  nevertheless  members  of  the  same 
community,  — a  community  now  menaced  with  oppression  and  devas 
tation  ;  and  u  we  have  considered  what  part  it  will  be  proper  for 
us  to  take  in  the  unhappy  contest."  The  result  of  their  deliberations 
was:  1,  That,  "in  some  cases,  it  is  lawful  to  go  to  war;"  and,  2, 
This  was  one  of  the  cases.  Consequently  many  of  their  numbers 
had  enlisted,  and  many  more  desired  to  enlist,  who  "had  an  earnest 
desire  their  ministers  should  preach  to  them  during  the  campaign." 
Their  petition  was,  that  four  Haptist  ministers  should  be  allowed  to 
preach  to  Baptist  soldiers,  "  without  molestation  or  abuse."  The 
Convention  passed  a  resolution  which  both  granted  the  request  and 
conceded  the  principle  :  — 

"  /.'  .  That  it  bean  instruction  to  the  commanding  officers  of 

regiments  or  troops  to  be  raised,  that  they  permit  dissenting  clergy 
men  to  celebrate  divine  worship,  and  to  preach  to  the  soldiers,  or 
exhort,  from  time  to  time,  as  the  various  operations  of  the  military 
service  may  permit,  for  the  ease  of  such  scrupulous  consciences  as 
may  not  choose  to  attend  divine  service  as  celebrated  by  the 
chaplain." 

Thus  began  religious  equality  in  Virginia. 

Jefferson  lingered  another  day  in  the  Convention;  perhaps  to  wit 
ness  the  election  of  a  new  chairman,  R.  C.  Nicholas,  in  the  place  of 
Peyton  Randolph,  whom  ill-health  had  compelled  to  withdraw;  per 
haps  to  cast  his  vote  in  favor  of  his  brother-in-law,  Francis  Eppes, 
for  the  office  of  major  of  the  First  Regiment,  of  which  Patrick 
Henry  was  colonel ;  perhaps  to  assist  in  the  election  of  the  great 


IX  VIRGINIA  AGAIN.  175 

committee  of  safety,  a  body -of  eleven  men,  the  ruling  power  in 
Virginia  from  the  adjournment  of  the  Convention  till  Dunmore  was 
expelled,  and  a  new  order  of  things  instituted.  The  four  personages 
of  the  Convention,  who  are  designated  in  the  brief  record  as  "  Mr. 
Richard  Henry  Lee,  Mr.  Henry,  Mr.  Harrison,  and  Mr.  Jefferson," 
were  appointed  to  count  the  ballots  on  this  high  occasion.  Jeffer 
son's  old  friend,  John  Page,  —  styled  still  "  the  Honorable,"  from 
his  having  been  one  of  Dunmore's  Council,  —  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  controlling  committee.  I  wronder  if,  at  that  stirring  time, 
Jefferson  and  "dear  Page"  ever  found  time  to  recall  the  happy, 
miserable  days,  when,  both  being  crossed  in  love,  Jefferson  sought 
solace  in  Ossian  and  old  Coke,  and  dear  Page  went  home  to  his 
baronial  hall,  and  paid  successful  court  to  another ;  which  Jefferson 
would  not  believe  till  he  heard  it  from  Page's  own  lips,  well  know 
ing,  that,  for  his  own  part,  he  had  done  with  love  forever  ! 

Jefferson,  at  least,  still  played  the  violin.  A  violinist  now  of 
fifteen  years'  standing,  extremely  fond  of  music,  an  indefatigable 
practiser,  and  inheriting  a  touch  of  singular  delicacy,  he  had  become 
a  superior  performer.  For  journeys  he  had  one  of  those  minute 
violins  formerly  called  kits,  with  a  tiny  case,  which  could  be  packed 
in  a  portmanteau,  or  even  carried  in  a  large  pocket.  Wealthy  Vir 
ginians  were  late  risers  in  those  easy-going,  luxurious  times  :  but  he 
was  always  an  early  riser ;  and  he  found  his  kit  a  precious  resource 
in  the  long  mornings  while  he  was  waiting,  at  country-houses,  for 
the  family  to  come  down  to  breakfast.  At  night,  too,  he  and  his 
kit  could  whisper  together  without  disturbing  the  occupants  of 
adjacent  rooms.  If  the  absorbing  political  events  of  the  period  had 
much  interrupted  his  playing,  he  now  owed  to  them  the  acquisition 
of  the  finest  violin,  perhaps,  in  the  colonies,  upon  which  he  had 
fixed  covetous  eyes  years  before. 

To  say  that  this  instrument  belonged  to  John  Randolph  conveys 
no  information  ;  because  there  are  so  many  John  Randolphs  of  note 
in  Virginia  history,  that  the  name  has  lost  its  designating  power. 
We  are  obliged  to  say  John  Randolph,  the  king's  attorney-general, 
son  of  Sir  John,  and  brother  of  Peyton  Randolph,  speaker.  This 
precious  violin,  brought  from  a  foreign  land  by  its  proprietor,  could 
not  in  ordinary  times  have  become  the  object  of  vulgar  sale  ;  but  the 
attorney-general,  feeling  doubtless  that  the  best  fiddle  should  prop 
erly  belong  to  the  best  fiddler,  had  entered  into  a  compact,  four  years 


v  •     . 

176  LIFE  OF   THOMAS\JEFFERSON. 

before,  by  which  the  instrument  should  full  to  Jefferson's  possession 
after  his  own  death.  An  agreement  was  drawn  up  in  legal  form, 
siirni-d  :md  scaled  by  the  parties,  attested  by  seven  of  their  friends, 
most  of  whom  were  young  members  of  the  bar,  George  Wythe  and 
Patri.lv  Henry  among  them,  and  duly  recorded  in  the  minutes  of 
the  General  Court,  to  this  effect :  — 

"It  is  AGREED  between  John  Randolph  and  Thomas  Jefferson, 
that,  in  case  the  said  John  shall  survive  the  said  Thomas,  the  execu 
tors  of  the  said  Thomas  shall  deliver  to  the  said  John  80  pounds 
sterling  of  the  books  of  the  said  Thomas,  to  be  chosen  by  the  said 
John;  and,  in  case  the  said  Thomas  should  survive  the  said  John, 
that  the  executors  of  the  said  John  shall  deliver  to  the  said  Thomas 
the  violin  which  the  said  John  brought  with  him  into  Virginia, 
together  with  all  his  music  composed  for  the  violin."  * 

To  the  merry  attestors  of  this  unique  document  the  transaction 
may  have  seemed  a  joke ;  but  to  Jefferson  himself  it  was  so  serious, 
that  he  provided  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  compact  in  his  will,  and 
bequeathed  a  hundred  pounds  to  "  the  said  John  "  besides. 

This  paper  was  drawn  in  the  piping  times  of  peace,  when,  as  yet, 
JenVi-vou  \\-as  "Tom"  to  his  familiars,  and  Patrick  Henry  was  mas 
ter  of  the  Christmas  revels;  the  whole  party  unknown  beyond  their 
native  Province,  I  Jut  now  the  times  were  out  of  joint.  John  Ran 
dolph,  like  most  men  who  held  places  under  the  crown,  sided  with 
the  king  so  far  as  to  think  it  his  duty  to  leave  the  country,  and, 
before  leaving,  sold  his  exquisite  violin  to  Jefferson  for  'thirteen 
pounds.  This  important  bargain  was  concluded  on  this  last  day  of 
his  attendance  in  the  Convention,  and  he  carried  the  instrument 
home  with  him  to  Monticello,  where  it  remained  a  precious  posses 
sion  for  fifty-one  years. 

Short,  indeed,  was  the  vacation  he  now  enjoyed,  though  it  was 
longer  than  he  meant  it  to  be.  August  19,  he  reached  Monticello; 
Congress  was  to  meet  at  Philadelphia  September  5;  leaving  him 
ten  days  to  stay  on  his  mountain-top,  where  he  hail  a  house 
enlarging,  a  family  of  thirty-four  whites  and  eighty-three  blacks 
to  think  for,  half  a  dozen  farms  to  superintend,  and  a  highly 

»  Abbreviated  from  1  Randall,  181. 


s 

IN   VIRGINIA  AGAIN.  177 

complicated  and  extensive  garden  to  overlook.  Probabl}7  he  did  not, 
on  this  occasion,  much  enjoy  his  new  violin.  A  few  days  after  reach 
ing  home,  however,  he  played  upon  its  late  proprietor  by  writing 
him  a  letter  upon  public  affairs,  which  seems  to  have  been  designed 
to  be  shown  in  England,  to  aid  in  the  correction  of  errors  prevalent 
there.  Like  many  other  Americans,  Jefferson  was  puzzled  to  ac 
count  for  the  wonderfully  absurd  conduct  of  the  home  government. 
What  could  possess  rational  beings,  that  they  should  go  on,  year 
after  year,  repelling,  alienating,  the  most  valuable  and  loyal  colonies 
a  nation  had  ever  had,  —  colonies  that  cost  nothing,  never  had  cost 
any  thing,  and  poured  into  the  mother-country  a  clear  revenue  esti 
mated  at  two  millions  sterling  a  year ;  which  enriched  seaport 
towns,  nourished  manufactures,  and  covered  the  land  with  new 
wealth  ?  It  must  be  ignorance,  he  thought :  the  ministry  had  been 
deceived  by  their  servants  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  But  why 
the  American  governors  and  other  official  persons  should  want  to 
deceive  their  employers,  lie  declared,  was  a  mystery  to  him.  Why 
should  they  keep  writing  home  that  the  American  opposition  was  a 
mere  faction,  when  they  knew  it  was  the  whole  brain  and  heart  of 
the  country  ?  Without  attempting  to  solve  this  enigma,  he  seized' 
the  occasion  of  the  attorney-general's  departure  to  write  a  letter 
which  might  assist  individuals  in  England  to  arrive  at  the  truth 
respecting  America. 

When  he  had  finished  his  statement,  he  told  his  Tory  friend,  that 
though  he  still  preferred  a  just  union  with  Britain  to  independence, 
yet,  rather  than  submit  to  the  claims  of  Parliament,  he  would  lend 
his  hand  to  sink  the  island  of  Great  Britain  in  the  ocean.  He 
added  a  prophecy  which  has  been  fulfilled:  "  Whether  Britain  shall 
continue  the  head  of  the  greatest  empire  on  earth,  or  shall  return 
to  her  original  station  in  the  political  scale  of  Europe,  depends,  per 
haps,  on  the  resolutions  of  the  succeeding  winter."  Happily  for  us, 
for  the  world,  and  for  herself,  Britain  has  returned  to  her  original 
station  in  the  political  scale  of  Europe,  and  assists  the  progress  of 
the  human  race  in  a  nobler  way  by  her  Farradays,  Spencers,  Hux- 
leys,  Buckles,  Mills,  Darwin's,  and  George  Eliots. 

The  day  named  for  the  meeting  of  the  Congress  found  the  family 
at  Monticello  anxious  for  the  preservation  of  a  nickering  life,  pre 
cious  to  them  all.  Jefferson's  eldest  child,  Martha,  was  now  three 
years  old.  His  second,  Jane,  aged  seventeen  months,  died  in  this 

12 


178  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

month  of  September,  1775.  Detained  from  his  seat  hy  this  event, 
he  made  such  haste,  when  at  last  lie  did  set  out,  that  he  performed 
the  journey  from  Monticello  to  Philadelphia  in  six  days,  arriving 
September  25.  This  was  a  feat  that  must  have  tasked  both  horses 
and  rider  severely ;  for  the  distance  in  a  straight  line  appears 
to  exceed  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  much  of  the  road  was 
little  more  than  a  "  blazed  "  path  through  the  wilderness. 

\J 


CHAPTEE  XXI. 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

HE  might  as  well  have  travelled  leisurely ;  for,  when  he  reached 
Philadelphia,  the  great  news  from  England,  for  which  Congress  and 
the  country  were  waiting  with  extreme  anxiety,  had  not  arrived; 
and  nothing  decisive  could  be  intelligently  considered  until  it  did. 
The  midsummer  ships  had  carried  to  England  the  news  of  Bunker 
Hill,  with  that  incongruous  accompaniment,  Mr.  Dickinson's  Second 
Petition  to  the  king.  How  could  Congress  have  doubted  what  the 
response  would  be  ?  At  the  beginning  of  a  war,  it  is  bloodshed  that 
takes  the  controversy  out  of  the  domain  of  reason,  and  consigns  it  to 
that  of  mania.  Before  he  had  been  many  days  in  his  seat,  he  had 
to  send  news  to  his  brother-in-law,  Major  Eppes,  that  the  ministry 
were  going  to  push  the  war  with  all  the  might  of  the  British 
Empire.  The  Tower  of  London  was  despoiled  of  its  cannon  for  use 
against  the  rebellious  colonies ;  two  thousand  troops  were  just 
embarking  in  Ireland ;  ten  thousand  more  were  to  come  in  the 
spring;  most  of  the  garrison  of  Gibraltar,  to  be  replaced  by 
Hessians,  were  to  swell  the  army  of  General  Gage.  And  there  was 
a  piece  of  news  still  more  alarming  to  Virginians :  a  fleet  of  frigates 
and  small  vessels,  which  Dunmore  had  expressly  and  most  earnestly 
asked  for,  was  coming  to  lay  waste  the  plantations  on  the  Virginia 
rivers.  Soon  arrived  intelligence  of  Lord  Dartmouth's  reply  to  the 
agent  who  had  delivered  into  his  hands  the  absurd  Second  Petition : 
"  No  answer  will  be  given."  The  curiously  perverse  king's  speech 
to  Parliament  was  not  long  behind  ;  in  which  His  Majesty  afforded 
Colonel  Barre  a  text  for  an  oration  which  the  boys  of  three  genera 
tions  have  been  well  pleased  to  declaim.  The  king  was  so  unfortu 
nate  as  to  speak  of  the  colonies  as  having  been  "planted  with 
great  industry  "  by  the  mother  country,  "  nursed  with  great  tender- 

179 


180  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

ness,  encouraged  with  many  commercial  advantages,  and  protected 
and  defended  at  much  expense  of  blood  and  treasure."  Colonel 
Barre's  reply  is  remarkable  for  this  :  it  is  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
passages  ever  spoken,  and  it  is,  at  the  same  time,  a  perfectly 
unexaggerated  statement  of  facts.  The  king  added  to  the  many 
other  politic  and  conciliatory  passages  of  his  speech  a  delightful 
offer  of  "tenderness  and  mercy"  to  the  "unhappy  and  deluded 
multitude  "  as  soon  as  they  should  become  "  sensible  of  their  error." 
The  worst  of  the  news  from  England  was,  that  the  people,  wounded 
in  their  pride  by  the  slaughter  at  Bunker  Hill,  were  supporting  the  j 
government  with  enthusiasm  and  seeming  unanimity. 

Jeiierson  was  no  longer  so  much  puzzled  to  account  for  the 
conduct  of  the  ministry.  He  began  to  get  that  insight  into  the 
nature  of  personal  government  —  "the  folly  of  heaping  importance 
upon  idiots"  —  which  became,  in  later  years,  so  clear  and  vivid. 
And  yet  with  what  strange  pertinacity  his  radical  nature  clung  to 
tlu-  connection  with  Great  Britain  !  As  late  as  November  29,  1775, 
he  could  write  to  his  kinsman,  John  Randolph,  that  there  was  riot 
a  man  in  the  British  Empire  who  more  cordially  loved  a  union  with 
Great  Britain  than  he  did  !  Love  it  as  he  might,  he  had  probably 
ceased  to  think  it  possible.  "It  is  an  immense  misfortune  to  1  he 
whole  empire,"  he  wrote,  "to  have  such  a  king  at  such  a  time.  We 
are  told,  and  every  thing  proves  it  true,  that  he  is  the  bitterest 
enemy  we  have.  His  minister  is  able,  and  that  satisfies  me  that 
ignorance  or  wickedness  somewhere  controls  him."  The  last  remark 
is  interesting,  as  showing  that  Jefferson,  at  a  time  when  the  fact 
was  not  generally  known,  felt  that  a  man  of  the  calibre  of  Lord 
North  was  out  of  place  in  the  Cabinet  of  George  III.,  and  did  not 
in  his  heart  approve  the  king's  policy.  "To  undo  his  empire," 
Jefferson  continued,  "  the  king  has  but  one  more  truth  to  learn,  — 
that,  after  colonies  have  drawn  the  sword,  there  is  but  one  more  step 
they  can  take  !  " 

This  autumn  of  1775  was  a  period  of  intense  excitement.  All 
America  was  drilling,  the  Philadelphia  companies  twice  a  day. 
Everybody  with  a  tincture  of  science  in  his  composition  was  brood 
ing  over  the  ingredients  of  gunpowder,  and  discussing  with  kindred 
spirits  the  great  saltpetre  problem.  No  day  passed  without  some 
thing  of  deep  interest  coming  up  in  the  Cmigivss.  When  there  was 
no  news  from  England  to  consider,  the  army  around  Boston,  its 


THE   DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE.  181 

destitution,  its  dwindling  numbers,  its  defective  organization,  was  an 
ever-present  topic.  Once  more  it  was  proved  that  militia  are  inca 
pable  of  prolonged  service  in  the  field,  and  are  useless  except  to  hold 
important  points  while  a  proper  army  is  forming.  Bull  Kim  was 
inexcusable ;  for  we  ought  not  to  have  been  so  ignorant  or  unmindful 
of  General  Washington's  reiterated  and  most  emphatic  warnings 
on  this  point  as  to  have  hurled  a  miscellaneous  multitude  of  citizens 
in  soldier-clothes  against  a  fortified  position. 

How  curiously  ignorant  were  those  peaceful  colonists  of  the  art 
of  war,'  Philadelphia  seems  to  have  confided  implicitly  in  Dr. 
Franklin's  row-galleys  and  marine  ckevaux-de-frise  as  a  defence 
against  the  British  fleet.  Jefferson,  doubtless,  was  one  of  the  con 
gressional  party  who  went  down  the  river  to  inspect  them,  when 
seven  of  the  galleys  were  paraded,  and  performed  their  evolutions. 
The  names  of  the  galleys,  as  John  Adams  records,  were  the 
Washington,  the  Eifingham,  the  Dickinson,  the  Franklin,  the  Otter, 
the  Bull-dog,  and  "one  more  which  I  have  forgot."  Mr.  Jefferson, 
it  is  to  be  hoped,  went  in  the  Bull-dog  with  Mr.  Adams  ;  for  in 
that  vessel  were  two  gentlemen  whom  he  would  have  found  interest 
ing.  One  was  Mr.  Hillegas,  treasurer  to  Congress,  "  a  great  musician,'7 
says  Adams,  "  talks  perpetually  of  the  forte  and  piano,  of  Handel, 
and  songs  and  tunes."  And  besides,  "  he  plays  upon  the  fiddle." 
The  other  was  the  famous  Kittenhouse,  who,  Mr.  Adams  informs  us, 
was  a  mechanic,  a  mathematician,  a  philosopher,  an  astronomer;  "a 
tall,  slender  man,  plain,  soft,  modest,  no  remarkable  depth  or 
thoughtfulness  in  his  face,  yet  cool,  attentive,  and  clear."  Then 
there  was  Mr.  Owen  Biddle,  another  member  of  the  Philosophical 
Society.  A  delightful  day  Mr.  Jefferson  would  have  had  upon  the 
broad  and  placid  Delaware  with  such  companions ;  to  say  nothing 
of  the  galleys,  and  the  vaisseaux-de-frise,  and  Dr.  Franklin's 
explanations  of  the  same.  If  some  gentleman  questioned  the  efficacy 
of  the  galleys,  all  seemed  convinced  that  the  chevaux-de-frise  (three 
rows  of  heavy  timber,  barbed  with  iron,  anchored  to  the  bottom  of 
the  river)  would  puzzle  a  British  admiral  extremely.  Perhaps  they 
did.  Nevertheless,  before  two  years  were  past,  a  British  fleet  lay  at 
anchor  off  Philadelphia,  in  a  line  nearly  two  miles  long. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  bustle,  excitement,  and  alarm,  Congress 
sat  with  closed  doors,  no  reporter  present ;  and  Jefferson  sat  with 
them,  serving  laboriously  on  committees,  and  doing  his  part.  Merely 


182  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

to  be  present  in  the  Congress,  when  he  had  at  his  distant  home  an 
infirm  mother,  a  sickly  and  most  tenderly-beloved  wife,  a  little  child, 
and  a  great  brood  of  dependent  relatives,  cost  him  the  most  -painful 
self-sacrifice.  It  was  only  by  chance  that  he  could  get  a  letter  from 
or  to  his  mountain-top.  When,  he  had  been  seven  weeks  away  from 
home,  he  had  still  to  write,  "  I  have  never  received  the  scrip  of  a 
PIMI  from  any  mortal  in  Virginia  since  I  left  it,  nor  been  able  by  any 
inquiries  I  could  make  to  hear  of  my  family."  The  suspense  in 
which  he  lived  was  "too  terrible  to  be  endured."  "If  any  thing 
has  happened,"  he  added,  "for  God's  sake  let  me  know  it." 

It  fell  to  his  lot,  this  November,  lZ7j>,  to  witness  the  beginning 
of  the  long  connection  between  France  and  America,  which  was 
destined  to  control,  not  the  destinies  of  his  country  only,  but  his 
own  career  as  a  public  man.  That  '"'French  influence,"  according 
to  the  report  of  Mr.  John  Jay,  to  whom  we  owe  our  knowledge  of 
it,  had  an  almost  ludicrous  beginning.  The  scene,  indeed,  would  be 
effective  in  a  comedy.  No  sooner  had  the  tidings  arrived  of  the 
rejection  of  the  Second  Petition,  than  Congress  began  to  receive 
mysterious  notifications  that  there  was  a  FOREIGNER  in  Philadelphia 
who  desired  to  make  to  them  an  important  and  confidential  com- 
inuniration.  When  this  intimation  had  been  several  times  repeated, 
Congress  condescended  to  name  a  committee,  Mr.  Jay,  Dr.  Franklin, 
and  Mr.  Jefferson,  to  receive  the  message.  At  the  appointed  hour, 
in  a  committee-room  of  Carpenters'  Hall,  this  distinguished  commit 
tee  met  the  stranger,  "an  elderly  lame  man,"  as  Mr.  Jay  describes 
him,  "  having  the  appearance  of  an  old,  wounded  French  officer." 
After  preliminary  civilities,  the  lame  unknown  delivered  his  commu 
nication.  The  king  of  France,  he  said,  had  heard  with  pleasure  of 
the  exertions  made  by  the  colonies  in  defence  of  their  rights,  wished 
them  success,  and  would  manifest  his  friendship  for  them  openly 
whenever  it  should  become  necessary.  The  committee,  of  course, 
asked  him  what  authority  he  had  for  making  these  assurances  ;  but 
the  ol«l  gentleman  only  answered  by  drawing  his  hand  across  his 
throat,  and  saying,  '•  ( Jrntlemen,  I  shall  take  care  of  my  head." 
The  committee  inquired  what  proofs  of  friendship  the  Congress  might 
expect  from  the  king.  "Gentlemen,"  was  the  reply,  "if  you  want 
arms,  you  shall  have  them  ;  it' you  want  ammunition,  you  shall  have 
it;  if  you  want  money,  you  shall  have  it." 

This  would  have  been  comforting  if  the  stranger  would  only  have 


THE  DECLAEATION  OF   INDEPENDENCE.  183 

exhibited  something  in  the  way  of  credentials.  The  committee  said 
as  much  ;  but  no  response  could  be  obtained  except,  "  Gentlemen,  I 
shall  take  care  of  my  head."  The  interview  terminated ;  and,  to  use 
the  romantic  language  of  Mr.  Jay,  "  he  was  seen  in  Philadelphia  no 
more."  His  bearing  and  appearance,  however,  gained  for  him  some 
credit;  for  Congress  speedily  appointed  that  ever-memorable  secret 
committee  to  correspond  with  the  friends  of  America  in  foreign  lands, 
which  had  such  momentous  consequences.  The  mysterious  stranger 
was  indeed  an  emissary  from  the  French  government, — his  name 
I)e  Bonvouloir,  —  an  old  courtier  of  noble  lineage,  who  had  been  in 
America  last  year  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  He  could, 
indeed,  show  no  credentials,  for  his  instructions  were  verbal.  His 
duty  in  America  jvas  three-fold :  1,  To  get  exact  information  ;  2,  To 
convey  warm  assurances  of  sympathy ;  3,  To  assure  the  Congress 
that  they  were  quite  welcome  to  get  Canada  if  they  could,  for  the 

French  had  ceased  to  think  of  it.     On  his  return  to  France,  he  told 

7 . , 

the  minister  that  the  Americans  were  practically  unanimous,  and 
his  report  produced  as  important  effects  there  as  his  presence  had 
here. 

As  the  winter  drew  on,  it  became  distressing  beyond  measure  for 
a  Virginian  with  a  large  household  to  be  absent  from  home.  The 
Province  was  filled  with  alarm.  A  struggle  was  in  progress  between 
Dunmore  and  the  Convention  for  the  possession  of  the  slaves ;  the 
governor  proclaiming  freedom  to  all  of  them  who  would  join  him ; 
and  the  Convention  threatening  all  who  did  join  him  with  severest 
punishment.  The  Convention  triumphed  in  this  contest ;  but  the 
mere  attempt  to  seduce  the  slaves  carried  terror  to  hundreds  of  those 
isolated  Virginia  homes,  the  guardians  of  which  were  absent  in  camp, 
in  Convention,  and  in  Congress.  The  plantations  then  were  almost 
all  open  to  the  ravages  of  a  naval  force,  as  every  considerable  plan 
tation  was  of  necessity  within  reach  of  a  navigable  stream,  by  which 
also  the  negroes  could  easily  escape  to  Dunmore's  head-quarters.  It 
seems,  from  the  Journal  of  the  Convention,  that  only  twenty-nine 
slaves  joined  Dunmore ;  namely,  Ishmael,  Africa,  Europe,  Romeo, 
Tawley,  Cato,  Derry,  Cuff,  Jasper,  Luke,  and  several  Toms,  Dicks, 
and  Harrys,  who  were  ordered  to  be  sold  into  exile  in  the  West 
Indies  or  at  Honduras. 

Dunmore  was  successful  in  nothing  except  alarming  the  timid,  and 
exasperating  the  brave.  Even  his  blockade  of  Hampton  Roads  did 


184  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

not  prevent  the  Virginia  "cruisers"  in  December  from  making  the 
timely  and  precious  capture  of  fifty-six  hundred  bushels  of  salt. 
Salt  was  getting  very  scarce  in  the  Province;  owing,  as  the  Journal 
of  the  Convention  assures  us,  "  to  the  many  illegal  seizures  of  vessels 
laden  with  that  article  by  his  majesty's  ships  of  war,  and  sundry 
piratical  vessels  fitted  out  by  Lord  Dunmore."  Having  obtained 
this  salt,  the  Convention  disposed  of  it  in  a  singularly  wise  and  just 
manner.  It  was  divided  among  all  the  counties  of  the  Province, 
according  to  their  population,  and  consigned  to  the  several  commit 
tees  of  safety,  to  be  sold  to  the  families  most  in  need  of  salt  at  five 
shillings  a  hushd  ;  and,  if  it  should  be  found  that  the  captured  salt 
belonged  to  per>"M<  ••  not  inimical  to  this  colony,"  it  was  to  be  paid 
for  at  the  rate  of  four  shillings  a  bushel.  It  was  a  scant  supply, 
divided  among  thirty-one  counties.  Warwick  County's  share  was 
only  fourteen  bushels,  and  populous  Botetourt's  but  two  hundred  and 
ninety-seven.  Mrs.  Jefterson,  perhaps,  got  a  little;  for  Albemarle 
was  a-sigurd  a  hundred  and  forty-four  bushels. 

In  all  the  proceedings  of  Virginia's  little  parliament,  we  find  a 
most  happy  Mending  o!'  courtesy,  good  sense,  and  rectitude.  In  the 
midst  of  Dunmore's  savage  and  stupid  war  against  the  Province 
(onlv  a  few  davs  before  it  culminated  in  the  infernal  bombardment 
and  burning  of  Norfolk),  a  British  frigate  arrived  iti  the  Roads  with 
a  crew  of  four  hundred  men.  The  captain  of  this  vessel,  with  an 
effrontery  seldom  paralleled,  sent  a  flag  on  shore  to  ask  leave  to  take 
in  a  supply  of  fresh  provisions ;  averring  that  he  had  no  wish  "to 
sbcd  the  blood  of  the  innocent  and  helpless,"  but,  if  his  men  "  should 
break  loose  in  the  uncontrollable  pursuit  of  fresh  and  wholesome 
nourishment,  the  re-ult  must  be  obvious  to  every  one."  The  reply 
of  the  Convention  was  politeness  itself.  They  desired  the  captain 
to  bi!  informed  that  they  were  sensible  of  the  hardship  which  many 
innocent  people  on  board  the  frigate  wero  suffering  from  the  want 
of  fresh  provi>i<>ns,  and  that  nothing  could  prevent  their  permitting 
a  supply  but  patriotic  duty.  The  captain,  they  continued,  \\as  prob 
ably  a  stranger  in  Virginia;  and  hence  they  wished  him  to  be 
further  informed  that  "this  country  hath  ever,  till  of  late,  considered 
the  officers  and  men  of  his  majesty's  navy  as  their  friends,  and  have 
alwaj'S  had  great  pleasure  in  showing  them  every  hospitality  and 
civility;  but  many  very  recent  and  unwarrantable  instances  of  the 
hostile  behavior  of  some  of  the  navy  towards  our  inhabitants  justify 


THE  DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE.  185 

us  in  suspicions  which  we  would  not  otherwise  entertain.  Who  are 
the  '  innrcent  and  helpless '  whose  hlood  Captain  Bellew  would  not 
wish  to  shed,  we  cannot  from  his  expressions  determine ;  hut  they 
carry  with  them  the  strongest  implication,  that  the  effusion  of  the 
hlood  of  some  of  our  countrymen  is  the  ohject  of  his  voyage  to  this 
country."  If,  however,  Captain  Bellew  would  condescend  to  satisfy 
them  that  he  had  come  to  Virginia  on  a  friendly  errand,  the  Con 
vention  would  take  every  opportunity  to  pay  proper  respect  to  a  gen 
tleman  in  his  station,  and  use  every  means  in  their  power  to  render 
his  stay  as  agreeable  as  possible.  But  if,  on  the  contrary,  Captain 
Bellew's  design  was  to  further  the  views  of  our  enemies,  "  he  must 
excuse  the  inhabitants  of  Virginia,  if  they  totally  decline  contribut 
ing  towards  their  own  destruction." 

Three  days  after  —  January  1,  1776  —  Norfolk,  the  richest  and 
most  populous  city  in  Virginia,  was  bombarded,  set  on  fire,  and 
nine-tenths  of  it  consumed, — a  loss  of  three  hundred  thousands 
sterling.  Five  thousand  people  were  made  homeless  and  houseless  in 
the  middle  of  winter,  and  those  people  as  innocent  of  offence  as  are 
to-day  the  inhabitants  of  the  most  peaceful  seaport  town  on  the  coast 
of  Norway.  The  Convention,  when  this  intelligence  reached  them, 
ordered  the  troops  to  evacuate  the  site,  and,  before  doing  so,  to 
destroy  the  few  houses  which  had  escaped  the  fire.  Norfolk  accord 
ingly  was  obliterated  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  This  event,  and 
the  burning  of  Falmouth  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  weaned  all  hearts 
from  an  unnatural  mother-country.  It  was  not  merely  the  unlet 
tered  portion  of  the  people  that  were  so  deeply  moved.  Franklin's 
old  heart  was  fired.  He  never  forgot  Falmouth  and  Norfolk  ;  and, 
before  he  was  many  months  older,  he  and  Paul  Jones  were  concerned 
in  those  "reprisals,"  that,  for  three  or  four  years,  kept  the  coasts  of 
Great  Britain  in  alarm,  from  John  O'Groat's  House  to  Land's  End. 
Independence  never  could  have  been  carried  in  1776,  but  for  these 
two  conflagrations. 

Jefferson  heard  this  maddening  news  while  he  was  on  his  way 
home  from  Philadelphia.  Virginia  did  not  require  the  constant 
attendance  of  all  her  seven  delegates  in  Congress,  but  only  of  any 
four  of  them;  and  hence  they  took  turns  in  going  home.  Nor 
was  it  desirable,  in  that  critical  time,  for  so  many  as  seven  of  the 
most  influential  persons  on  the  popular  side  to  be  absent  from  the 
Province  at  once.  After  three  months'  attendance,  therefore,  Jeffer- 


186  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

son  bade  farewell  to  his  colleagues,  and  passed  the  rest  of  the  winter 
in  Virginia,  raising  further  supplies  for  the  people  of  Boston,  collect 
ing  money  f"r  the  purchase  of  powder,  concerting  measures  for  the 
relief  of  the.  inhabitants  of  Norfolk,  entertaining  relations  and 
friends  compelled  to  abandon  their  homes  in  the  lower  country,  and 
preparing  the  public  mind  for  that  "one  more  step"  which  colonies 
can  take  "after  they  have  drawn  the  sword."  What  a  houseful  he 
must  have  had,  with  his  brother-in-law's  family,  besides  his  own 
multitude!  His  mother  died  in  March,  1776,  aged  fifty-five,  after 
a  widowhood  of  eighteen  years,  —  an  occurrence  which  may  have 
prolonged  his  absence  from  Philadelphia. 

The  march  of  events  was  swift  that  spring.  General  Washington 
took  iJoston.  the  country  read  Thomas  Paine's  "Common  Sense," 
and  Virginia  instructed  her  delegates  to  propose  independence  to 
Congress. 

May  1.').  1776,  Jefferson,  after  an  absence  of  four  months  and  a 
half,  resumed  his  seat  in  Congress.  It  was  the  week  when  a  com 
mittee  of  three  gentlemen  went  from  house  to  house  in  Philadelphia, 
buying  old  lead  for  bullets,  at  sixpence  a  pound,  but  excusing  fami 
lies  from  giving  up  their  clock-weights,  because  "the  iron  weights  to 
replaee  them  are  not  yet  made."  No  one  was  compelled  to  give  up 
his  lead  ;  oh,  by  no  means!  but  the  public  were  notified,  that,  "if  any 
persons  should  be  so  lost  to-all  sense  of  the  public  good  as  to  refuse, 
a  list  of  their  names  is  directed  to  be  returned  to  the  committee  of 
safety  ! " 

Fief,»iv  Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  many  days  in  his  place,  came  the 
intelligence  so  long  waited  for,  that  the  Virginia  Convention  were 
unanimous  for  independence.  A  kind  of  premature  Fourth  of 
July  broke  out  everywhere,  as  the  news  spread  from  town  to  town. 
First  at  AVilliainslmrg,  where  the  Convention  sat,  there  were 
"'military  parades,  discharges  of  artillery,  civic  dinners,  toasts,  illu 
minations;"  and  when  "the  Union  flag  of  America  proudly  waved 
upon  the  Capitol,  every  bosom  swelled  with  generous  sentiments 
and  heiMu;  confidence."  At  Philadelphia  some  gentlemen,  as  we 
read  in  the  newspapers  of  the  week,  made  "a  handsome  collection 
for  the  purpose;  of  treating  the  soldiery  ;  "  and  there  was  a  grand 
parade  on  the  ground  since  called  Independence  Square;  and  a 
glorious  hoisting  of  the  "Union  Flag  of  the  American  States  "  upon 
the  Capitol;  alter  which  the  troops  enjoyed  the  repast  provided  for 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.       187 

them,  and  the  day  ended  with  illuminations.  Great  Virginia  had 
spoken :  it  was  enough.  "  Every  one,"  said  the  "  Pennsylvania 
Journal"  of  May  29,  "seems  pleased  that  the  domination  of 
Great  Britain  is  now  at  an  end!"  The  newspaper  poets  kindled 
into  song :  — 

"  Virginia,  hail !     Thou  venerable  State  ! 
In  arms  and  council  still  acknowledged  great. 
When  lost  Britannia  in  an  evil  hour 
First  tried  the  steps  of  arbitrary  power, 
Thy  foresight  then  the  continent  alarmed, 
Thy  gallant  temper  ev'ry  bosom  warmed." 

Independence  was  the  only  topic  now.  Members  of  Congress 
still  held  back,  but  the  feeling  out  of  doors  was  pressing  them  to 
take  the  inevitable  step.  Mr.  Jefferson  has  recorded  a  long  list  of 
the  reasons  brought  forward  in  debate  by  the  Dickiusonians  against 
a  final  severance  of  the  tie  that  bound  the  colonies  to  Great  Britain ; 
but  to  us  these  reasons  seem  mere  pretexts  for  delay.  Perhaps  the 
true  arguments  against  independence  were  those  given  as  a  bur 
lesque  in  one  of  the  radical  newspapers  :  "1,  I  shall  lose  my  office; 
2,  I  shall  lose  the  honor  of  being  related  to  men  in  office ;  3,  I  shall 
lose  the  rent  of  houses  for  a  year  or  two;  4,  We  shall  have  no  more 
rum,  sugar,  tea,  or  coffee,  except  at  a  most  exorbitant  price  ;  5,  No 
more  gauze  or  fine  muslins;  6,  The  New-England  men  will  turn 
Goths  and  Vandals,  and  overrun  all  the  Southern  colonies ;  7,  The 
Church  will  have  no  king  for  a  head;  8,  The  Presbyterians  will 
have  a  share  of  power  in  this  country;  9,  I  shall  lose  my  chance  of 
a  large  tract  of  land  in  a  new  purchase;  10,  I  shall  want  the  sup 
port  of  the  first  officers  of  government  in  my  insolence,  injustice,  and 
villany ;  11,  The  common  people  will  have  too  much  power  in  their 
hands."  To  this  last  reason  the  writer  added  a  note  of  explanation  : 
"  N.B.  The  common  people  are  composed  of  tradesmen  and  farmers, 
and  include  nine-tenths  of  the  people  of  America." 

It  was  on  the  7th  of  June  that  Mr.  R.  H.  Lee  obeyed  the  instruc 
tions  of  the  Virginia  legislature  by  moving  that  Congress  should 
declare  independence.  Two  days'  debate  revealed  that  the  meas 
ure,  though  still  a  little  premature,  was  destined  to  pass;  and 
therefore  the  further  discussion  of  the  subject  was  postponed  for 
twenty  days,  and  a  committee  of  five  was  appointed  to  draught  a  decla 
ration,  —  Thomas  Jefferson,  Dr.  Franklin,  John  Adams,  Roger 


188  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Sherman,  and  II.  R.  Livingston.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  naturally 
1  to  prepare  the  draught.  He  was  chairman  of  the  committee, 
having  received  the  highest  numher  of  votes;  he  was  also  its 
younge.-t  member,  and  therefore  bound  to  do  an  ample  share  of  the 
work  ;  he  was  noted  for  his  skill  with  the  pen  ;  he  was  particularly 
conversant  with  the  points  of  the  controversy  ;  he  was  a  Virginian. 
The  task,  indeed,  was  not  very  arduous  or  difficult.  Nothing  was 
wanted  but  a  careful  and  brief  recapitulation  of  wrongs  familiar  to 
every  patriotic  mind,  and  a  clear  statement  of  principles  hackneyed 
from  eleven  years'  iteration.  Jefferson  made  no  difficulty  about 
undertaking  it,  and  probably  had  no  anticipation  of  the  vast 
celebrity  that  was  to  follow  so  slight  an  exercise  of  his  faculties. 

The  public  seem  to  have  had  some  intimation  of  what  was  trans 
piring  in  Congress.  On  June  11,  the  day  after  the  committee 
wa-  appointed,  and  perhaps  the  very  day  on  which  Jefferson  began 
to  write  the  draught,  he  doubtless  read  in  the  newspaper  of  the  morn 
ing  that  "the  grand  question  of  independency7'  was  proposed  to  two 
thousand  Philadelphia  volunteers  on  parade;  when  the  whole  body 
I  for  independence,  except  four  officers  and  twenty-five  privates. 
One  lieutenant,  however,  was  so  much  opposed  to  the  proceeding, 
that  he  refused  to  put  the  question;  which  "  gave  great  umbrage  to 
the  men,  one  of  whom  replied  to  him  in  a  genteel  and  spirited 
manner."  Jefferson  may  have  witnessed  this  scene  from  his  win- 
do\v.  He  lived  then  in  a  new  brick  house  out  in  the  fields,  near 
what  is  now  the  corner  of  Market  and  Seventh  Streets,  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  from  Independence  Square.  "I  rented  the  second  floor,"  he 
tells  us,  "consisting  of  a  parlor  and  bedroom,  ready  furnished," 
rent,  thirty-five  shillings  a  week;  and  he  wrote  this  paper  in  the 
parlor,  upon  a  little  writing-desk  three  inches  high,  which  still 
exists. 

lit-  was  ready  with  his  draught  in  time.  His  colleagues  upon  the 
committee  suggested  a  few  verbal  changes,  none  of  which  were  im 
portant ;  but,  during  the  three  days'  discussion  of  it  in  the  house, 
it  was  subjected  to  a  review  so  critical  and  severe,  that  the  author 
sat  in  his  place  silently  writhing  under  it,  and  Dr.  Franklin  felt 
called  upon  to  console  him  with  the  comic  relation  of  the  process  by 
which  the  sign-board  of  John  Thompson,  hatter,  makes  and  sells 
huts  fur  r<'-rt/i/  ///"//<•//,  was  reduced  to  the  name  of  the  hatter  and 
the  ligure  of  a  hat.  Young  writers  know  what  he  suffered,  who 


THE  DECLARATION  OF   INDEPENDENCE.  189 

come  fresh  from  the  commencement  platform  to  a  newspaper  office, 
and  have  their  eloquent  editorials  (equal  to  Burke)  remorselessly 
edited,  their  best  passages  curtailed,  their  glowing  conclusions  and 
artful  openings  cut  off,  their  happy  epithets  and  striking  similes 
omitted.  Congress  made  eighteen  suppressions,  six  additions,  and 
ten  alterations ;  and  nearly  every  one  of  these  changes  was  an  im 
provement.  The  author,  for  example,  said  that  men  are  endowed 
with  "  inherent  and  inalienable  rights."  Congress  struck  out 
inherent,  —  an  obvious  improvement.  He  introduced  his  catalogue 
of  wrongs  by  these  words:  "To  prove  this,  let  facts  be  submitted 
to  a  candid  world,  for  the  truth  of  ivJiich  we  pledge  a  faith  yet  un 
sullied  by  falsehood  "  It  was  good  taste  in  Congress  to  strike  out 
the  italicized  clause ;  for  it  was  benea'th  such  a  body  to  use  language 
of  that  nature.  If  gentlemen  of  the  press,  who  are  in  secret  revolt 
against  chiefs  insensible  to  the  charms  of  eloquence,  will  turn  to 
the  first  volume  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  works,  and  go  carefully  over  the 
passages  suppressed  or  changed  in  his  draught  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  they  may  become  more  reconciled  to  a  process  by 
which  writers  suffer  and  the  public  gain. 

That  the  passage  concerning  slavery  should  have  been  stricken 
out  by  Congress  has  often  been  re'gretted ;  but  would  it  have 
been  decent  in  this  body  to  denounce  the  king  for  a  crime  in  the 
guilt  of  which  the  colonies  had  shared  ?  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  in  his 
draught,  — 

"He  has  waged  cruel  war  against  human  nature  itself,  violating 
its  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant 
people  who  never  offended  him,  captivating  and  carrying  them  into 
slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death  in  their 
transportation  thither.  This  piratical  warfare,  the  opprobrium  of 
INFIDEL  powers,  is  the  warfare  of  the  CHRISTIAN  king  of  Great 
Britain.  Determined  to  keep  open  a  market  where  MEN  should  be 
bought  and  sold,  he  has*  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing 
every  legislative  attempt  to  prohibit  or  restrain  this  execrable  com 
merce.  And  that  this  assemblage  of  horrors  jnight  want  no  fact 
of  distinguished  dye,  he  is  now  exciting  those  very  people  to  rise 
in  arms  among  us,  and  to  purchase  that  liberty  of  which  he  has 
deprived  them,  by  murdering  the  people  on  whom  he  also  obtruded 
them :  thus  paying  off  former  crimes  committed  against  the  LIBER- 


190  LITE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

TIES   of  one  people,  with  crimes  which  he  urges  them  to  commit 
against  the  LIVES  of  another." 

Surely  the  omission  of  this  passage  was  not  less  right  than  wise. 
New-England  towns  had  been  enriched  hy  the  commerce  in  slaves, 
and  the.  Southern  colonies  had  subsisted  on  the  labor  of  slaves  for 
a  hundred  years.  The  foolish  king  had  committed  errors  enough  ; 
but  it  \vas  not  fair  to  hold  so  limited  a  person  responsible  for  not 
being  a  century  in  advance  of  his  age ;  nor  was  it  ever  in  the 
power  of  any  king  to  compel  his  subjects  to  be  slave-owners.  It 
was  yoiin^  Virginia  that  spoke  in  this  paragraph,  —  Wythe,  Jef 
ferson,  Madison,  and  their  young  friends,  —  not  the  public  mind  of 
America,  which  was  destined  to  reach  it,  ninety  years  after,  by  the 
usual  way  of  agony  and  blood. 

One  omitted  passage,  perhaps,  might  have  been  retained,  in  which 
Jefferson  gave  expression  to  the  mighty  throb  of  wounded  love 
which  American  Englishmen  suffered  when  they  heard  that  foreign 
mercenaries  had  been  hired  to  wage  war  upon  them :  — 

"  Our  British  brethren  are  permitting  their  chief  magistrate  to 
send  over,  not  only  soldiers  of  our  common  blood,  but  Scottish  and 
foreign  mercenaries  to  invade  and  destroj'  us.  These  facts  have 
tfivt-n  the  last  stab  to  agonizing  affection,  and  rnanly  spirit  bids  us 
to  renounce  forever  these  unfeeling  brethren.  We  must  endeavor 
to  forget  our  former  love  for  them,  and  hold  them  as  we  hold  the 
rest  of  mankind,  enemies  in  war, 'in  peace  friends.  We  might  have 
been  a  free  and  a  great  people  together;  but  a  communication  of 
grandeur  and  of  freedom,  it  seems,  is  below  their  dignity.  Le  it  so, 
since  they  will  have  it.  The  road  to  happiness  and  to  glory  is  open 
to  us  too.  We  will  tread  it  apart  from  them,  and  acquiesce  in  the 
->ity  which  denounces  our  eternal  separation." 

Even  this  passage,  so  creditable  to  the  author's  feelings,  was  per 
haps  Letter  suppressed  ;  fur,  after  all,  the  mother  country  of  Amer 
ica,  as  Paine  remarked,. was  not  (Ireat  Britain,  but  Europe;  and, 
since  the  burning  of  Falmouth  "and  the  bombardment  of  Norfolk, 
such  woids  NY*  re  not  expressive  of  the  feelings  of  the  people. 

The  '•  glittering  generality"  of  the  document,  "all  men  are  cre 
ated  equal,"  appears  to  have  been  accepted,  without  objection  or 


THE  DECLARATION  OF   INDEPENDENCE.  191 

remark,  as  a  short  and  simple  reprobation  of  caste  and  privilege. 
Keaders  are  aware  that  it  has  not  escaped  contemptuous  comment  in 
recent  times.  It  would  have  been  easy  for  the  author  of  the  Decla 
ration  —  and  I  wish  he  had  done  so  —  to  put  the  statement  in 
words  which  partisan  prejudice  itself  could  not  have  plausibly  pre 
tended  to  misunderstand ;  for,  as  the  passage  stands,  its  most  ob 
vious  meaning  is  not  true. 

The  noblest  utterance  of  the  whole  composition  is  the  reason 
given  for  making  the  Declaration,  —  "A  DECENT  RESPECT  FOR  THE 
OPINIONS  OF  MANKIND."  This  touches  the  heart.  Among  the 
best  emotions  that  human  nature  knows  is  the  veneration  of  man 
for  man.  This  recognition  of  the  public  opinion  of  the  world,  — 
the  sum  of  human  sense,  —  as  the  final  arbiter  in  all  such  contro 
versies,  is  the  single  phrase  of  the  document  which  Jefferson  alone, 
perhaps,  of  all  the  Congress,  would  have  originated ;  and,  in  point 
of  merit,  it  was  worth  all  the  rest. 

During  the  2d,  3d,  and  4th  of  July,  Congress  were  engaged 
in  reviewing  the  Declaration.  Thursday,  the  fourth,  was  a  hot 
day;  the  session  lasted  many  hours ;  members  were  tired  and  im 
patient.  Every  one  who  has  watched  the  sessions  of  a  deliberative 
body  knows  how  the  most  important  measures  are  retarded,  accele 
rated,  even  defeated,  by  physical  causes  of  the  most  trifling  nature. 
Mr.  Kinglake  intimates  that  Lord  Raglan's  invasion  of  the 
Crimea  was  due  rather  to  the  after-dinner  slumbers  of  the  British 
Cabinet,  than  to  any  well-considered  purpose.  Mr.  Jefferson  used 
to  relate,  with  much  merriment,  that  the  final  signing  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  was  hastened  by  an  absurdly  trivial  cause. 
Near  the  hall  in  which  the  debates  were  then  held  was  a  livery- 
stable,  from  which  swarms  of  flies  came  into  the  open  windows,  and 
assailed  the  silk-stockinged  legs  of  honorable  members.  Handker 
chief  in  hand,  they  lashed  the  flies  with  such  vigor  as  they  could 
command  on  a  July  afternoon  ;  but  the  annoyance  became  at  length 
so  extreme  as  to  render  them  impatient  of  delay,  and  they  made 
haste  to  bring  the  momentous  business  to  a  conclusion. 

After  such  a  long  and  severe  strain  upon  their  minds,  members 
seem  to  have  indulged  in  many  a  jocular  observation  as  they  stood 
around  the  table.  Tradition  has  it,  that  when  John  Hancock  had 
affixed  his  magnificent  signature  to  the  paper,  he  said,  "  There, 
John  Bull  may  read  my  name  without  spectacles  ["  Tradition,  also, 


192  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

will  never  relinquish  the  pleasure  of  repeating,  that,  when  Mr.  Han 
cock  ivniimlcd  members  of  the  necessity  of  hanging  together,  Dr. 
Franklin  was  ready  with  his,  "  Yes,  we  must  indeed  all  hang 
together,  or  else,  most  assuredly,  we  shall  all  hang  separately." 
And  this  may  have  suggested  to  the  portly  Harrison  —  a  "luxuri 
ous,  heavy  gentleman,"  as  John  Adams  describes  him — his  remark 
to  slender  Elbridge  Gerry,  that,  when  the  hanging  came,  he  should 
have  the  advantage;  for  poor  Gerry  would  be  kicking  in  the  air 
long  alter  it  was  all  over  with  himself. 

French  critics  censure  Shakspeare  for  mingling  buffoonery  with 
scenes  of  the  deepest  tragic  interest.  But  here  we  find  one  of  the 
most  important  assemblies  ever  convened,  at  the  supreme  moment 
of  its  existence,  while  performing  the  act  that  gives  it  its  rank 
aniuii;^  deliberative  bodies,  cracking  jokes,  and  hurrying  up  to  the 
table  to  sign,  in  order  to  get  away  from  the  flies.  It  is  precisely  so 
that  Shakspeare  would  have  imagined  the  scene. 

No  composition  of  man  was  ever  received  with  more  rapture  than 
this.  It  came  at  a  happy  time.  Boston  was  delivered,  and  New 
York,  as  yet,  but  menaced  ;  and  in  all  New  England  there  was  not 
a  British  soldier  who  was  not  a  prisoner,  nor  a  king's  ship  that  was 
not  a  prize.  Between  the  expulsion  of  the  British  troops  from  Bos 
ton,  and  their  capture  of  New  York,  was  the  period  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  War  when  the  people  were  most  confident  and  most  united. 
From  the  newspapers  and  letters  of  the  times,  we  should  infer  that 
the  contest  was  ending  rather  than  beginning,  so  exultant  is  their 
tone ;  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  therefore,  was  received 
more  like  a  song  of  triumph  than  a  call  to  battle. 

The  paper  was  signed  late  on  Thursday  afternoon,  July  4.  On 
the  MI  unlay  following,  at  noon,  it  was  publicly  read  for  the  iirst  time, 
in  Independence  Square,  from  a  platform  erected  by  Kittenhouse  for 
the  purpose  of  observing  the  transit  of  Venus.  Captain  John  Hop 
kins,  a  young  man  commanding  an  armed  brig  of  the  navy  of  the 
new  nation,  was  the  reader ;  and  it  required  his  stentorian  voice  to 
carry  the  w<»rds  to  the  distant  verge  of  the  multitude  who  had  come  to 
hear  it.  In  the  evening,  as  a  journal  of  the  day  has  it,  "our  late 
kind's  c<.at-oi'-arms  were  brought  from  the  hall  of  the  State  House, 
where  the  said  king's  courts  were  formerly  held,  and  burned  amid 
the  acclamations  of  a  crowd  of  spectators."  Similar  scenes  tran- 
in  every  centre  of  population,  and  at  every  camp  and  post. 


THE   DECLARATION  OF   INDEPENDENCE.  193 


194  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  legislature  was  obliged  to  pass  an  act  empowering  the  governor 
to  issue  commissions  without  a  seal,  until  one  could  be  engraved  in 
Europe.  The  words  to  be  engraved  upon  this  mystic  piece  of  metal, 
words  suggested  by  the  gentlest  and  most  benevolent  of  men, 
George  Wythe,  acquired  a  mournful  and  horrible  celebrity  in  1865, 
Sic  semper  Tyrannis. 

AYhile  Jefferson  was  going  about  Philadelphia  in  these  burning 
summer  days  looking  for  an  engraver,  he  was  himself  brooding  over 
a  design  for  a  seal;  Dr.  Franklin,  John  Adams,  and  himself  having 
been  appointed  a  committee  to  devise  a  seal  for  the  central  power. 
But  Congress,  too,  had  to  do  without  a  seal  for  some  years.  The 
committee,  by  combining  their  ideas,  achieved  a  most  elaborate  de 
sign,  with  the  lied  Sea  in  it,  and  Pharaoh,  and  a  sword,  and  a  pillar, 
and  a  cloud  brilliant  with  the  hidden  presence  of  God.  All  of  their 
suggestions  were  finally  rejected,  except  the  very  best  legend  ever 
appropriated,  K  Pltiribus  Ununi. 

Jefferson  could  not  remain  in  Congress  at  such  a  time.  Besides 
that  the  condition  of  his  wife  and  household  now  made  his  presence  in 
Virginia,  as  he  said,  "  indispensably  necessary,"  he  had  been  elected 
to  his  old  seat  in  the  legislature,  where  duties  of  the  most  interest 
ing  nature  invited  him.  Twice  he  asked  to  be  released,  before  his 
request  was  granted  and  a  successor  appointed.  In  September,  1776, 
he  left  Congress,  and  went  home  to  assist  in  adjusting  old  Virginia 
to  the  new  order  of  things. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

JEFFEKSON   NAMED    ENVOY    TO    FRANCE. 

A  TEMPTATION  crossed  Jefferson's  path  while  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  still  a  fresh  topic  in  Christendom.  It  was  a 
temptation  which  was,  and  is,  of  all  others,  the  most  alluring  to  an 
American  who  is  young,  educated,  and  fond  of  art ;  and  it  came  to 
him  in  such  a  guise  of  public  duty,  that,  if  he  had  yielded  to  it,  only 
one  person  in  the  world  would  have  blamed  him.  But  the  censure 
of  that  one  would  have  properly  outweighed  a  world's  applause ;  for 
it  was  himself. 

This  temptation  presented  itself  on  the  8th  of  October,  1776.  He 
had  resigned  his  seat  in  Congress,  and,  after  spending  a  few  days  at 
home,  had  proceeded  to  Williamsburg,  where  he  had  taken  his  seat 
in  the  legislature,  and  was  about  to  engage  in  the  hard  and  long 
task  of  bringing  up  old  Virginia  to  the  level  of  the  age.  His  heart 
was  set  on  this  work.  He  wanted  to  help  deliver  her  from  the 
bondage  of  outgrown  laws,  and  introduce  some  of  the  institutions 
and  usages  which  had  given  to  New  England  so  conspicuous  a  supe 
riority  over  the  Southern  Colonies.  A  Virginian,  dining  one  day 
with  John  Adams,  lamented  the  inferiority  of  his  State  to  New 
England.  "  I  can  give  you,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "  a  receipt  for  mak 
ing  a  New  England  in  Virginia.  Town-meetings,  training-days, 
toivn-schools,  and  ministers;  the  meeting-house,  schoolhouse,  and 
training-field  are  the  scenes  where  New-England  men  were  formed." 
Probably  Mr.  Jefferson  had  heard  his  friend  Adams  say  something 
of  the  kind.  He  was  now  intent  upon  purging  the  Virginia  statute- 
books  of  unsuitable  laws,  and  founding  institutions  in  accord  with 
the  recent  events. 

Young  as  he  was,  he  had  had  some  training  now  in  practical  states 
manship.  That  sharp  experience  in  Congress,  while  his  draught  of  the 

195 


196  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Declaration  of  Independence  was  edited  of  its  crudities,  redundancies, 
and  imprudences,  was  salutary  to  him.  It  completed  the  prelim 
inary  part  of  his  education  as  a  public  man,  —  a  public  man  being 
one  who  has  to  do,  not  with  what  is  ideally  best,  but  with  the  best 
attainable;  not  to  give  eloquent  expression  to  his  own  ideas,  but 
tive  expression  to  the  will  of  his  constituents.  \  He  wrote  little 
that  needed  severe  pruning  after  July  4,  1776,  though  he  was 
still  to  propose  many  things  that  were  unattainable.  A  truly  wise, 
bold,  safe,  competent  public  man  is  one  of  the  slowest  formations  in 
human  nature;  but  when  formed,  there  is  only  one  man  more  pre 
vious, — the  philosopher,  who  is  the  common  teacher  of  legislators 
and  constituents.  If  there  had  been  such  a  philosopher  in  Virginia 
just  then,  he  would  have  smiled,  perhaps,  at  the  noble  enthusiasm 
of  these  young  Virginians,  who  were  about  to  try  to  make  a  New 
Kn inland  out  of  a  State  in  which  the  laboring  majority  were  only 
too  likely  to  remain  slaves. 

I  Jut  it  belongs  to  the  generous  audacity  of  youth  to  attempt  the 
impossible.  Here  at  Williamsburg,  in  this  October,  1776,  were 
gathered  once  more  the  circle  of  Virginia  liberals  who  had  been 
working  together  against  the  exactions  of  the  king.  Patrick  Henry 
wa-  governor  now,  living  in  "the  palace,"  and  enjoying  the  old 
viceregal  salary  of  a  thousand  pounds  a  year.  George  Wythe,  from 
service  in  Congress,  had  acquired  experience  and  distinction.  It 
was  lie  who  began  the  constitution-making  in  which  Virginia  had 
luvn  engaged  during  much  of  this  year.  In  January,  while  spend 
ing  an  evening  with  Mr.  John  Adams  at  Philadelphia,  and  hearing 
him  discourse,  in  his  robust  and  ancient-Briton  manner,  of  the 
constitution  proper  for  a  free  State,  George  Wythe  asked  him  to 
put  the  substance  of  his  ideas  upon  paper.  Mr.  Adams  gave  him, 
in  ron.MMjiienee,  his  "Thoughts  upon  Government;"  which  were 
ih I-  best  thoughts  on  that  subject  of  Locke,  Milton,  Algernon 
Sidnev,  flames  Otis,  and  John  Adams.  How  congenial  to  Mr. 
Adams  such  a  piece  of  work!  "The  best  lawgivers  of  anti 
quity/"'  said  he,  ';  would  rejoice  to  live  at  a  period  like  this,  when, 
for  the  iirst  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  three  millions  of  people 
were  deliberately  dwoximj  their  government  and  institutions." 
Patrick  Henry  was- well  pli-ased  with  the  "  Thoughts."  "It  shall 
be  my  incessant  study,"  lie  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams,  •'•'  so  to  form  our 
portrait  of  government,  that  a  kindred  with  Xew  England  may  be 


JEFFERSON  NAMED   ENVOY  TO   FRANCE.  197 

discerned  in  it.J>  So  thought  all  the  hand  of  radically-liberal  men 
in  Virginia,  who  were  beginning  to  regard  Thomas  Jefferson  as 
their  chief. 

And  now,  on  the  second  day  of  the.  session,  came  a  fair  excuse  for 
him  to  leave  the  "laboring  oar,"  and  throw  the  difficult  task  of 
re-creating  Virginia  upon  his  colleagues.  A  messenger  from  the 
Honorable  Congress  reached  Williamsburg,  dctoh^r  8,  bearing  a 
despatch  for  Mr.  Jefferson,  informing  him  that  he  had  been  elected 
joint  commissioner  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  Silas  Deane  to  represent 
the  United  States  at  Paris.  The  temptation  was  all  but  irresistible. 
He  relished  extremely  the  delicious  society  of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  was 
getting  into  the  Fraiiklinian  way  of  dealing  with  cantankerous  man. 
Paris,  too,  to  which  good  Americans  were  already  looking  as  the 
abode  of  the  blest,  where  Jefferson  could  see  at  last,  after  living  in 
the  world  thirty-three  years,  harmoniously  porportioned  edifices,  and 
listen  to  music  such  as  the  Williamsburg  "Apollo"  had  only  heard 
in  dreams.  The  public  duty,  also,  was  supposed  to  be  of  the  first 
importance.  Perhaps  it  was;  but,  also,  perhaps  it  was  not.  Con 
sidering  the  whole  case,  the  young  giant  might  have  done  better  if 
he  had,  from  the  first,  made  up  his  mind  to  fight  unassisted.  It  was 
a  costly  business,  that  French  alliance ;  the  heaviest  item  being  the 
habit  of  leaning  upon  France,  and  looking  for  help,  at  every  pinch, 
to  the  French  treasury.  But  this  could  not  have  been  foreseen  in 
1776  ;  and  happy,  indeed,  would  it  have  been  for  Franklin,  for  the 
country,  for  the  future,  if  he  could  have  been  seconded  by  a  person 
so  formed  to  co-operate  with  him  as  Jefferson.  Franklin  would  have 
got  Canada  at  the  peace  of  1782,  if  he  had  had  a  Jefferson  to  help, 
instead  of  a  Jay  and  an  Adams  to  hinder. 

Torn  with  contending  desires,  Jefferson  kept  the  messenger  wait 
ing  day  after  day ;  so  hard  was  it  to  say  No  to  Congress,  and  to  give 
up  an  appointment  promising  so  much  honor  and  delight.  But  his 
duty  was  plain.  There  was  a  lady  upon  Monticello  who  had  a  claim 
upon  his  service  with  which  no  other  claim  could  compete.  To  leave 
her  in  the  condition  in  which  she  was,  had  been  infidelity ;  and  to 
take  her  with  him  might  have  been  fatal  to  her.  Virginia  had 
many  sons,  but  Mrs.  Jefferson  had  but  one  husband.  So,  on  the 
11  tli  of  October,  the  messenger  mounted  and  rode  away,  bearing  the 
proper  answer  to  the  President  of  Congress  :  — 


196  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Declaration  of  Independence  was  edited  of  its  crudities,  redundancies, 
and  imprudences,  was  salutary  to  him.  It  completed  the  prelim 
inary  part  of  his  education  as  a  public  man,  —  a  public  man  being 
one  who  has  to  do,  not  with  what  is  ideally  best,  but  with  the  best 
attainable;  not  to  give  eloquent  expression  to  his  own  ideas,  but 
live  expression  to  the  will  of  his  constituents.  \  He  wrote  little 
that  needed  severe  pruning  after  July  4,  1776,  though  he  was 
still  to  propose  many  things  that  were  unattainable.  A  truly  wise, 
bold,  safe,  competent  public  man  is  one  of  the  slowest  formations  in 
human  nature;  but  when  formed,  there  is  only  one  man  more  pre- 
<-i,,us, — the  philosopher,  who  is  the  common  teacher  of  legislators 
and  constituents.  If  there  had  been  such  a  philosopher  in  Virginia 
just  then,  he  would  have  smiled,  perhaps,  at  the  noble  enthusiasm 
of  these  young  Virginians,  who  were  about  to  try  to  make  a  ]S"c\v 
lln -land  out  of  a  State  in  which  the  laboring  majority  were  only 
too  likely  to  remain  slaves. 

P»ut  it  belongs  to  the  generous  audacity  of  youth  to  attempt  the 
impossible.  Here  at  Williamsburg,  in  this  October,  1776,  were 
gathered  once  more  the  circle  of  Virginia  liberals  who  had  been 
working  together  against  the  exactions  of  the  king.  Patrick  Henry 
was  governor  now,  living  in  "the  palace,"  and  enjoying  the  old 
viceregal  salary  of  a  thousand  pounds  a  year.  George  Wythe,  from 
service  in  Congress,  had  acquired  experience  and  distinction.  It 
was  he  who  began  the  constitution-making  in  which  Virginia  had 
been  engaged  during  much  of  this  year.  In  January,  while  spend 
ing  an  evening  with  Mr.  John  Adams  at  Philadelphia,  and  hearing 
him  discourse,  in  his  robust  and  ancient-Briton  manner,  of  the 
constitution  proper  for  a  free  State,  George  Wythe  asked  him  to 
put  the  substance  of  his  ideas  upon  paper.  Mr.  Adams  gave  him, 
in  consequence,  his  "Thoughts  upon  Government;"  which  were 
ilie  best  thoughts  on  that  subject  of  Locke,  Milton,  Algernon 
Sidney,  James  Otis,  and  John  Adams.  How  congenial  to  Mr. 
Adams  such  a  piece  of  work!  "The  best  lawgivers  of  anti 
quity,"  said  he,  "would  rejoici'  to  live  at  a  period  like  this,  when, 
for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  three  millions  of  people 
were  deliberately  oJioosiiiy  their  government  and  institutions." 
Patrick  Henry  was  well  plra.-ed  with  the  "Thoughts."  "It  shall 
be  my  incessant  study,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams,  "  so  to  form  our 
portrait  of  government,  that  a  kindred  with  Xew  England  may  be 


JEFFEBSON  NAMED   ENVOY  TO  FRANCE.  197 

discerned  in  it."  So  thought  all  the  band  of  radically-liberal  men 
in  Virginia,  who  were  beginning  to  regard  Thomas  Jefferson  as 
their  chief. 

And  now,  on  the  second  day  of  the.  session,  came  a  fair  excuse  for 
him  to  leave  the  "laboring  oar,"  and  throw  the  difficttlt  task  of 
re-creating  Virginia  upon  his  colleagues.  A  messenger  from  the 
Honorable  Congress  reached  Williamsburg,  October  8,  bearing  a 
despatch  for  Mr.  Jefferson,  informing  him  that  he  had  been  elected 
joint  commissioner  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  Silas  Deane  to  represent 
the  United  States  at  Paris.  The  temptation  was  all  but  irresistible. 
He  relished  extremely  the  delicious  society  of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  was 
getting  into  the  Frauklinian  way  of  dealing  with  cantankerous  man. 
Paris,  too,  to  which  good  Americans  were  already  looking  as  the 
abode  of  the  blest,  where  Jefferson  could  see  at  last,  after  living  in 
the  world  thirty-three  years,  harmoniously  porportioned  edifices,  and 
listen  to  music  such  as  the  Williamsburg  "  Apollo  "  had  only  heard 
in  dreams.  The  public  duty,  also,  was  supposed  to  be  of  the  first 
importance.  Perhaps  it  was;  but,  also,  perhaps  it  was  not.  Con 
sidering  the  whole  case,  the  young  giant  might  have  done  better  if 
he  had,  from  the  first,  made  up  his  mind  to  fight  unassisted.  It  was 
a  costly  business,  that  French  alliance  ;  the  heaviest  item  being  the 
habit  of  leaning  upon  France,  and  looking  for  help,  at  every  pinch, 
to  the  French  treasury.  But  this  could  not  have  been  foreseen  in 
1776;  and  happy,  indeed,  would  it  have  been  for  Franklin,  for  the 
country,  for  the  future,  if  he  could  have  been  seconded  by  a  person 
so  formed  to  co-operate  with  him  as  Jefferson.  Franklin  would  have 
got  Canada  at  the  peace  of  1782,  if  he  had  had  a  Jefferson  to  help, 
instead  of  a  Jay  and  an  Adams  to  hinder. 

Torn  with  contending  desires,  Jefferson  kept  the  messenger  wait 
ing  day  after  day ;  so  hard  was  it  to  say  No  to  Congress,  and  to  give 
up  an  appointment  promising  so  much  honor  and  delight.  But  his 
duty  was  plain.  There  was  a  lady  upon  Monticello  who  had  a  claim 
upon  his  service  with  which  no  other  claim  could  compete.  To  leave 
her  in  the  condition  in  which  she  was,  had  been  infidelity ;  and  to 
take  her  with  him  might  have  been  fatal  to  her.  Virginia  had 
many  sons,  but  Mrs.  Jefferson  had  but  one  husband.  So,  on  the 
11  th  of  October,  the  messenger  mounted  and  rode  away,  bearing  the 
proper  answer  to  the  President  of  Congress  :  — 


198  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

"  It  would  argue  great  insensibility  in  me,  could  I  receive  with 
indifference  so  confidential  an  appointment  from  your  body.  My 
thanks  are  a  poor  return  for  the  partiality  they  have  been  pleased  to 
entertain  for  me.  Xo  cares  for  my  own  person,  nor  yet  for  my  pri 
vate  affairs,^  would  have  induced  one  moment's  hesitation  to  accept 
the  charge.  But  circumstances  very  peculiar  in  the  situation  of  my 
family,  such  as  neither  permit  me  to  leave  nor  to  carry  it,  compel  me 
to  ask  leave  to  decline  a  service  so  honorable,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
so  important  to  the  American  cause.  The  necessity  under  which  I 
labor,  and  the  conflict  I  have  undergone  for  three  days,  during  which 
I  could  not  determine  to  dismiss  your  messenger,  will,  I  hope,  plead 
my  pardon  with  Congress  ;  and  I  am  sure  there  are  too  many  of  that 
body  to  whom  they  may  with  better  hopes  confide  this  charge,  to 
leave  them  under  a  moment's  difficulty  in  making  a  new  choice." 

As  soon  as  he  had  reached  a  decision  on  this  important  matter,  his 
colleagues  in  the  Assembly,  who  had  been  waiting  for  it,  placed  him 
on  a  great  number  of  committees ;  and  he  began  forthwith,  on  the 
very  day  of  the  messenger's  departure,  to  introduce  the  measures  of 
reform  which  ho  had  meditated.  Mr.  Adams  might  well  regard 
Virginia  as  a  reformer's  paradise ;  for  owing  to  the  colonial  necessity 
of  submitting  every  desired  change  to  the  king,  which  involved  time, 
troubh-.  expense,  and  probable  rejection,  the  Province  was  far  behind 
even  Great  Britain  in  that  adaptation  of  laws  and  institutions  to 
altered  times,  which  ought  to  be  always  in  progress  in  every  com 
munity.  There  was  such  an  accumulation,  in  Virginia,  of  the  out 
grown  and  the  unsuitable,  that  Jefferson  and  his  friends  hoped  to 
accomplish  in  a  few  months  an  amount  of  radical  change  that  would 
have  been  a  fair  allowance  for  a  century  and  a  half. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

A 

NEED    OF    KEFOBM   IN    OLD   VIRGINIA. 


THE  law^goks  Were  full  of  old  absurdity  and  old  cruelty.*  Of  the 
four  himij^^Biousarid  people  who  were  supposed  to  inhabit  Virginia, 
one-half  ™^African  slaves ;  and  it  was  a  fixed  idea  in  the  Jeffer 
son  circle,  that  whites  and  blacks  could  not  live  in  equal  freedom  in 
the  same  community.  Besides  the  intense  prejudice  entertained  by 
the  master  race  against  the  servile,  and  the  hatred  which  had  been 
gathering  (as  Jefferson  thought)  in  the  minds  of  the  slaves  from 
four  generations  of  outrage,  he  believed  that  Nature  herself  had  made 
it  impossible  for  the  two  races  to  live  happily  together  on  equal  terms. 
He  evidently  had  a  low  opinion  of  the  mental  capacity  of  his  colored 
brethren.  The  Indian,  with  no  opportunities  of  mental  culture 
beyond  those  of  the  negro,  had  acquired  the  art  of  oratory,  could 
carve  the  bowl  of  his  pipe  into  a  head  not  devoid  of  truth  and  spirit, 
and  draw  upon  a  piece  of  bark  a  figure  resembling  an  animal,  a  plant, 
a  tract  of  country.  But  never  had  hie  observed  in  a  negro,  or  a 
negro's  work,  one  gleam  of  superior  intelligence,  aptitude,  or  taste. 
No  negro  standing  behind  his  master's  chair  had  caught  from  the 
conversation  of  educated  persons  an  elevated  mode  of  thinking. 
"  Never,"  says  Mr.  Jefferson,  "  could  I  find  that  a  black  had  uttered 
a  thought  above  the  level  of  plain  narration  ;  never  saw  even  an 
elementary  trait  of  painting  or  sculpture."  In  music  they  were  more 
gifted ;  but  no  negro  had  yet  imagined  any  thing  beyond  "  a  small 

*  Like  this,  for  example:  "Whereas,  oftentimes  many  brabling  women  often  slander 
and  scandalize  their  neighbors  for  which  their  poore  husbands  are  often  brought  into  charge 
able  and  vexatous  suites,  and  caste  in  greate  damages :  Bee  it  therefore  enacted  by  the 
authority  aforesaid,  that  in  actions  of  slander,  occasioned  by  the  wife  as  aforesaid,  after  judg 
ment  passed  for  the  damages,  the  woman  shall  be  punished  by  ducking  ;  and  if  the  slander 
be  soe  enormous  as  to  be  adjudged  at  a  greater  damage  than  five  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco, 
then  the  woman  to  suffer  a  ducking  for  every  five  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco  adjudged  against 
the  husband,  if  he  refuse  to  pay  the  tobacco." 

199 


200  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

catch."  Love,  which  inspires  the  melodious  madness  of  poets,  kin 
dles  only  the  senses  of  a  black  man,  not  his  mind,  and  has  never,  in 
all  the  tide  of  time,  wrung  from  him  a  word  which  other  lovers  love 
to  repeat.  Mere  misery,  to  other  races,  has  been  inspiration.  The 
blacks  are  wretched  enough,  but  they  have  never  uttered  their  woes 
in  poetry. 

Fur  these  and  other  reasons,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  disposed  to  regard 
the  negro  race  as  naturally  inferior  ;  though  he  expresses  himself  on 
the  point  with  the  hesitation  natural  to  a  scientific  mind  provided 
with  a  scant  supply  of  facts.  On  the  political  question,  he  was 
clear  :  the  two  races  could  not  live  together  in  peace  as  equals.  The 
attempt  to  do  so,  he  thought,  would  "divide  Virginiau^gj^o  parties, 
and  produce  convulsions  which  would  probably  never  ^^Btft  in  the 
extermination  of  the  one  or  the  other  racev' '  Here  was  j^roblem  for 
u  knot  of  young  legislators,  without  a  precedent  to  guide  them  in  all 
the  known  history  of  man  ! 

Tlie  gross  ignorance  of  the  white  inhabitants,  except  one  small 
class,  was  another  too  obvious  fact.  They  were  almost  as  ignorant 
as  Europeans,  with  fewer  restraints  than  Europeans.  Almost  every 
glimpse  we  get  of  the  poorer  Virginians  of  that  day  is  a  revelation 
of  rude  and  reckless  ignorance.  AVe  have  in  the  Memoirs  of  Elkanah 
Watson,  who  rode  through  Virginia  in  1778,  an  election  scene  at 
Hanover  Court  House,  which  must  have  been  a  startling  contrast  to 
the  elect  i« -us  lie  had  witnessed  in  his  native  Massachusetts,  where  an 
election  was  a  solemnity  opened  with  prayer.  The  <;  whole  coun 
try,"  he  records,  was  assembled.  "  The  moment  I  alighted,  a 
wretched,  pug-nosed  fellow  assailed  me  to  swap  watches.  I  had 
hardly  shaken  him  off  when  I  was  attacked  by  a  wild  Irishman, 
who  insisted  on  my  swapping  horses  with  him,  and,  in  a  twinkling, 
ran  up  the  pedigree  of  his  horse  to  the  grand  dam.  Treating  his 
importunity  with  little  respect,  I  became  near  being  involved  in  a 
boxing-match,  the  Irishman  swearing  I  did  not  l  trate  him  like  a 
jintleman.'  I  had  hardly  escaped  this  dilemma,  when  my  attention 
was  attracted  by  a  fight  between  two  very  unwieldy  fat  men,  foam 
ing  and  putting  like  two  furies,  until  one  succeeded  in  twisting  a 
forefinger  in  a  side-lock  of  the  other's  hair,  and  in  the  act  of  thrust 
ing  by  this  purchase  his  thumb  into  the  latter's  eye,  he  bawled  out, 
rV//.sr.  equivalent,  in  technical  language,  to  Enough." 

There   was    in   Virginia   an    unusually  large  proportion   of  this 


NEED   OF   REFORM   IN   OLD   VIRGINIA.  201 

savage  ignorance,  easily  convertible  into  fanatical  ignorance.  The 
handling  of  tobacco,  it  appears,  gave  employment  to  a  great  number 
of  rough  fellows, — tobacco-rollers,  among  others,  who  drove,  a  pin 
into  each  end  of  a  hogshead  of  tobacco,  and  thus  attaching  to  it  a 
pair  of  shafts,  harnessed  a  horse  to  it,  and  rolled  it  to  the  landing. 
Professor  Tucker  of  Virginia  speaks  of  this  class  as  "  hardy,  reckless, 
proverbially  rude,  and  often  indulging  in  coarse  humor  at  the  expense 
of  the  traveller  who  chanced  to  be  well  dressed,  or  riding  in  a  car 
riage."  But  ignorance  was  almost  universal  in  Virginia,  as  it  must 
be  in  every  community,  unless  there  is  a  universal  system  of  educa 
tion.  And  this  was  another  problem  for  the  young  gentlemen  at 
Williamsburg  who  desired  to  Yankeefy  Virginia.  Mr.  Jefferson,  for 
one,  felt  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  voting  class  being  able  to  vote. 
He  saw,  too,  wherever  he  looked  in  Virginia,  the  evils  arising 
from  ill-distributed  wealth.  It  is  the  nature  of  wealth  to  get  into 
heaps  ;  because  it  is  the  nature  of  the  weak  to  squander  their  money, 
and  of  the  strong  to  husband  it;  and  this  being  its  nature,  laws 
need  not  aggravate  the  tendency.  But  in  Virginia,  as  in  all  the 
old-fashioned  countries,  there  was  a  whole  system  of  laws  and 
usages  expressly  designed  to  keep  property  from  being  distributed. 
Fathers  could  prevent  a  profligate  son  from  sinking  to  his  natural  level 
in  the  community,  by  entailing  upon  him  and  upon  the  first-born  of 
his  male  descendants,  not  his  landed  estates  only,  but  the  negroes 
who  gave  them  value ;  and  this  entail  could  only  be  broken  by  a 
special  act  of  the  legislature.  The  law  of  primogeniture  prevented 
the  natural  division  of  estates  among  all  the  family  of  a  deceased 
proprietor,  excluding  all  the  daughters,  and  all  the  sons  but  one. 
The  consequence  was,  that  the  best  portions  of  Virginia  were  held 
by  a  few  families,  who  suffered  the  ills  and  inconveniences  of  aristo 
cratic  rank,  without  attaining  that  moral  elevation  which  is  possible 
to  aristocrats  who  accept  the  public  duties  of  their  position.  They 
monopolized  the  honors  of  the  colony ;  but,  as  a  class,  they  appear  to 
have  been  as  destitute  of  public  spirit  as  the  grandees  of  Spain  or 
Poland.  There  is  only  one  test  of  a  genuine  superiority,  and  that 
test  was  as  familiar  to  their  ears  as  it  was  foreign  to  their  hearts  : 
"  Let  him  that  will  be  chief  among  you,  be  your  servant,"  a  perfect 
definition  of  a  proper  aristocracy.  Jefferson,  Henry,  Madison,  and 
their  circle,  who  had  been  contending  with  the  aristocracy  of  Vir 
ginia  during  the  whole  of  their  public  life,  had  to  consider  a  remedy 
for  this  evil  also. 


202  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

The  Established  Church,  during  the  ten  years  preceding  the  Kev- 
olution,  had  been  pressing  heavily  upon  the  people  of  Virginia, 
Virginians  used  sometimes  to  ridicule  New  Englanders  whom  they 
chanced  to  meet,  for  the  persecution  of  the  Quakers  in  Massachu 
setts,  and  the  witchcraft  delusion  of  Salem  and  Boston.  It  is  the 
privilege  of  an  American  citizen  to  be  profoundly  ignorant  of  his 
country's  history  ;  and  Virginians,  availing  themselves  of  this  privi 
lege,  are  not  generally  aware,  that,  at  the  time  when  Yankee  magis 
trates  were  hanging  witches  and  whipping  Quakers,  Virginia  justices 
of  the  peace  were  putting  Quakers  in  the  pillory  for  keeping  their 
hats  on  in  church,  and  appointing  juries  of  matrons  to  fumble  over 
the  bodies  of  old  women  for  "  witch-marks,"  which,  of  course,  they 
found.  John  Burk,  historian  of  Virginia,  intimates  that  a  woman 
\\a<  In i rued  to  death  in  Princess  Anne  County  for  witchcraft,  and 
adds,  that,  "  in  all  probability,  the  case  was  not  solitary."  And  as 
Massachusetts  expelled  Roger  Williams  and  others  for  opinions' 
sake,  so  did  Virginia,  in  the  same  generation,  refuse  a  residence  to 
some  Puritan  clergymen  who  went  from  Massachusetts  to  Virginia 
upon  the  urgent  invitation  of  persons  of  their  own  faith.  But 
tin-re  is  this  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  Yankees  :  They  recovered 
from  the  mania  of  uniformity  sooner  than  the  Virginians.  If,  in 
1650,  they  regarded  the  celebration  of  the  Mass  as  a  capital  offence, 
and  would  not  permit  the  Church  of  England  service  to  be  performed, 
nor  the  rite  of  baptism  to  be  administered  by  immersion,  nor  a  com 
pany  df  men  to  pray  with  their  hats  on,  yet,  in  1750,  all  these  things 
were  permitted,  except,  perhaps,  the  celebration  of  the  Mass.  But, 
in  Virginia,  the  Established  Church  had  become  more  intolerant  as 
the  colony  increased  in  population.  It  seemed  so  hostile  to  liberty, 
that  J  aincs  Madison,  after  coming  home  from  Princeton  College  in 
Xew  Jersey,  where  he  was  educated,  expressed  the  opinion,  that,  if 
the  Church  of  Kn  gland  had  been  established  and  endowed  in  all  the 
colonies  ;is  it  was  in  Virginia,  the  king  would  have  had  his  way,  and 
gradually  reduced  all  America  to  subjection. 

It  was  not  merely  that  obsolete  (though  unrepealed)  law  still  made 
Jeffer.-iMi  and  several  of  his  most  virtuous  friends  liable  to  be  burned 
to  death  for  heresy;  nor  that  a  denial  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
was  legally  punishable  by  three  years'  imprisonment;  nor  that 
Unitaiians  could  be  legally  deprived  of  the  custody  of  their  own 
children,  and  those  children  assigned  to  drunken  and  dissolute  Trin- 


NEED  OF  REFORM  IN  OLD  VIRGINIA  203 

itarians;  nor  even  that  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  and  Quakers  had  to 
pay  for  supporting  a  church  they  did  not  attend,  —  these  were  not 
the  grievances  which  made  Virginians  restive  under  the  Establish 
ment. 

In  1774,  when  Madison  was  twenty-three,  we  'find  him  writing  to 
a  Northern  friend,  "  I  want  again  to  breathe  your  'free  air.  .  .  . 
That  diabolical,  hell-conceived  principle  of  persecution  rages  among 
some  ;  and,  to  their  eternal  infamy,  the  clergy  can  furnish  their  quota 
of  imps  for  such  purposes.  There  are  at  this  time,  in  the  adjacent 
county,  not  less  than  five  or. six  well-meaning  men  in  close  jail  for 
publishing  their  religious  sentiments,  which,  in  the  main,  are  very 
orthodox."  These  prisoners  were  Baptists,  the  most  numerous  and 
enterprising  of  the  dissenting  sects.  The  historian  of  the  Virginia 
Baptists,  Semple,  throws  light  on  Mr.  Madison's  brief,  indignant  rec 
ord.  The  Baptist  ministers,  from  1768  to  1775,  were  frequently 
arrested,  he  tells  us  ;  and,  as  it  was  awkward  to  define  their  exact 
offence,  they  were  usually  arraigned  as  "  disturbers  of  the  peace." 
He  gives  a  ludicrous  account  of  the  first  arrest,  which  occurred  in 
1768,  near  the  seat  of  the  Madisons.  Young  Madison,  then  a  lad 
of  seventeen,  may  have  witnessed  the  ridiculous  scene.  Three  Bap 
tist  preachers  were  seized  by  the  sheriff  on  the  same  Sunday  morn 
ing,  and  brought  to  the  yard  of  the  parish  church,  where  three 
magistrates,  who  were  in  waiting  for  them,  bound  them  in  a  thousand 
pounds  to  appear  in  court  two  days  after.  When  they  were 
arraigned,  the  prosecutor  assailed  them  with  the  utmost  vehemence. 
"  May  it  please  Your  Honors,"  he  cried,  "  these  men  are  great  dis 
turbers  of  the  peace.  They  cannot  meet  a  man  upon  the  road  but 
they  must  ram  a  text  of  Scripture  down  his  throat."  It  so  chanced 
that  one  of  the  prisoners  was  a  very  good  lawyer  in  an  unprofes 
sional  way,  and  made  a  defence  that  was  embarrassing  to  magis 
trates  who  were  resolved  to  find  them  in  the  wrong.  The  Court 
offered,  at  length,  to  release  them,  if  they  would  give  their  word  not 
to  preach  for  a  year.  Refusing  this,  they  were  ordered  into  close 
confinement,  and  went  to  Spottsylvania  Jail,  singing,  "  Broad  is  the 
road  that  leads  to  death,"  amid  the  jeers  of  the  mob.  After 
remaining  in  jail  (a  straw-strewn  pen,  with  grated  holes  for  win 
dows)  for  forty-three  days,  preaching  dafly  through  the  grated  aper 
tures  to  a  hooting  crowd,  they  were  released. 

Worthy  John  Blair,  governor  pro  tern.,  to  whom  accusers  and 


204  LIFE   OF    THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

accused  hastened  to  refer  the  matter,  being  a  man  of  liberal  opin 
ion-,  sided,  as  a  mutter  of  course,  with  the  Baptists.  He  told  the 
bigoted  squires  that  the  persecution  of  dissenters  only  increased 
their  mini  I  UTS,  and  that  the  Baptists  had  really  brought  some  repro 
bates  to  repentance.  Nay,  said  he,  if  a  man  of  theirs  is  idle,  and 
neglects  to  provide  for  his  family,  he  incurs  the  censure  of  his 
brethren,  which  has  had  good  effects;  and  he  only  wished  Church 
people  would  try  the  same  system.,  .But  there  was  an  ignorant  mul 
titude  in  Virginia,  as  bigoted  as  the  county  magnates.  Hence  this 
persecution  continued;  and  the  case  of  these  very  men  was  tried 
again  at  Spottsylvunia  Court  House,  and  Patrick  Henry  rode  fifty 
miles  to  defend  them.  • 

But  for  the  account  (missed  by  Wirt)  which  has  been  preserved 
of  Patrick  Henry's  performance  on  this  occasion,  we  should  not  have 
mi  1-r-;  .  "I  the  secret  of  his  power  over  an  assembly.  The  resistless 
magic  of  his  oratory  was  greatly  due  to  artifice,  management, 
extreme  and  sudden  changes  in  tone,  adroit  repetition  of  tolling 
phrases,  lie  entered  the  court-house  while  the  prosecuting  attorney 
w.i-;  reading  the  indictment.  He  was  a  stranger  to  most  of  the 
spectators ;  and,  being  dressed  in  the  country  manner,  his  entrance 
excited  no  remark.  When  the  prosecutor  had  finished  his  brief 
opening,  the  new-comer  took  the  indictment,  and,  glancing  at  it  with 
an  expression  of  puzzled  incredulity,  began  to  speak  in  the  tone  of 
a  man  who  has  just  heard  something  too  astounding  for  belief:  — 

"May  it  please  Your  Worships,  I  think  I  heard  read  by  the  prose 
cutor,  as  I  entered  the  house,  the  paper  I  now  hold  in  my  hand. 
If  I  have  rightly  understood,  the  king's  attorney  has  framed  an 
indictment  for  the  purpose  of  arraigning  and  punishing  by  imprison 
ment  these  three  inoffensive  persons  before  the  bar  of  this  court  for 
a  crime  of  groat  magnitude,  —  as  disturbers  of  the  peace.  May  it 
please  the  court,  what  did  I  hear  read  ?  Did  I  hear  it  distinctly,  or 
was  it  a  mistake  of  my  own?  Did  I  hear  an  expression  ; 
crime,  that  these  men,  whom  Your  Worships  are  about  to  try  for 
misdemeanor,  are  charged  with  —  with — with  WHAT?" 

Having  delivered  these  words  in  a  halting,  broken  manner,  as  if 
his  mind  was  staggering  under  the  weight  of  a  monstrous  idea,  he 
lowered  his  voice  to  its  <le,-j>e>t  ki-s;  and  assuming  the  profoundest 
solemnity  of  manner,  answered  his  own  question:  "  Preaching  the 
of  the  Son  of  God/" 


NEED   OF   REFORM  IN   OLD   VIRGINIA.  205 

Then  he  paused.  Every  eye  was  now  riveted  upon  him,  and 
every  mind  intent ;  for  all  this  was  executed  as  a  Kean  or  a  Siddons 
would  have  performed  it  on  the  stage,  —  eye,  voice,  attitude,  gesture, 
all  in  accord  to  produce  the  utmost  possibility  of  effect.  Amid  a 
silence  that  could  be  felt,  he  waved  the  indictment  three  times  round 
his  head,  as  though  still  amazed,  still  unable  to  comprehend  the 
charge.  Then  he  raised  his  hands  and  eyes  to  heaven,  and,  in  a 
tone  of  pathetic  energy  wholly  indescribable,  exclaimed,  "  Great 
God!" 

At  this  point,  such  was  his  power  of  delivery,  the  audience 
relieved  their  feelings  by  a  burst  of  sighs  and  tears.  The  orator 
continued,  — 

"  May  it  please  Your  Worships,  in  a  day  like  this,  when  Truth  is 
about  to  burst  her  fetters ;  when  mankind  are  about  to  be  aroused  to 
claim  their  natural  and  inalienable  rights ;  when  the  yoke  of  oppres 
sion  that  has  reached  the  wilderness  of  America,  and  the  unnatural 
alliance  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  power  are  about  to  be  dissev 
ered,  —  at  such  a  period,  when  Liberty,  Liberty  of  Conscience,  is 
about  to  wake  from  her  slumberings,  and  inquire  into  the  reason 
of  such  charges  as  I  find  exhibited  here  to-day  in  this  indict 
ment" —  Here  occurred  another  of  his  appalling  pauses,  during 
'which  he  cast  piercing  looks  at  the  judges  and  at  the  three  clergy 
men  arraigned.  Then  resuming,  he  thrilled  every  hearer  by  his 
favorite  device  of  repetition,  "  If  I  am  not  deceived,  —  according  to 
the  contents  of  the  paper  I  now  hold  in  my  hand,  —  these  men  are 
accused  of  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  !  "  He  waved 
the  document  three  times  rourfd  his  head,  as  though  still  lost  in 
wonder;  and  then,  with  the  same  electric  attitude  of  appeal  to 
heaven,  he  gasped,  "  Great  God !  " 

This  was  followed  by  another  burst  of  feeling  from  the  spectators ; 
and  again  this  master  of  effect  plunged  into  the  tide  of  his  dis 
course  :  — 

"May  it  please  Your  Worships,  there  are  periods  in  the  history  of 
man  when  corruption  and  depravity  have  so  long  debased  the  human 
character,  that  man  sinks  under  the  weight  of  the  oppressor's  hand, 
—  becomes  his  servile,  his  abject  slave.  He  licks  the  hand  that 
smites  hiin.  He  bows  in  passive  obedience  to  the  mandates  of  the 


206  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

>t;  and,  in  this  state  of  servility,  he  receives  his  fetters  of  per 
petual  bondage.  But,  may  it  please  Your  Worships,  such  a  day  has 
pa->ed.  From  that  period  when  our  fathers  left  the  land  of  their 
nativity  f>r  these  American  wilds,  —  from  the  moment  they  placed 
their  feet  upon  the  American  continent,  —  from  that  moment  despot 
ism  was  crushed,  the  fetters  of  darkness  were  broken,  and  Heaven 
decreed  that  man  should  be  free,  —  free  to  worship  God  according  to 
the  Bible.  In  vain  were  all  their  sufferings  and  bloodshed  to  subju 
gate  this  New  World,  if  we,  their  offspring,  must  still  be  oppressed 
and  persecuted.  But,  may  it  please  Your  Worships,  permit  me  to 
inquire  once  more,  for  what  are  these  men  about  to  be  tried?  This 
pap.  r  says,  for  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  Saviour  to  Adam's  fallen 
.'" 

Again  he  paused.  For  the  third  time,  he  slowly  waved  the 
indictment  round  his  head;  and  then  turning  to  the  judges,  looking 
them  full  in  the  face,  exclaimed  with  the  most  impressive  effect, 
"  What  laws  have  they  violated?"  The  whole  assembly  were  now 
painfully  moved  and  excited.  The  presiding  judge  ended  the  scene 
"iiiLT,  "  Sheriff,  discharge  these  men." 

It  was  u  triumph  of  the  dramatic  art.     The  men  were  discharged; 

but  not  the  less,  in  other  counties,  did  zealous  bigots  pursue  and 

acute  the  ministers  of  other  denominations  than  their  own.     It 

was  not  till  the  Revolutionary  War  absorbed  all  minds,  that  Baptists 

1  i  o  be  imprisoned ;  nor  then  were  they  released  from  paying 

tithes  to  support  a  cliurch  which  they  neither  attended  nor  approved. 

Such  was  this  old  Virginia  which  Thomas  Jefferson  and  his 
friends  were  about  to  try  to  reform.  ^A  slovenly,  slatternly  old  Eng 
land  in  the  woods,  where  the  abuses  and  absurdities  of  the  old  coun 
try  were  exaggerated,  the  flower  of  her  young  gentlemen  now 
desired  to  change  into  an  orderly,  industrious,  thoughtful,  and 
instructed  JVetv  England.  And  what  a  time  to  begin,  in  this 
gloomy  autumn  of  177G,  after  .New  Y<>rk  was  lost,  and  while  \Va^h- 
iii^ton  \\as  on  the  retreat,  fighting  as  he  went,  not  for  victory,  but 
for  escape!  Perhaps  the  time  was  not  so  unpropitious.  Tin-  minds 
of  men,  at  periods  of  public  danger,  are  sometimes  in  a  state  of 
exaltation  that  renders  it  possible  for  them  to  receive  new  truth,  and 
gives  to  persons  of  understanding  an  ascendency  that  is  generally 
awarded  only  to  rank,  talent,  or  executive  force. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

JEFFERSON,    WYTHE,    AND    MADISON   BEGIN   THE   WORK    OF 
REFORMATION. 

THERE  were  two  parties  in  the  Assembly,  of  course.  But  pos 
terity  cares  only  for  the  party  that  triumphs,  —  the  radical  party, 
the  party  in  the  right.  In  his  own  day,  the  conservative  usually  is, 
and  usually  ought  to  be,  uppermost:  he  represents  the  human 
family,  which  is  too  large  a  body  to  move  forward  rapidly.  The 
radical  usually  is  one  of  a  small  minority,  —  half  a  dozen  pioneers 
with  broad-axes  and  leathern  aprons,  who  march  some  paces  in 
advance  of  the  regiment,  and  get  little  besides  scratches  and  hard 
knocks.  But  the  radical  has  his  revenge.  He  alone  can  have  any 
enduring  success.  If  the  politics  of  the  United  States,  from  1787 
to  1861,  are  remembered  at  all  in  the  general  history  of  the  world, 
the  only  names  likely  to  be  preserved  will  be  those  of  a  few  trouble 
some  Abolitionists,  Democrats,  Law-reformers,  and  Free-traders. 
The  triumphant  and  respectable  multitude  with  whom  and  for  whom 
these  contended,  sweet  Oblivion  will  claim  them,  and  have  its  claim 
allowed. 

To  Thomas  Jefferson,  it  is  evident,  the  radicals  of  Virginia  looked 
as  their  chief  in  the  work  of  reform.  First  among  those  upon 
whom  he  depended  for  co-operation  was  that  noble-hearted  aboli 
tionist,  that  humane  and  high-principled  radical,  that  gentleman 
without  pride  and  without  reproach,  George  Mason  of  Gunston  Hall 
on  the  Potomac, — he  who  wrote  to  a  neighbor,  just  before  the 
patriotic  Fast  Day  of  1774,  "Please  to  tell  my  dear  little  family 
that  I  charge  them  to  pay  a  strict  attention  to  it,  and  that  I  desire 
my  three  eldest  sons  and  my  two  eldest  daughters  may  attend 
church  in  mourning,  if  they  have  it,  as  I  believe  they  have."  It 
was  he  who,  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787,  set  his  face 

207 


208  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

against  all  compromise  with  slavery,  and  avowed  the  opinion,  that 
the  Southern  States  ought  not  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union  unless 
they  wmild  give  it  up.  It  was  he  who  drew  that  Virginia  Bill  of 
Eights  with  which  Mr.  Bancroft  enriches  and  ennobles  the  eighth 
volume  (p.  381)  of  his  History  of  the  United  States,  —  a  state 
ment  of  principles  so  advanced  that  mankind  can  never  outgrow 
them.  Broken-hearted  by  the  death  of  his  wife,  he  would  not,  ho 
could  not.  h-ave  his  family  to  serve  Virginia  in  Congress,  though 
the  appointment  was  pressed  upon  him  with  tears.  But  he  was  in 
his  place  in  the  State  legislature  in  this  critical  year,  1776,  ready 
to  lend  the  aid  of  his  humane  mind  and  gifted  tongue  to  every 
enlightened  measure.  Nature  had  done  every  thing  for  him.  A 
superb  man  he  was,  of  noblest  presence  and  most  engaging  dignity; 
the  ablest  man  in  some  kinds  of  debate  whom  Virginia  possessed  ; 
healthy-minded,  too,  as  fond  of  out-of-door  sport  almost  as  "Wash 
ington  himself. 

(i.-oi'Mv  Wytho,  the  abolitionist  who  emancipated  his  own  slaves 
when  he  found  he  could  not  emancipate  Virginia,  was  sure  to  be  on 
the  rijjit  side  of  leading  questions,  though  he  was  not  efficient  in 
'•arryin^  measures,  —  a  man  of  the  closet 'rather  than  the  forum. 
Governor  Patrick  Henry's  influence,  at  that  period,  was  given 
without  reserve  to  liberal  measures.  These  were  the  great  names 
on  the  liberal  side. 

But  there  was  a  new  member  in  the  house  this  year,  a  young  man 
of  twenty-live,  small  of  stature,  wasted  by  too  much  study,  not  in 
the  least  imposing  in  appearance,  and  too  modest  as  yet  to  utter 
one  word  in  debate,  who  was  destined  to  be  Jefferson's  most  effi 
cient  ally  during  all  his  career.  This  \vas  James  Madison,  to  whom 
we  all  owe  so  much  more  than  we  know,  whose  services  are  so  little 
remarked  because  they  were  so  great.  He  never  shone  resplendent 
in  debate,  he  never  wrote  or  spoke  any  thing  that  was  striking  or 
brilliant ;  but  few  countries  have  ever  possessed  so  useful  a  citizen 
as  he.  Knun  1776  to  1S17,  look  where  you  will  in  the  public  affairs 
of  the  United  States,  you  find  this  little  man  doing,  or  helping  to 
do,  or  trying  to  get  a  chance  to  do,  the  thing  that  most  wanted 
doing.  He  was  the  willing  horse  who  is  allowed  to  draw  the  load. 
His  heart  was  in  the  business  of  serving  his  country.  He  was 
simply  intent  on  having  the  right  thing  done,  not  to  shine  in  doing 
it.  Among  his  virtues  was  his  joyous  love  of  a  jest,  \\hich  made 


JEFFERSON,   WYTHE,   AND   MADISON.  209 

him  one  of  the  most  agreeable  of  comrades,  and  preserved  his  health 
and  .spirits  to  his  eighty-fifth  year,  and  lighted  up  his  dying  face 
with  smiles.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  walk  in  Madison  Square 
because  it  bears  bis  name.  Of  all  Jefferson's  triumphs,  none  seems 
so  exceptional  as  his  being  able  to  give  to  a  man  so  little  brilliant 
and  so  very  useful  the  conspicuous  place  he  held  in  the  public  life 
of  the  United  States.  They  met  for  the  first  time  at  this  'session 
of  the  legislature,  and  remained  friends  and  political  allies  for  fifty 
years. 

A  leader  on  the  conservative  side  was  E.  C.  Nicholas,  for  many 
years  the  head  of  the  bar  in  Virginia,  a  stanch  Churchman  and 
gentleman  of  the  old  school.  But  Jefferson  feared  most  the  singu 
lar,  tireless  persistence  of  Edmund  Pendleton,  a  cool,  wary,  accom 
plished  speaker,  he  says,  "full  of  resource,  never  vanquished;  for, 
if  he  lost  the  main  battle,  he  returned  upon  you,  and  regained  so 
much  of  it  as  to  make  it  a  drawn  one,  by  dexterous  manoeuvres, 
skirmishes  in  detail,  and  the  recovery  of  small  advantages,  which, 
little  singly,  were  important  all  together.  You  never  knew  when 
you  were  clear  of  him."  Differ  as  they  might,  the  leaders  of  the 
two  parties  in  this  House  remained  excellent  friends ;  the  reason 
being,  that  they  were  most  scrupulously  observant  of  all  the 
forms  of  courtesy.  It  was  often  remarked  of  Patrick  Henry,  that 
never,  in  his  most  impetuous  oratory,  was  he  guilty  of  personal 
disrespect  to  a  member  of  the  House.  On  the  contrary,  he  was 
profuse  in  those  expressions  of  regret  for  being  obliged  to  differ, 
and  of  respect  for  the  character  of  an  opponent,  which  assist  so 
much  to  make  public  debate  a  genuine  interchange  of  thought, 
and  keep  it  above  the  contemptible  pettiness  of  personal  contention. 
All  the  men  trained  in  that  old  House  of  Burgesses  appear  to  have 
caught  this  spirit.  What  Jefferson  said  of  Madison's  manners  in 
debate  describes  all  of  them  who  are  remembered :  "  Soothing 
always  the  feelings  of  his  adversaries  by  civilities  and  softness  of 
expression."  As  to  Jefferson  himself,  not  once  in  his  whole  public 
career  did  he  lose  or  weaken  a  point  by  needlessly  wounding  an 
opponent's  self-love. 

In  the  work  of  re-organizing  Virginia,  Jefferson  struck  first  at  the 

system  of  entail.     After  a  three  weeks'  struggle,  that  ihcubus  was 

lifted.       Every  acre   and  every  negro  in  Virginia,  by  the  1st  of 

November,  1776,  was  held  in  fee  simple,  could  be  sold  for  debt, 

14 


210  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

v 'a-  free  to  full  into  hands  that  were  able  to  use  them.  It  was  the 
ea.Mevt  ami  quicker  of  his  triumphs,  though  he  did  not  live  long 
enough  to  outlive  the  enmity  his  victory  engendered.  Some  of  the 
old  Tories  found  it  in  their  hearts  to  exult  that  he  who  had  disap 
pointed  so  many  fathers  lost  his  only  son  before  it  was  a  month 
old ;  and  John  Randolph,  fifty-five  years  after,  could  still  attribute 
all  the  evils  of  Virginia  to  this  triumph  of  "Jefferson  and  his  level 
ling  system." 

lie  found  it  easier  to  set  free  the  estates  of  his  countrymen  than 
their  minds.  Petitions  for  the  repeal  of  statutes  oppressive  of  the 
conscience  of  dissenters  came  poifring  in  upon  the  Assembly  from. 
tin-  first  day  of  the  session.  These,  being  referred  to  the  committee 
of  the  whole,  led  to  the  severest  and  longest  struggle  of  the  session. 
••  I '.  >perate  contests,"  as  Jefferson  records,  "  continued  almost  daily 
from  the  llth  of  October  to  the  5th  of  December."  He  desired  to 
sweep  away  the  whole  system  of  restraint  and  monopoly,  and  estab 
lish  perfect  liberty  of  conscience  and  opinion,  by  a  simple  enactment 
of  half  a  dozen  lines:  — 

"  Xo  man  shall  be  compelled  to  frequent  or  support  any  religious 
worship,  ministry,  or  place  whatsoever;  nor  shall  be  enforced, 
lined,  molested,  or  burdened  in  his  body  or  goods;  nor  shall 
otherwise  suffer  on  account  of  his  religious  opinions  or  belief :  but 
all  men  shall  be  free  to  profess,  and  by  argument  to  maintain,  their 
opinions  in  matters  of  religion;  and  the  same  shall  in  no  wise 
diminish,  enlarge,  or  affect  their  civil  capacities." 

It  required  more  than  nine  years  of  effort  on  the  part  of  Jefferson, 
"Madison,  and  their  liberal  friends,  to  bring  Virginia  to  accept  this 
solution  of  the  religious  problem,  in  its  simplicity  and  completeness. 
All  that  they  could  accomplish  at  this  session,  after  their  twenty- 
live  days'  debate,  was  the  repeal  of  the  statutes  imposing  pemilLua 
for  going  to  the  wrong  church,  and  compelling  dissenters"  to  pay 
titlu^s!  At  every  subsequent  session,  for  many  years,  the  subject 
Wtt  called  up.  and  usually  some  concession  was  made  to  the 
demands  of  the  liberal  party.  In  1770,  ibr  example,  all  forced  con 
tributions  for  the  support  of  religion  were  surrendered.  The  princi 
ple,  however,  was  retained,  and,  indeed,  re-asserted,  that  it  was  part 
of  the  duty  of  the  government  to  regulate  religious  belief;  and  the 
laws  remained  in  force  uhieh  inadeit  penal  to  deny  the  Trinity, 
and  which  deprived  a  piU^itjoj^Jji^rlTVUjdj  uf 'fiTs'*iliildi'PTr  it'  he 
could  not^subseribe  to  the  leading  artielesW?  the  Episcopal  creed. 


JEJFFEKSON,   WYTHE,    AND   MADISON.  211 

"We  have  come  now  to  regard  liberty  of  belief  very  much  as  we 
do  liberty  of  breathing,  —  as  a  right  too  natural,  too  obvious,  to  bo 
called  in  question,  —  forgetting  all  the  ages  of  effort  and  of  anguish 
which  it  cost  to  rescue  the  human  mind  from  the  domination  of  its 
natural  foes.  These  nine  years  of  Virginia  debates  have  perished; 
but  something  of  their  heat  and  strenuous  vigor  survive  in  a  pas 
sage  which  Jefferson  inserted  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia,  written 
towards  the  end  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  circulated  in  Virgi 
nia  a  year  before  the  final  friumph  of  religious  freedom.  The 
passage  is  out  of  place  in  the  work  ;  and  it  was  probably  left  in,  or 
lugged  in,  to  give  aid  to  Madison  in  his  last  contest  \vith  the  oppo 
nents  of  Jefferson's  act.  Doubtless  it  had  its  influence,  coming  as 
it  did  from  a  distant  land,  and  a  name  bright  with  the  undimmed 
lustre  of  Revolutionary  successes.  Indeed,  this  vigorous  utterance 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  arsenal  from  which  the  opponents  of 
the  forced  support  of  religion  drew  their  weapons,  during  the  whole 
period  of  about  fifty  years  that  elapsed  between  its  publication  and 
the  repeal  of  the  last  State  law  which  taxed  a  community  for  the 
support  of  the  clergy;  nor  will  it  cease  to  have  a  certain  value  as 
long  as  any  man,  in  any  .land,  is  distrusted,  or  undervalued,  or 
abridged  of  his  natural  rights,  on  account  of  any  opinion  whatever. 

It  is  a  curiously  intense  and  compact  passage,  all  alive  with 
short,  sharp  sentences,  as  if  he  had  struggled  to  get  the  whole  of 
the  controversy  into  a  few  pages.  Opinion,  he  says,  is  something 
with  which  government  has  nothing  to  do.  "It  does  me  no  injury 
for  my  neighbor  to  say  there  are  twenty  gods,  or  no  God.  It  neither 
picks  my  pocket  nor  breaks  my  leg."  Constraint  makes  hypocrites, 
not  converts.  A  government  is  no  more  competent  to  prescribe 
beliefs,  than  diet  or  medicine.  "  It  is  error  alone  which  needs  the 
support  of  government.  Truth  can  stand  by  itself.  Subject  opinion 
to  coercion,  and  whom  will  you  make  your  inquisitors  ?  Fallible 
men,  governed  by  bad  passions,  by  private  as  well  as  public  reasons. 
And  why  subject  it  to  coercion  ?  Difference  of  opinion  is  advan 
tageous  to  religion.  The  several  sects  perform  the  office  of  censor 
quorum  over  each  other.  Is  uniformity  attainable  ?  Millions  of 
innocent  men,  women,  and  children,  since  the  introduction  of  Chris 
tianity,  have  been  burnt,  tortured,  fined,  imprisoned  ;  yet  we  have 
not  advanced  one  inch  towards  uniformity.  What  has  been  the 
effect  of  coercion?  To  make  one  half  the  world  fools,  and  the 


212  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

other  half  hypocrites  ;  to  support  roguery  and  error  all  over  the 
eartli.  Let  us  reflect  that  it  is  inhabited  by  a  thousand  millions  of 
people  ;  that  these  profess  probabty  a  thousand  different  systems  of 
religion;  that  ours  is  but  one  of  that  thousand;  that  if  there  be  but 
one  right,  and  ours  that  one,  we  should  wish  to  see  the  nine  hun 
dred  and  ninety-nine  wandering  sects  gathered  into  the  fold  of 
truth.  But  against  such  a  majority  we  cannot  eifect  this  by  force. 
Reason  and  persuasion  are  the  only  practicable  instruments.  To 
make  way  for  these,  free  inquiry  must  be  indulged ;  and  how  can, 
we  wish  oilu'i-x  f'l  in  f<r?ye  it,  while  we  refuse  it  ourselves?" 

Fortunately,  he  was  able  to  allay  the  fears  of  those  who  believed 
that  virtue  would  cease  to  prevail  if  tithes  could  not  be  collected  by 
the  sheriff,  by  pointing  to  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  where 
there  was  no  established  church,  and  yet  no  indications  of  a  decay 
of  morals  could  be  discerned.  Religion  was  well  supported,  and  no 
more  malefactors  were  hanged  than  in  Virginia.  Religious  dissen 
sion  was  unknown ;  for  the  people  had  made  the  happy  discovery, 
that  the  way  to  silence  religious  disputes  was  to  take  no  notice  of 
them,  and  to  extinguish  religious  absurdity,  to  laugh  at  it.  He 
urged  his  countrymen  to  have  the  rights  of  conscience  fixed  in  law 
before  the  war  ended,  whilo  rulers  were  honest  and  people  united; 
for,  when  peace  recalled  the  people  to  their  usual  pursuits,  he 
feared  it  would  be  difficult  to  concentrate  attention  upon  a  matter 
of  abstract  right.  "  The  shackles  which  shall  not  be  knocked  off  at 
the  conclusion  of  this  war  will  remain  on  us  long,  will  be  made 
heavier  and  heavier,  till  our  rights  shall  revive,  or  expire  in  a  con 
vulsion." 

In  1780  the  act  drawn  by  Jefferson,  entitled  by  him  "An  Act 
for  establishing  Religious  Freedom,"  became  the  law  of  Virginia. 
Tli'-  !>;•  amble  of  the  act  is  a  forcible  statement  of  the  whole  argu 
ment  for  freedom  of  opinion  ;  and,  not  content  with  thus  .fortify ing 
the  law,  he  adds  to  the  act  itself  ;i  paragraph,  which,  I  believe,  is 
unique  :  "  And  though  we  well  know  that  this  Assembly,  elected  by 
the  people  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  legislation  only,  have  no 
power  to  restrain  the  acts  of  succeeding  Assemblies,  constituted  with 
power  equal  to  our  own,  and  that,  therefore,  to  declare  this  act 
irrevocable  would  be  of  no  effect  in  law,  yet  we  are  free  to  declare, 
and  do  deelave,  that  the  rights  hereby  asserted  are  of  the  natural 
rights  of  mankind;  and  that  if  any  act  shall  be  hereafter  passed  to 


JEFFEKSON,   WYTHE,   AND   MADISON.  213 

repeal  the  present,  or  to  narrow  its  operation,  such  act  will  be  an 
infringement  of  natural  right." 

Never,  perhaps,  since  the  earliest  historic  times,  has  one  mind  so 
incorporated  itself  with  a  country's  laws  and  institutions  as  Jeffer 
son's  with  those  of  new-born  Virginia.  In  this  first  month  of 
October,  1776,  besides  actually  accomplishing  much,  he  cut  out 
work  enough  to  keep  the  best  heads  of  Virginia  busy  for  ten  years. 
It  was  lift  who  drew  the  bill  for  establishing  courts  of  law  in  the 
State,  and  for  defining  the  powers,  jurisdiction,  and  methods  of 
each  of  them.  It  was  he  who  caused  the  removal  of  the  capital 
from  Williamsburg  to  Richmond,  thus  originating  the  plan,  since 
followed  by  nearly  every  State,  of  fixing  the  capital  near  the  geo 
graphical  centre,  but  remote  from  the  centre  of  trade,  capital,  and 
fashion.  It  may  have  been  best  for  Virginia,  it  was  best  for  Vir 
ginia  ;  but  it  is  not  yet  certain  that  a  policy  is  sound  which  caused 
the  city  of  Washington  to  come  into  being,  and  which  has  given 
a  fictitious  importance  to  twenty  Harrisburgs  and  Albanys,  besides 
affording  to  official  misconduct  the  convenient  cloak  of  distance. 
Little,  however,  could  Jefferson  have  foreseen  the  influence  of  his 
action,  when,  in  the  teeth  of  the  old  Tory  families  planted  in  the 
ancient  capital,  he  carried  the  day  for  the  village  of  Richmond,  and 
served  011  the  committee  that  laid  out  its  public  square  and  placed 
its  unfortunate  public  buildings. 

Another  bill  introduced  by  him  in  this  most  fruitful  month  has 
produced  consequences  far-reaching  and  momentous.  It  was  a  bill 
fixing  the  terms  upon  which  foreigners  should  be  admitted  to  citi 
zenship  in  Virginia :  Two  years'  residence  ;  a  declaration  of  inten 
tion  to  live  in  the  State,  and  a  promise  of  fidelity  to  it;  minor 
children  of  naturalized  parents,  and  minors  without  parents  in  the 
State,  to  become  citizens  on  coming  of  age,  without  any  legal  for 
mality.  The  principle  of  this  bill  and  most  of  its  details  have  been 
adopted  by  the  national  government.  In  the  light  of  the  experience 
of  eighty-five  years,  and  writing  on  Manhattan  Island,  we  can  still 
saj7,  that  the  principle  of  admitting  foreigners  to  citizenship  on  easy 
terms,  and  after  a  short  residence,  has  been  the  vital  principle  of 
the  country's  growth  ;  and  that  Jefferson's  bill  lacked  but  one  brief 
clause  to  make  it  as  safe  as  it  has  been  powerful :  Provided,  That 
the  foreigner  aforesaid  proves,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  court,  that 
he  can  read  English  well  enough  to  be  independent  of  all  other  men 


214  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

in  acquiring  the  political  information  requisite  for  intelligent 
voting.  Alas!  he  did  not  foresee  the  Manhattan  Island  of  1871 ; 
nor  had  a  mind  yet  been  created  capable  of  conceiving  the  idea  of 
admitting  to  the  suffrage  hordes  of  ignorant  negroes  without  the 
lea>t  preliminary  preparation. 

The  laws  of  Virginia  were  a  chaos  of  obsolete  and  antiquated 
enactments,  good  for  lawyers,  bad  for  clients.  Jefferson  brought  in 
a  bill,  in  October,  177G,  proposing  that  the  House  name  a  Committee 
of  five,  who  should  get  together  the  whole  mass,  revise  them,  and 
present,  for  the  consideration  of  the  House,  a  body  of  law  suited  to 
the  altered  times  and  circumstances  of  the  State.  The  bill  being 
passed,  the  five  revisers  were  elected  by  ballot,  and  Jefferson 
ivc.-ivi'd  the  highest  number  of  votes  ;  his  colleagues  being  Edmund 
Pendleton,  George  Wythe,  George  Mason,  and  F.  L.  Lee.  The  two 
last  1 1 aiiicd,  not  being  lawyers,  soon  withdrew  from  the  commission, 
leaving  the  three  others  to  do  the  work,  Jefferson's  portion  of 
which  occupied  the  leisure  of  two  3Tears.  It  was,  indeed,  one  of  the 
most  arduous  and  difficult  labors  of  his  life ;  for  to  him  was  assigned 
tlie  revision  of  ancient  British  law,  from  the  remotest  period  to  the 
meeting  of  the  first  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia,  of  which  his 
great-grandfather  had  been  a  member,  in  1G19.  Many  a  long 
journey  it  cost  these  three  public-souled  gentlemen  to  get  together, 
ill  order  to  discuss  principles  and  compare  work ;  until,  in  1770,  the 
revisers  were  able  to  present  their  labors  to  the  legislature  in  the 
convenient  form  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  bills,  to  be  sepa 
rately  acted  upon.  These  bills  were  taken  up,  one  at  a  time,  as 
occasion  favored  or  demanded,  during  the  next  six  or  seven  years ; 
every  enlightened  and  humane  principle  or  detail  having  a  most 
persistent  and  persuasive  advocate  in  James  Madison. 

Jefferson's  part  in  this  revision  was  most  important.  The  bill  for 
religious  freedom,  already  described,  was  now  completed  in  the  form 
in  which  it  wa«*  finally  acted  upon  in  1786.  Against  the.  opposition 
of  Pendleton,  he  carried  the  extirpation  of  the  principle  of  primo 
geniture  from  the  legal  system  of  Virginia.  True  to  his  character, 
Pendleton  strove,  when  the  main  battle  was  lo>t,  to  save  something 
from  the  \vre.-k  ;  proposing  that  the  eldest  son  should,  at  least,  have 
a  double  portion.  Xo,  said  Jefferson:  "if  the  eldest  son  could  eat 
twice  as  much,  or  do  double  work,  it  might  be  a  natural  evidence  of 
his  right  to  a  double  portion;  but,  being  on  a  par  in  his  powers  and 
* 


V 
JEFFERSON,   WYTHE,   AND   MADISON.  215 

wants  with  his  brothers  and  sisters,  he  should  bo  on  a  par  also  in 
the  partition  of  his  patrimony."  Against  Pendleton,  too,  Mr. 
Jefferson  prevailed  to  preserve  as  much  of  the  letter  of  ancient  law 
as  possible,  because  the  meaning  of  each  word  and  phrase  had  been 
established  by  judicial  decisions.  A  new  code,  Mr.  Jefferson 
thought,  owing  to  the  imperfection  of  human  language,  would 
"  involve  us  in  ages  of  litigation,"  until  the  precise  meaning  of  every 
word  had  been  settled  by  decisions  and  commentaries.  But  this  did 
not  apply  to  modern  Virginia  statutes,  which,  he  thought,  should  be 
reduced  to  the  utmost  simplicity  and  directness. 

It  is  pleasing  to  notice  how  cordially  the  revisers  labored  together, 
and  how  entirely  they  confided  in  one  another,  though  differing  in 
opinion.  Observe  this  evidence  of  it  in  one  of  Jefferson's  later 
letters  :  "  We  found  "  (on  the  final  revision)  "  that  Mr.  Peiidleton 
had  not  exactly  seized  the  intentions  of  the  committee,  which  were 
to  reform  the  language  of  the  Virginia  laws,  and  reduce  the  matter  to 
a  simple  style  and  form.  He  had  copied  the  acts  verbatim,  only 
omitting  what  was  disapproved;  and  some  family  occurrence  calling 
him  indispensably  home,  he  desired  Mr.  Wythe  and  myself  to  make 
it  what  we  thought  it  ought  to  be,  and  authorized  us  to  report  him 
as  concurring  in  the  work." 

The  bill  assigning  pains  and  penalties  cost  Jefferson  much 
research  and  thought.  The  committee  swept  away  at  once  most  of 
the  obsolete  cruelties  of  the  ancient  code ;  but  some  of  the  revisers 
were  disposed  to  retain  portions  of  the  old  system  of  retaliation,  —  an 
eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  a  poisoner  to  die  by  poison,  and  a 
maimer  to  be  maimed.  Jefferson  objected.  The  infliction  of  such 
penalties,  he  thought,  would  "exhibit  spectacles"  the  moral  effect 
of  which  would  not  be  salutary ;  particularly  (he  might  have  added) 
in  a  State  where  every  free  fight  was  expected  to  end  in  gouging. 
This  part  of  the  scheme  was,  at  his  suggestion,  reconsidered;  so  that 
no  sheriff  in  Virginia  has  ever  been  called  upon  to  pry  out  an  eye  or 
bite  off  a  nose. 

One  of  Jefferson's  substitutions  of  new  sense  for  ancient  folly  in 
the  penalties  bill  was  admirable.  Instead  of  the  old  laws  concern 
ing  witchcraft,  he  suggested  this :  "  All  attempts  to  delude  the 
people,  or  to  abuse  their  understanding,  by  exercise  of  the  pretended 
arts  of  witchcraft,  conjuration,  enchantment,  or  sorcery,  or  by  pre 
tended  prophecies,  shall  be  punished  by  ducking  and  whipping,  at 


216  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

the  discretion  of  a  jury,  not  exceeding  fifteen  stripes."  He  dropped 
also  the  barbarous  Jewish  penalties  for  unnatural  crimes,  on  this 
ground :  "  Bestiality  will  ever  be  properly  and  severely  punished 
by  universal  derision."  In  his  preamble  to  the  bill  assigning  penal 
ties,  he  asserted  doctrines  many  years  in  advance  of  the  least 
monstrous  code  then  existing.  At  a  time  when  France  condemned 
to  death  a  female  servant  who  stole  a  spoon,  and  London  saw  cart 
loads  of  lads  drawn  to  Tyburn  for  theft,  Jefferson  began  this  act  by 
declaring  that  "cruel  and  sanguinary  laws  defeat  their  own  purpose, 
1'V  engaging  the  benevolence  of  mankind  to  withhold  prosecution;" 
and  that  "capital  punishments,  which  exterminate  instead  of 
n- form  ing,  should  be  the  last  melancholy  resource  against  those 
whose  existence  has  become  inconsistent  with  the  safety  of  their 
fellow-citizens."  In  this  code  no  crimes  were  capital  but  murder 
ami  treason ;  and  only  an  overt  act  was  to  be  accounted  treason. 

Of  the  bills  drawn  by  Jefferson,  those  upon  which  he  most  set  his 
heart  failed  utterly.  Only  a  commonwealth  of  Jeffersons,  Masons, 
jMadisons.  and  Wythes  could  have  carried  into  successful  operation 
that  magnificent  scheme  of  universal  education  embodied  in  three 
of  the  acts  drawn  by  him.  He  loved  knowledge.  He  loved  litera 
ture.  Writing  to  Dr.  Priestly,  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  political 
frenzies  of  a  later  day,  he  said,  "I  thank,  on  my  knees,  him  who 
directed  my  early  education,  for  having  put  into  my  possession  this 
rich  source  of  delight,"  —  the  ability  to  read  Homer  in  the  original ; 
and.  during  a  similar  paroxysm  of  political  fury,  he  wrote  to  a 
neighbor,  that  if  any  thing  could  induce  him  to  sleep  another  night 
away  from  home,  it  would  be  his  solicitude  for  the  education  of 
youth.  He  felt  that  a  community  needs  the  whole  of  the  superior 
intelligence  produced  in  it,  and  that  such  intelligence  is  only  made 
available  for  good  purposes  by  right  culture.  His  plan,  there-fore, 
embraced  the  whole  intellect  of  the  State.  I  He  proposed  to  place  a 
common  school  within  reach  of  every  child;  to  make  a  high  school 
accessible  to  every  superior  youth;  to  convert  William  and  ^Tary 
-e  into  a  university;  and  to  found  at  Richmond,  a  State 
library  to  be  maintained  at  a  cost  of  two  thousand  pounds  a  year.  J 
The  whole  scheme,  which  was  worked  out  in  great  detail,  was 
received,  he  says,  with  enthusiasm;  but  when  after  the  war  the 
expense  had  to  be  faced,  tlnere  was  not  public  spirit  enough  in  the 
counties  to  set  even  the  common  schools  in  operation.  The  scheme 


JEFFERSON,    WYTHE,   AND  MADISON.  217 

failed  because  there  was  no  middle  class  in  Virginia.  In  his  bill  for 
establishing  common  schools,  a  clause  was  slyly  inserted,  leaving 
each  county  free  to  tax  itself  for  the  purpose  or  not,  as  the  tax 
payers  should  decide.  But  the  tax-payers  were  planters,  served  by 
slaves,  not  accustomed  to  regard  white  trash  as  fellow-citizens 
whose  welfare  was  identified  with  their  own.  They  would  not  tax 
themselves  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  tobacco-rollers,  and 
the  plan  remained  inoperative  during  Jefferson's  whole  life. 

A  remarkable  feature  of  the  laws  drawn  by  him  during  this 
revision  are  the  preambles  —  compact,  loaded  with  meaning  —  with 
which  he  prefaced  many  of  them.  I  think  he  must  have  derived 
the  idea  from  Plato.  In  preparing  himself  for  work  so  important, 
he  could  not  have  overlooked  the  fact,  that  Plato's  longest  work  is 
entitled  LAWS  ;  nor  would  he  have  failed  to  seek  light  from  so 
promising  a  source. 

"And  is  our  legislator,"  asks  a  person  of  this  dialogue,  "to  have 
no  preface  to  his  laws,  but  to  say  at  once,  Do  this,  avoid  that; 
and  then,  holding  the  penalty  in  terrorem,  to  go  on  to  another 
law,  offering  never  a  word  of  advice  or  exhortation  to  those  for 
whom  he  is  legislating,  after  the  manner  of  some  doctors  ?  "  Not  so, 
he  thinks.  Music  has  overtures,  and  discourse  its.  introduction ; 
"but  of  the  tones  and  higher  strain  of  law,  no  one  has  ever  yet 
uttered  any  prelude."  And  Plato  recurs  to  the  topic,  as  though  it 
were  a  favorite  idea.*  I  please  myself  with  thinking  that  it  was 
such  passages  of  the  kindred  Greek  that  induced  Jefferson  to 
compose  those  noble  preambles  —  noble,  even  when  preluding  laws 
too  difficult  for  the  time  and  scene  —  which  illuminate  Virginia  law- 
books  here  and  there.  The  preamble  to  the  act  for  'establishing 
religious  freedom  is  the  weightiest  and  finest.  It  touches  every 
point :  it  all  but  exhausts  the  subject. 

The  slave-laws  remained  to  be  considered.  The  revisers,  first  of 
all,  made  a  digest  of  existing  laws  concerning  slaves  and  slavery, 
silently  dropping  such  as  they  deemed  inadmissible,  and  arranging 
the  rest,  as  was  their  custom,  in  the  form  of  a  bill.  This  bill,  since 
it  contained  nothing  novel,  nor  excluded  any  thing  vital,  could  be 
expected  to  pass  without  opposition.  The  whole  -difficulty  of  the 
subject  they  resolved  to  keep  by  itself,  and  concentrate  it  in  an 

*  Jowett's  Plato,  vol.  iv.  pp.  24,  243,  288,  427,  &c.  (London  edition). 


218  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

amendment  to  the  bill,  designing  to  present  this  when  the  times 
should  admit  of  the  discussion  of  fundamental  changes. 

The  shade  of  noble,  unpractical  Plato  must  have  hovered  over  the 
place  where  this  amendment  was  penned.  The  community  has 
never  existed  .capable  of  executing  such  a  scheme.  These  three 
benevolent  revisers  demanded  of  Virginia  a  degree  of  self-control, 
far-seeing  wisdom,  and  executive  genius,  which  a  community  composed 
of  the  elect  of  the  whole  human  race  could  not  have  furnished.  All 
slaves  born  after  the  passage  of  the  act  were  to  be  free;  but  they 
were  to  remain  with  their  parents  during  childhood,  then  educated 
at  the  public  expense,  "  in  tillage,  arts,  or  sciences,  according  to 
their  geniuses,"  until  maturity,  when  they  were  to  be  colonized  in 
some  convenient  place,  furnished  with  arms,  implements,  and  seeds, 
dec  la  ml  independent,  and  protected  till  they  were  strong  enough  to 
protect  themselves.  While  Virginia  was  employed  in  this  most 
complicated  and  not  inexpensive  business,  other  ships  of  hers  were 
to  repair  to  other  parts  of  the  earth,  and  bring  home  "an  equal 
number  of  white  inhabitants,  to  induce  whom  to  migrate  hither 
proper  encouragements  were  to  be  proposed."  Such  ludicrous 
impossibilities  may  the  wisest  of  mortals  conceive  who  legislate  in 
the  smi£  retreat  of  a  library  for  out-of-door,  every-day  men,  face  to 
face  with  the  universal  task  ! 

No  enthusiast  ever  ventured  to  introduce  this  amendment  into  the 
legislature.  "It  was  found,"  wrote  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1821,  "that 
the  public  mind  would  not  bear  the  proposition,  nor  will  it  bear  it 
even  at  this  day."  One  thing  Jefferson  did  accomplish.  In  1778 
he  brought  in  a.  bill  forbidding  the  further  importation  of  slaves, 
which  was  passed  without  opposition.  Tins  was  the  only  important 
change  which  was  made  in  the  slave-system  of  Virginia  during  the 
Revolutionary  period. 

During  the  two  years  employed  in  the  work  of  revising  the  laws, 
there  were  four  or  five  sessions  of  the  legislature,  all  of  them 
attended  by  Jeilerson.  His  industry  was  immense.  We  find  him 
on  numberless  committees,  and  reporting  every  kind  of  bill;  even 
such  as  related  to  the  discipline  of  the  militia,  the  rank  of  marine 
officers,  and  the  subsistence  of  members  of  Congress.  There  was  no 
great  merit  then  in  punctuality  of  attendance,  for  punctuality  was 
compelled.  At  the  calling  of  the  roll  on  the  opening  of  one  session, 
fifty  members  were  absent.  Every  man  of  them  was  ordered  under 


JEFFE.KSON,   WYTHE,   AND   MADISOX.  219 

arrest ;  nor  was  one  excused  until  he  had  risen  in  his  place,  and 
stated  the  reason  of  his  absence.  If  the  reason  was  accounted 
sufficient,  he  was  excused,  without  paying  the  costs  of  his  arrest;  if 
not,  he  had  to  pay  them.  Many  and  swift  journeys  fell  to  Jefferson's 
lot  during  this  absorbing  time,  —  to  Eredericksburg  to  meet  his 
brother  revisers,  a  rough  ride  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles;  to 
Williamsburg,  for  the  semi-annual  session  ;  back  suddenly  to  Monti- 
cello,  more  than  once,  to  attend  his  sick  wife.  His  only  son  was 
born  in  Ma}'',  1777,  and  lived  but  seventeen  days,  though  causing  his 
parents  many  a  month  of  anguish  and  solicitude.  ,  But  at  home, 
while  the  lives  of  mother  and  child  seemed  to  hang  upon  the 
father's  care,  in  the  intervals  of  watching  he  worked  at  his  part  of 
the  revision.  He  told  Dr.  Franklin,  in  August,  1777,  that  the  people 
of  Virginia  had  laid  aside  the  monarchical,  and  taken  up  the 
republican  government  "with  as  much  ease  as  would  have  attended 
their  throwing  off  an  old  and  putting  on  a  new  suit  of  clothes." 
It  was  easy  to  the  people  of  Virginia,  because  at  this  critical  time 
they  were  so  happy  as  to  possess  a  few  able,  experienced,  learned, 
liberal-minded  citizens,  who  thought  no  labor  severe,  no  self-denial 
excessive,  ir  exercised  in  the  service  of  their  country. 

V 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

• 

,    FIRST   THREE    YEARS    OF    THE    WAR. 

So  passed  the  first  years  of  the  war.  It  was  an  anxious  time,  of 
course,  to  all  patriotic  hearts,  but,  to  the  people  of  Virginia,  not 
so  unhappy  a  period  as  we  should  suppose.  Their  trial  was  to  come. 
Karly  rid  of  the  nuisance  of  Dunmore's  hateful  presence,  they  had 
nof,  since  the  burning  of  Norfolk,  witnessed  much  of  the  desolations 
of  the  war ;  and,  if  their  spirits  were  depressed  sometimes  by  the 
mishaps  of  the  armies  in  the  North,  good  news  came  occasionally, 
and  came  magnified  by  the  distance  it  had  travelled.  The  rapturous 
tidings  of  Burgoyne'fl  surrender  was  enough  of  itself  to  light  up 
half  a  year;  and  it  was  followed  by  news  supposed  to  be  even  more 
important,  that  of  the  alliance  with  France.  Virginia  was  to  have 
her  turn,  but  the  time  had  not  yet  come. 

Jefferson,  too,  was  to  experience  a  most  ample  share  of  the  bitter 
ness  of  the  war.  But  during  these  three  years  of  it,  absorbed  in 
congenial  and  elevated  labors,  happy  in  the  confiding  love  of  the 
people  he  served,  blest  at  home  in  wife  and  children,  he  lived  very 
much  in  his  accustomed  way;  still  finding  time  to  record  the 
weather,  watch  the  barometer,  observe  eclipses,  measure  the  rain, 
compute  the  force  of  the  wind,  study  the  growth  of  plants,  and 
caress  tin-  violin.  He  began  now  to  look  forward  fondly,  as  so  many 
fond  parents  have,  to  tin-  time  when  his  eldest  daughter  would  play 
the  harpsichord  to  his  accompaniment.  His  old  teacher  of  the 
violin,  Albert i.  was  in  Paris  in  1778.  Jefferson  wrote  him  a  gay 
letter  alter  Burgoyne'8  surrender;  telling  him  that  Americans  had 
lost  all  apprehensions  touching  the  issue  of  the  war,  ami  lie  expected 
to  trouble  him,  within  the  next  two  and  thiv  years,  to  semi  him 
over  a  professor  competent  to  teach  singing  and  the.  harpsichord. 
Xay,  more:  he  had  indulged  dreams  of  a  domestic  band  of  music! 
220 


FIRST.  THREE   YEARS   OF  THE  WAR.  221 

He  told  Albert!,  that,  in  his  retinue  of  domestic  servants,  he  kept  a 
weaver,  a  gardener,  a  cabinet-maker,  and  a  stone-cutter,  to  whom  he 
meant  to  add  a  vine-dresser.  Why  could  not  Alberti  send  him 
Europeans  of  these  trades,  who  could  also  play  on  instruments?  If 
he  could,  —  behold  a  band  of  music  upon  Monticello,  without  going 
"beyond  the  bounds  of  an  American  fortune!"  Music,  he  said, 
was  "the  favorite  passion  of  his  soul ;"  and  yet  fortune  had  cast  his 
lot  in  a  country  where  it  was  in  a  state  of  "  deplorable  barbarism." 
In  the  same  joyous  and  triumphant  summer  of  1778,  failing  to  get 
much  good  from  the  eagerly-expected  and  closely-observed  eclipse  of 
the  sun,  from  want  of  an  accurate  clock,  he  ordered  from  Kittenhouse 
the  most  perfect  clock  his  art  could  produce,  so  as  to  be  ready  for  the 
next.  As  to  that  theodolite  of  which  he  had  spoken  to  him  in 
Philadelphia,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  need  not  trouble  himself  about  it 
further;  for  he  had  since  bought  one  which  was  just  the  thing.  A 
British  army  captured,  and  the  French  alliance  avowed,  who  could 
expect  a  much  longer  continuance  of  the  war?  Not  Jefferson,  most 
sanguine  of  men. 

The  surrender  of  Burgoyne  brought  unexpected  animation  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Monticello,  and  filled  the  house  upon  its  summit 
with  agreeable  company.  The  region  round  about  being  the  wheat- 
field  of  America,  but  too  remote  from  the  Northern  arnw  to  contrib 
ute  to  its  supply,  Congress  deemed  it  best,  in  the  winter  of  1778- 
79,  to  march  thither  the  prisoners  of  war,  English  and  German,  four 
thousand  in  number,  and  establish  them  near  Charlottesville.  It 
was  a  dreary  and  weary  march,  in  an  inclement  season,  from  Boston 
to  Albemarle,  a  distance  of  seven  hundred  miles ;  and  when  the 
troops  reached  the  plateau  selected  for  them,  within  sight  of  Monti- 
cello,  the  barracks  were  unfinished,  no  store  of  food  had  been  gath 
ered,  the  roads  were  almost  impassable,  and  "  the  spell  of  weather," 
as  Jefferson  records,  "was  the  worst  ever  known  within  the  memory 
of  man."  The  gentlemen  of  the  county  did  their  utmost  to  miti 
gate  the  situation ;  and  who  so  prompt  with  needful  aid  as  the 
inhabitants  of  Monticello  ?  Mrs.  Jefferson  lent  her  help  to  the  wife 
of  the  Hessian  General  Eiedesel,  in  getting  her  started  in  housekeep 
ing,  at  the  house  of  Mazzei,  their  Italian  neighbor,  who  was  just 
going  home  to  Tuscany  on  a  public  errand. 

Jefferson  himself  was  lavish  of  attention  to  officers  and  men  of 
both  nationalities ;  and,  when  they  were  all  settled  in  quarters, 


2:2:2  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

tlin  w  open  his  house,  liis  library,  liis  grounds,  Ins  garden,  to  such 
of  them  as  could  enjoy  refined  pleasures.  There  could  be  no  lack 
of  officers,  among  so  many,  who  could  play  arid  sing.  Many  a 
delightful  concert  was  improvised  at  Monticello,  when  some  amateur 
would  play  violin  duets  with  Jefferson,  and  the  whole  company  sur 
round  Mrs.  Jefferson's  harpsichord,  and  join  her  in  singing.  A  tra 
dition  of  these  pleasant  musical  evenings  lives  to  this  day.  General 
Dix  of  New  York,  as  Mr.  Randall  reports,  heard  them  described  by 
;>iain  Bibby,  who  settled  in  New  York  after  the  war.  This 
captain,  himself  a  good  violinist,  played  many  a  duet  with  Jeffer 
son,  and  considered  him  the  best  amateur  he  had  ever  heard.  A 
German  «i!:i--er  of  scientific  tastes  was  much  in  the  library  of  Mon 
ticello.  a  congenial  companion  to  its  proprietor.  Even  General  Phil 
lips,  commander  of  the  English  troops,  whom  Jefferson  describes  as 
the  proudest  man  of  the  proudest  nation  on  earth,  was  not  proof 
against  his  resolute  civilities.  "The  great  cause  that  divides  our 
countries,'  Jefferson  wrote  to  the  general,  "is  not  to  be  decided  by 
individual  animosities.  The  harmony  of  private  societies  cannot 
weaken  national  efforts.  To  contribute  by  neighborly  intercourse 
and  attention  to  make  others  happy  is  the  shortest  and  surest  way 
of  being  happy  ourselves."  General  Phillips,  proud  as  he  may 
have  !>;  n,  seems  to  have  assented  to  this  opinion  j  for  we  find  him 
writing  to  Mr.  Jefferson  in  August,  1779:  "The  British  officers 
intend  to  perform  a  play  next  Saturday  at  the  barracks.  I  shall  be 
extreme!  v  happy  to  have  the  honor  to  attend  you  and  Mrs.  Jeffer 
son  in  my  box  at  the  theatre,  should  vou  or  that  lady  be  inclined  to 
go.''  :  In  winding  up  this  polite  epistle,  the  haughty  son  of  Albion 
•  -ireful  to  say  that  he  was,  "with  great  personal  ivspn-t."  Mr. 
Jefferson's  humble  servant.  He  was  the  gentleman,  who,  at  a  later 
da}7,  addre>sed  Mr.  Jefferson  as  "Thomas  Jefferson,  llsouire.  Ameri 
can  Governor  of  Virginia;"  and  the  governor  retorted  by  addressing 
him  as.  "  William  Phillips,  Esquire,  commanding  the  British  troops 
in  Virginia.'' 

A-  the  fpring  advanced,  the  barracks  began  to  exhibit  a  truly 
inviting  scene,  particularly  the  quarter  occupied  by  the  Germans. 
The  officers,  who  had  hired  every  available  house  in  the  neighbor 
hood,  bought  cows,  sheep,  and  chickens,  cultivated  fields,  and  laid 

*  Lossing's  American  Historical  Record,  vol.  1,  p.  33. 


FIRST   THREE  YEARS   OF   THE   WAR.  223 

out  gardens.  If  some  of  the  decorous  Virginia  ladies  w»?re  a  little 
scandalized  at  the  Amazonian  habits  of  Madame  Riedesel,  who  rode 
astride  with  the  boldness  of  a  fox-hunter/  eve ry  one  commended  the 
liberality  of  the  general  toward  his  men.  He  distributed  among 
them  two  hundred  pounds'  worth  of  seeds ;  and  soon  the  whole 
region  round  the  barracks  was  smiling  with  pretty  garilens,  and 
alive  with  cheerful  laborers,  conveying  to  the  spectator,  as  Jefferson 
said,  "  the  idea  of  a  company  of  farmers,  rather  than  a  camp  of  sol 
diers."  Some  of  the  officers  went  to  great  expense  in  refitting 
their  houses,  even  to  severa'l  thousands  of  dollars.  The  health  of 
these  troops,  thus  agreeably  situated  and  pleasantly  employed,  im 
proved  in  the  most  remarkable  manner.  According  to  the  ordinary 
rate  of  mortality,  there  should  have  been  one  death  a  day  ;  but  in 
three  months  there  were  but  four  deaths  among  them,  and  two  of 
those  were  of  infants. 

Jefferson  wrote  in  reference  to  this  enchanting  scene,  "  It  is  for 
the  benefit  of  mankind  to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  war  as  much  as 
possible.  The  practice,  therefore,  of  modern  nations,  of  treating 
captive  enemies  with  politeness  and  generosity,  is  not  only  delight 
ful  in  contemplation,  but  really  interesting  to  all  the  world,  —  friends, 
foes,  and  neutrals." 

It  is  pleasing  to  reflect  that  the  United  States,  from  the  first  hour  P 
of  its  existence  to  the  present  time,  in  every  instance,  and  in  spite  I 
of  the -bitterest  provocation  to  the  contrary  in  three  wars,  has  treated! 
captives  with  "  politeness  and  generosity." 

The  prisoners  might  well  be  grateful  to  Jefferson,  for  he  rendered 
them  a  greater  service  than  neighborly  attention.  A  panic  fear  arose, 
that  these  four  thousand  foreign  mouths  would  eat  Virginia  out  of 
house  and  home.  A  famine  was  dreaded,  and  Governor  Henry  was  in 
undated  with  remonstrances  against  their  longer  sta^.  By  the  time 
the  barracks  were  in  order,  the  gardens  laid  out,  and  General  Rie- 
desel's  two  hundred  pounds'  worth  of  garden-seeds  all  nicely  "  come 
up,"  a  terrible  rumor  ran  through  the  camp,  that  the  governor  had 
yielded  to  pressure,  and  was  about  to  order  them  away.  It  was  Jef 
ferson  who  interposed  in  their  behalf.  He  wrote  a  most  vigorous 
and  elaborate  statement  of  the  case  to  Governor  Henry,  showing 
the  utter  groundlessness  of  the  panic,  describing  the  happy  situation 
of  the  troops  after  their  winter  march  of  seven  hundred  miles,  and 
exhibiting  the  cruel  breach  of  faith  it  would  be  to  compel  them  so 


224  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFEHSON. 

soon  to  resume  their  wanderings.  The  prisoners'  camp  was  not  dis 
turbed  ;  and  the  Virginians  discovered,  that,  if  the  prisoners  ate  a  good 
deal  of  wheat  and  beef,  they  circulated  a  great  many  gold  and  silver 
coins. 

What  strikes  me  as  peculiar  in  Jefferson's  letter  is  its  extreme 
politeness.  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Patrick  Henry  had  been  friends, 
comrade!*,  fellow-lodgers,  partisans,  every  thing  that  was  intimate 
and  confidential,  for  nineteen  years ;  but  in  this  letter  he  keeps  in 
mind  that  he  is  a  member  for  Albemarle  writing  to  His  Excellency 
the  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  he  both  begins  and  ends  his  epistle 
with  expressions  of  deference  and  apology.  He  "  takes  the  liberty 
of  troubling"  the  governor  with  some  observations  on  the  subject. 
The  reputation  and  interest  of  the  country  being  involved,  "  it  could 
hardly  b  •  deemed  an  indecent  liberty  in  the  most  private  citizen  to 
(if.  i-  his  thoughts  to  the  consideration  of  the  Executive  ;  "  and  there 
were  particular  reasons  which  justified  him  in  so  doing;  such  as  his 
residence  near  the  barracks,  his  public  relation  to  the  people  of  that 
county,  and  his  being  sure,  from  his  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
gi»v«-rnor.  and  council,  that  they  would  be  "  glad  of  information  from 
ani/  quarter,  on  a  subject  interesting  to  the  public."  Then,  at  the 
end  of  his  letter,  after  an  argument  apparently  complete  and  unan 
swerable,  he  was  "sensible  that  the  same  subject  might  appear  to 
different  persons  in  very  different  lights."  But  he  hoped  that  the 
reasons  he  had  urged,  even  though  to  sounder  minds  they  should  seem 
fallacious,  would,  at  least,  be  plausible  enough  to  excuse  his  inter- 
ion. 

There  was  a  reason  for  this  extreme  delicacy.  The  letter  was 
written  in  March,  1779.  The  third  year  of  Patrick  Henry's  gover 
norship  would  expire  in  June  ;  and,  by  the  new  constitution,  a  gover 
nor  w  _;ible  after  the  third  term.  Jefferson  was  to  succeed  him  ; 
and  it  is  always  a  delicate  thing  for  an  heir  to  say  or  do  any  thing 
that  savors  of  interference  with  the  management  of  the  estate. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

JEFFERSON"   GOVERNOR    OF    VIRGINIA. 

COLLEGE  friends  find  themselves  strangely  confronted,  sometimes, 
in  afterlife,  —  rivals,  perhaps,  for  prizes  more  important  than  a  high 
place  in  a  commencement  programme.  In  January,  1779,  the  Vir 
ginia  Legislature  had  to  choose  a  governor  to  succeed  Patrick  Henry, 
whose  third  term  would  expire  on  the  1st  of  June.  The  favorite 
candidates  were  no  other  than  John  Page  and  Thomas  Jefferson, 
fellow-students  at  William  and  Mary,  who  had  exchanged  love- 
confidences,  and  gone  with  thumping  hearts  together  to  meet  their 
sweethearts  at 'the  balls  in  the  Raleigh  TaverA  at  Williamsburg ; 
and  not  so  very  long  before,  either.  In  1779  they  were  still  young 
men,  thirty-six  both  ;  Page  being  fifteen  days  the  elder.  The  gild 
ing  was  still  bright  on  some  parts  of  the  state-coach  which  Lord 
Botetourt  had  brought  over  from  England  about  the  time  of  their 
entering  public  life;  and  "the  palace  "  had  not  yet  been  defaced  by 
vandal  hands.  Timothy  Pickering  of  Massachusetts  saw  that  tre 
mendous  vehicle,  as  late  as  1781,  in  an  outhouse  near  the  palace  ; 
"a  clumsy  machine,"  he  thought  it;  "as  heavy  as  two  common 
wagons ; "  "  gilded  in  every  part,  even  the  edges  of  the  tires  of  the 
wheels,  and  the  arms  of  Virginia  painted  on  every  side."  On  the 
day,  ten  years  before,  when  these  two  young  friends  had  smiled 
derision  at  this  historic  coach,  as  it  bore  the  new  governor  to  the 
Capitol,  who  were  less  likely  than  they  to  be  candidates  for  the 
right  to  ride  in  it?  Things  had  changed,  indeed,  in  Virginia,  since 
young  Jefferson  had  put  his  fiddle  under  his  arm,  ami  gone  to  "the 
palace"  to  take  his  part  in  one  of  Governor  Fauquier's  weekly  con 
certs. 

Page's  strong  point  was,  that,  though  born  a  member  of  the  plan 
tation  aristocracy,  possessing  a  great  estate,  inhabiting  the  largest 

15  225 


228  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSOK. 

It  was  a  costly  mission  to  poor  Mazzei.  His  misfortunes  began 
before  he  left  home.  He  rented  his  house  to  the  Hessian  general, 
Baron  I\iedesel,  who  moved  in,  with  his  Amazon  of  a  wife  and  his 
large  military  family,  before  the  Italians  could  move  out.  It  was  a 
tight  squeeze,  as  the  baroness  recorded ;  and  Mazzei,  it  seems,  had 
no  notion  of  the  amount  of  sustenance  required  by  so  many  Hessian 
warriors,  and  a  baroness  who  rode  astride.  "We  looked  impatiently 
forward,"  wrote  the  lady,  "  to  the  time  of  his  departure,  and  that  of 
his  wife  and  daughter,  on  account  of  the  smallness  of  the  house  and 
the  scarcity  of  provisions."  She  took  the  liberty  of  remarking  one 
day,  that  a  calf  s  head  and  tripe  was  not  enough  for  twenty  persons' 
dinner;  but  the  frugal  Italian  replied  that  "we  could  make  a  very 
good  soup  of  it."  He  did,  however,  add  to  the  repast  "two  cabbages 
and  some  stale  ham  ;"  and  this,  says  the  baroness,  "  was  all  we  could 
obtain  from  him."  The  Italians  left  the  house  at  last;  and,  long 
before  the)'-  had  made  their  way  across  the  sea,  the  Hessians'  horses 
had  trampled  their  vineyards,  planted  with  so  much  care,  and 
wafclifd  by  Jefferson  and  by  all  intelligent  Virginia  with  so  much 
interest,  into  irremediable  ruin. 

In  Paris,  face  to  face  with  practical  Dr.  Franklin,  the  project  of 
extracting  nine  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  from  the  coffers  of 
an  Austrian  duke  addicted  to  hoarding,  at  an  interest  of  five  per  cent, 
for  a  province  four  thousand  miles  off,  whose  independence  the  duke 
had  not  acknowledged  and  would  not  acknowledge,  did  not  wear  so 
feasible  an  aspect  as  it  had  on  Jefferson's  piazza,  overlooking  the 
rich  garden  of  Virginia.  If  the  Duke  of  Tuscany  was  brother  to  a 
romantic  queen  of  France,  he  was  also  brother  to  an  emperor  of  Aus 
tria,  who  reminded  Paris  patriots  that  he  was  a  king  by  trade. 
Tuscany  !  The  very  name  was  enough  to  put  even  the  placid 
Franklin  out  of  temper;  for  he  had  had  an  e}re  himself  upon  those 
Tuscan  crowns,  knew  they  could  not  be  got,  and  was  in  full  quarrel 
with  Ilalph  Ix/ard  of  South  Carolina  for  drawing  twenty-five  hun 
dred  pounds  sterling  per  annum,  in  his  character  of  Tuscan  minis 
ter,  though  unable  to  do  so  much  as  to  get  permission  to  enter 
Tuscany.  Franklin  was  barely  civil  to  the  sanguine  and  generous 
Italian.  At  their  first  interview,  the  moment  he  learned  Mazzei'l 
errand,  he  dashed  cold  water  upon  the  scheme.  "So  many  peo 
ple,"  he  said,  "have  come  to  Europe  on  that  kind  of  buMiu-ss,  that 
tlinv  have  ruined  our  credit,  and  made  the  money-men  shv  of 


JEFFERSON  GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA.  229 

us."  *  Mazzei  argued  in  vain.  As  often  as  he  went  out  to  Passy,  and 
broached  the  subject,  Franklin  "never  failed,"  as  Mazzei  reported 
to  Governor  Jefferson,  "  giving  some  mark  of  disapprobation  and 
displeasure."  And  well  he  might,  since  he  had  already  offered  six 
per  cent  for  the  very  crowns  which  Virginia  hoped  to  get  for  five. 
The  Duke  of  Tuscany  kept  his  money;  Mazzei  returned  to  Virginia 
to  find  his  estate  in  ruins,  and  to  seek  in  vain  compensation  for  his 
losses  ;  and  the  governor  passed  his  two  terms  in  torture,  with  hostile 
fleets  ravaging  the  shores,  and  hostile  armies  menacing  the  interior, 
while  every  effort  to  defend  the  State  was  "  cramped  for  want  of 
money." 

In  sending  Mazzei  upon  this  mission  to  a  reigning  prince,  VirginidV 
performed  the  act  of  a  sovereign  State.     In  the  same  spirit,  and  \ 
evidently  without  a  thought  of  impropriety,  the  legislature,  on  the     J 
second    day  of   Jefferson's    governorship,    June    2,    1779,  formally   / 
ratified  the  treaty  with  France.     Such  acts  as  these  throw  a  valua-  / 
ble  light  upon  the  subsequent  State-Rights  controversy.     This  rati-( 
fication  seems  to  me  so  remarkable,  that  I  will  copy  the  resolutions  ^ 
by  which  it  was  authorized :  —  <r 

"  Resolved,  NEMINE  CONTRADICENTE,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of 
this  Assembly,  that  the  treaties  of  alliance  and  commerce  between  his 
Most  Christian  Majesty  of  France  on  the  one  part,  and  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  on  behalf  of  the  said  States,  on  the 
other  part,  ought  to  be  ratified,  confirmed,  and  declared  binding  on 
this  Commonwealth. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  governor  be  desired  to  notify  to  the  minister 
of  His  Most  Christian  Majesty,  resident  at  Philadelphia,  the  above 
ratification,  under  the  seal  of  the  Commonwealth." 

On  the  1st  of  June,  then,  1779,  Mr.  Jefferson  became  His  Excel 
lency,  the  second  republican  governor  of  Virginia.  In  his  public 
life  hitherto,  all  had  been  plain  sailing;  for  the  wind  and  tide  had 
been  strongly  in  his  favor,  and  the  services  which  he  had  been  called 
upon  to  render  were  such  as  his  character  and  habits  had  fitted  him 
to  perform.  How  different  the  task  which  confronted  him  now  ! 
Not  more  difficult  nor  'nobler,  but  far  more  difficult  to  him.  A.nd 

*  Lossing's  American  Historical  Eecord,  vol.  i.  p.  33. 


230  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

from  the  time  of  his  election  in  January,  to  the  day  when  he  wa 
sworn  in,  the  situation  had  l>een  growing,  every  week,  more  compli 
catcd  and  menacing.  If,  in  January,  he  liad  heen  gratified  by  th 
honor  done  him,  prohahly  on  the  1st  of  June  he  shrank  dismaye* 
from  the  responsibility  which  that  honor  brought  with  it. 

The  French  alliance,  he  now  knew,  was  working  ill  in  two  ways 
—  in  relaxing  the  vigor  of  the  States,  and  rendering  the  foe  mor 
unanimous  and  more  savage.  The  three  British  commissioners  ha< 
announced  to  all  the  world  that  the  nature  of  the  contest  wa 
changed  by  the  alliance  with  France.  Britain  was,  thenceforth 
going  to  use  all  the  means  for  subduing  rebellious  colonies  whicl 
"  God  and  Nature  had  placed  in  her  hands."  Since  America  m\yli 
ere  long  become  an  accession  to  France,  the  common  law  of  self-prc 
servation  (said  the  commissioners)  "will  direct  Great  Britain  to  ren 
der  that  accession  of  as  little  avail  to  her  as  possible."  The  cojonie 
were  to  be  subdued  by  being  destroyed.  Aiperica  was  to  be  lai< 
waste.  This  declaration,  published  in  October,  1778,  was  acted  upoi 
at  once  by  Henry  Hamilton,  commandant  of  Detroit,  by  niarchin; 
into  the  western  wilderness  to  rouse  the  Indians  to  war  against  Vir 
ginia.  Ths  State  over  which  Jefferson  ruled  extended  to  the  Missis 
sippi,  and  embraced  all  the  territory  which  we  now  call  Virginia 
West  Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  besides  a  great  part  of  what  is  nov 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  I  need  not  remind  the  reader  tha 
that  rich  and  .well-watered  region  swarmed  with  Indians,  am  on; 
the  best  and  bravest  of  their  race.  Taking  post  at  Vincennes  01 
the  Wabash,  a  hundred  miles  from  its  junction  with  the  Ohic 
Colonel  Hamilton  spent  the  winter  in  "  talking"  with  chiefs,  gather 
ing  supplies,  and  preparing  for  a  desolating  swoop  over  Kentucky 
into  the  settlements  of  Virginia.  An  Indian  war,  therefore,  wa 
among  the  difficulties  preparing  for  the  governor  elect  while  he  wa 
receiving  the  congratulations  of  his  friends.  He  knew  it  not,  how 
ever.  It  was  a  good  "  express  "  who  could  keep  either  his  despatohe: 
or  his  scalp  while  making  his  way  from  the  Wabash  to  the  James  ii 
1779. 

British  commanders  at  the  South  executed  the  threats  of  the  com 
missioners  not  less.  They,  too,  were  to  ravage  and  devastate  ; 
country  which  they  had  tried  in  vain  to  conquer.  The  war  was  nov 
to 'be  transferred  to  the  South,  too  thinly  settled  to  resist,  it  wai 
thought,  yet  offering  an  inviting  field  for  spoliation.  Americans,  a: 


JEFFERSON   GOVERNOR   OF   VIRGINIA  231 

they  wander  about  the  dusty  interior  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  in  Lon 
don,  remark  with  surprise  that  the  most  showy  monument  there  com 
memorates  a  soldier  associated  in  their  minds  with  defeat,  —  the 
great  'defeated,  Cornwallis.  He  certainly  behaved  at  the  South  more 
in  the  style  of  a  bandit  than  a  soldier;  not  disdaining  petty  larceny, 
it  appears,  when  he  saw  a  precious  object  that  could  be  conveniently 
pocketed  and  carried  off.  His  system  being  to  wreak  the  king's 
vengeance,  rather  than  promote  his  country's  interest,  his  orders 
were  to  imprison  and  despoil  every  man  who  would  not  take  arms  in 
his  service,  and  to  hang  every  man,  who,  after  being  thus  impressed, 
made  his  escape,  and  joined  his  brethren  in  arms  on  the  other  side. 

Governor  Jefferson,  therefore,  from  the  watch-tower  of  his  high 
office,  had  sometimes  to  look  half  a  dozen  ways  at  once.  The 
flower  of  the  men  of  Virginia  were,  of  course,  in  the  army  under 
Washington.  They  must  be  looked  to,  and  their  numbers  kept  up. 
But  tli at  new  enemy  in  the  Carolinas,  able,  enterprising,  relent 
less,  must  be  opposed  with  all  the  force  which  Virginia  could  spare  ; 
since  to  defeat  Cornwallis  in  North  Carolina  was  the  only  way  to 
keep  him  out  of  Virginia :  it  was  self-defence.  The  Indians  were  a 
third  object  of  attention.  The  thousands  of  British  and  German  pris 
oners  in  Albemarle  occasioned  constant  solicitude ;  and  the  more  as 
the  war  drew  nearer  the  borders  of  the  State,  and  as  the  men  of  the 
State  were  drawn  away  to  serve  in  distant  camps.  On  the  side  of 
the  ocean  there  was  always  a  wide  and  an  open  door  to  danger. 
Nothing  but  a  fleet  will  ever  be  able  to  shut  out  a  fleet  from  Chesa 
peake  Bay ;  and  what  was  Virginia's  navy  then  ?  Four  little 
cruisers,  carrying  in  all  sixty-two  guns.  And  as  to  Hampton  Koads 
and  the  mouth  of  the  James  River,  military  men  think  that  even 
now,  in  this  year  1874,  after  fifty-nine  years'  work  upon  Fortress 
Monroe  and  the  Ripraps,  there  is  nothing  there  which  could  stop  a 
good  iron-clad.  Certainly  there  was  nothing  in  1779  that  could 
stop  a  wooden  frigate.  Three  weeks  before  Jefferson's  inauguration, 
a  fleet  of  a  dozen  vessels,  with  two  thousand  troops  on  board,  had 
run  in  without  firing  or  receiving  a  shot,  and  landed  troops  without 
the  least  molestation.  These  troops  carried  out  their  part  of  the 
new  programme.  They  spent  several  days  in  ravaging,  burning, 
plundering,  murdering,  while  the  militia  fled  helpless  j  fpr  in  Vir 
ginia,  in  1779,  there  was  only  one  musket  left  to  every  four  or  five 
men  j  and  the  unarmed  militia  of  the  region  could  not  even  limit  the 


202  LITE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

area  of  spoliation.  "When  at  last  Governor  Henry  had  got  together 
an  armed  force  of  some  magnitude,  the  bold  marauders  ceased 
destroying  turpentine,  tobacco,  and  pork,  ceased  despoiling  farm 
houses  and  burning  villages,  and  went  at  their  leisure  on  board  their 
ships,  and  sailed  away.  The  smoke  of  their  burning  had  not 
ceased  to  ascend  to  heaven  when  Jefferson  took  the  oath.  What 
had  been  done  once,  he  well  knew,  could  be  done  again. 

That  was  the  situation :  front  door  open  to  hostile  fleets ;  back 
door,  to  hostile  Indians  ;  General  Washington  wanting  all  that  Vir 
ginia  had  of  men,  money,  arms,  and  food  ;  a  powerful  foe  at  the  South 
anxious  to  get  over  the  border ;  one  gun  to  four  or  five  men,  and 
a  most  plentiful  lack  of  all  other  warlike  material  which  can  only 
be  got  with  money.  This  was  the  task  which  had  fallen  to  the  lot 
of  a  lawyer  of  thirty-six,  with  a  talent  for  music,  a  taste  for  art,  a 
love  of  science,  literature,  and  gardening.  But  mind  is  mind,  in- 
ti'lligcnru  is  intelligence.  I  would  not  choose  Mr.  Emerson  or  Mr. 
Darwin  to  command  an  expedition,  or  govern  a  -country;  but  if,  in 
the  course  of  events,  it  fairly  fell  to  their  part  to  undertake  either 
of  those  tasks,  I  should  confidently  look  to  their  acquitting  them- 
Belves  respectably.  Moreover,  the  individual  at  the  head  of  a  free 
republic  does  really  have  at  command,  and  may  utilize,  its  whole 
intelligence,  as  we  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  do  during  the  late  wnr.  Jeffer 
son  had  near  him  a  Council  and  Assembly  which  contained  the  best 
sense  that  Virginia  could  spare  from  the  field. 

The  gloom  which  hung  over  the  State  in  consequence  of  the  late 
unchecked  and  unpunished  ravages  of  the  enemy  near  the  sea  was 
dispelled,  before  the  new  governor  had  been  many  days  in  office,  by 
nio.-t  cheering  news  from  the  opposite  quarter. 

Virginia  had  in  the  field,  at  that  time,  two  eminent  heroes:  one 
so  known  to  all  mankind,  that  he  need  not  be  named  ;  the  other 
now  almost  fallen  out  of  memory  :  one  at  the  head  of  the  armies 
of  America;  the  other  in  the  Fur  West,  twelve  hundred  mi4es  lV«m 
the  capital  of  Virginia,  with  a  band  of  a  hundred  und  fifty  kindred 
spirits,  holding  back,  by  the  force  of  his  single  will,  the  Indians  from 
the  frontiers  of  his  native.  State.  George  Rogers  Clarke  was  the 
name  of  this  other  hero.  He  was  a  native  of  Jefferson's  own  coun 
ty  of  All»emarle;  ''our  Colonel  Clarke,"  he  calls  him;  a  neighbor 
of  the  governor;  not  twenty-six  years  old  when  Governor  Henry 
sent  him  into  thu  wilderness,  in  the  spring  of  1778,  to  protect  the 


JEFFERSON   GOVERNOR   OF   VIRGINIA.  233 

border.  This  hero  is  not  as  famous  as  Leonidas  or  Hannibal,  only 
because  he  has  not  had  such  historians  as  they.  But  he  defended 
the  western  homes  of  Virginia  precisely  as  Hannibal  would  have- 
done.  By  way  of  giving  the  Indians  something  to  do  in  their  own 
country,  he  floated  and  marched  to  the  post  of  Kaskaskias  on  the 
Mississippi,  took  it,  held  it  as  a  base  ;  struck  for  other  posts  near  by, 
terrified  some  tribes,  seduced  others,  broke  the  spell  of  British  in 
fluence,  became  lord  paramount  in  the  land  of  the  Illinois  ;  showing 
himself  a  most  swift,  alert,  tough,  untiring,  closely-calculating  com 
mander.  No  order  from  home  helped  or  hindered  him.  "  Not  a 
scrape  of  your  pen,"  he  wrote  to  the  governor  in  April,  1779,  "  have 
I  received  from  you  for  near  twelve  months." 

In  the  midst  of  his  success,  when  he  had  held  the  Indians  quiet 
for  nine  months,  Colonel  Hamilton  interposed,  marching  from  De 
troit,  and  taking  post  at  Vincennes  on  the  Wabash,  right  between 
Clarke  and  Virginia.  Instantly  the  whole  aspect  of  things  was 
changed  j  for  Hamilton  was  a  man  of  energy  and  skill,  long  familiar 
with  Indians,  unscrupulous,  willing  to  let  his  Indians  wage  war  in 
the  Indian  mariner.  Whole  tribes  fell  off  from  Clarke,  and  joined 
Hamilton,  who  "had  guineas,  wampum,  weapons,  red  cloth,  and  all 
that  an  Indian  prizes.  War  parties  streaked  the  prairies.,  and  glided 
through  the  woods.  The  Indians  of  the  whole  western  wilderness, 
from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Great  River,  were  agitated  or  astir. 
Clarke  prepared  to  sell  his  post  as  dearly  as  he  could ;  for,  as  he  said, 
he  had  not  men  enough  to  stand  a  siege,  and  was  too  remote  to 
send  for  aid.  But  while  he  was  in  the  rush  of  preparation,  calling 
in  his  outposts,  burning  superfluous  and  obstructive  houses,  making 
all  tight  and  snug  for  a  desperate  fight,  came  news  that  Hamilton 
had  sent  out  so  many  parties  from  Vincennes,  that  he  had  but  eighty 
men  left  to  defend  the  post.  His  resolution  was  taken  ;  for,  really, 
he  had  but  one  chance.  Let  him  wait  at  Kaskaskias  till  the  spring 
opened,  and  he  would  have  Hamilton,  British  troops,  and  thousands 
of  Indians,  upon  him,  against  whom  his  little  band  could  fight  only 
to  be  at  last  tortured  and  burnt  alive. 

The  distance  from  Kaskaskias  to  Vincennes  was  a  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  ;  Clarke's  force,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  men.  Send 
ing  a  barge  round  by  river  with  the  artillery  and  stores,  he  struck 
across  the  country  with  a  hundred  and  thirty  soldiers,  joined  on  the 
way  by  a  few  young  men  of  the  country.  It  was  in  the  midst  of 


234  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  great  February  thaw,  the  rivers  all  overflowing,  the  swamps 
under  water,  the  prairies  soft,  the  woods  soaked  and  dripping.  On 
.the  eleventh  day  they  were  within  nine  miles  of  Vincennes  ;  but 
those  nine  miles  were  covered  with  the  waters  of  the  overflowing 
Wabash.  It  took  the  band  five  days  to  accomplish  the  distance, 
"  having  to  wade  often,"  says  the  heroic  leader ;  and,  the  last  six 
miles,  "  up  to  our  breasts  in  water."  They  must  have  perished,  he 
added,  if  the  weather  had  not  been  warm.  Reaching  dry  land,  an 
hour  after  dark,  they  saw  the  place  before  them  ;  when,  all  chilled 
and  wet  as  they  were,  they  began  the  attack;  and,  after  an  eighteen 
hours'  fight,  took  the  post  and  all  its  garrison  without  the  loss  of  a 
man.  It  was  Clarke's  audacity,  fortitude,  and  skill  that  won  this 
victory,  which,  in  its  consequences,  was  one  of  the  most  important 
of  the  war;  for,  besides  relieving  the  whole  frontier  of  apprehension 
from  the  Indians,  it  confirmed  Virginia's  claim  to  the  possession  of 
the  country,  and  had  its  due  weight  in  the  final  negotiations. 

Tim  victors  were  bountifully  rewarded.  A  few  days  after,  they 
made  an  easy  capture  of  forty  men  and  ten  thousand  pounds'  worth 
of  goods,  floating  down  the  river  to  re-enforce  Colonel  Hamilton.  In 
short,  George  Rogers  Clarke  was  lord  of  the  West,  vice  Henry  Hamil 
ton,  deposed,  and  sent  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  with  his  chief  officers,  to 
the  governor  of  Virginia.  "  But  what  crowned  the  general  joy," 
wrote  Clarke  to  the  governor,  "was  the  arrival  of  William  Morris, 
in  v  express  to  you,  with  your  letters,  which  gave  general  satisfaction. 
The  soldiery,  being  made  sensible  of  the  gratitude  of  their  country 
for  their  services,  were  so  much  elated  that  they  would  have  at 
tempted  the  reduction  of 'Detroit,  had  I  ordered  them."  William 
Morris  was  despatched  with  tidings  of  this  new  triumph  ;  but,  as  he 
was  killed  on  the  way,  it  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  June,  a  hun 
dred  days  after  the  event,  that  Jefferson  received  the  intelligence. 

The  success  of  Colonel  Clarke,  though  it  relieved  the  governor's 
mind  from  an  ever-present  dread,  devolved  upon  him  a  painful  duty. 
Hamilton  and  two  of  his  officers  readied  Williamsburg,  prisoners, 
charged  with  having  incited  the  Indians  to  scalp,  massacre,  torture, 
and  burn  ;  Hamilton  him>elf  having  confined  in  a  dungeon  without 
fire,  and  loaded  with  chains,  and  cruelly  tormented,  an  American 
citizen.  For  four  years  Congress  and  the  people  had  seen,  with  a 
sorrowing  and  indignant  amazement,  the  cruelty  with  which  English 
commanders  had  uniformly  treated  American  prisoners  of  war;  and 


JEFFERSON  GOVERNOR   OF  VIRGINIA.  235 

they  had  sought  to  avenge  the  wrong  by  heaping  coals  of  fire  upon 
their  heads,  treating  English  and  Hessian  prisoners  with  an  extrav-» 
agance  of  generosity.  In  their  unique  manifesto  of  October  30, 
1778,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  had  declared  to  the  world, 
that,  "  considering  themselvres  bound  to  love  their  enemies,"  they 
had  "  studied  to  spare  those  who  were  in  arm*  against  them,  and  to 
lighten  the  chains  of  captivity."  This  was  the  simple  truth.  The 
British  prisoners  had  been  courted  and  petted,  rather  than  abused. 
Jefferson  and  his  neighbors  had  personally  striven  to  render  the  stay 
of  the  Burgoyne  prisoners  in  Albemarle,  not  endurable  merely,  but 
delightful. 

I  can  perfectly  understand  the  feelings  of  the  Virginians  on  this 
occasion  ;  because,  during  the  late  war,  while  Union  prisoners  were 
dying  in  anguish  at  An^ersonville,  unsheltered,  and  not  permitted 
to  shelter  themselves  from  the  blasting  Georgia  sun  and  rain,  I  saw, 
near  Fortress  Monroe,  Confederate  prisoners  in  an  exquisite  seaside 
hospital,  nourished,  while  their  wounds  were  healing,  upon  a  diet  of 
alternate  broiled  chicken  and  lamb-chop,  with  a  glass  of  delicate 
hock  (whenever  ordered  by  the  physicians)  at  eleven  and  four ;  and 
as  well  treated,  in  all  essential  particulars,  as  Queen  Victoria  could 
be  if  she  lay  sick  in  Windsor  Castle.  Having  seen  this  sight  in 
September,  1864,  I  can  understand  how  it  was  that  the  governor  of 
Virginia  and  his  council,  in  June,  17^9,  came  to  the  conclusion  to 
discontinue  the  refined  coals-of-fire  system,  and  try  the  vulgar 
method  of  retaliation.  The  council,  in  fact,  "resolved  to  advise  the 
governor,"  that  the  three  prisoners  from  Vincennes  "  be  put  in  irons, 
confined  in  the  dungeons  of  the  public  jail,  debarred  the  use  of  pen, 
ink,  and  paper,  and  excluded  all  converse,  except  with  their  keeper." 

Each  variety  of  human  being  has  its  own  besetting  foible.  As  a 
man  of  great  executive  force  is  apt  to  be  cruelly  reckless  of  others' 
woe,  so  a  person  of  scholarly  habits  and  philanthropic  character  is 
generally  too  reluctant  to  be  the  instrument  of  inflicting  pain,  even 
when  justice,  necessity,  and  mercy,  all  unite  to  demand  it  at  his 
hands.  I  observe,  therefore,  with  pleasure,  in  the  voluminous  cor 
respondence  relating  to  this  affair,  that  Governor  Jefferson  rose 
superior  to  the  natural  and  usual  infirmity  of  men  of  his  tempera 
ment,  and  went  heart  and  ^iand  with  his  legal  advisers.  He  put 
those  men  in  irons,  and  immured  them  in  a  dungeon.  In  those 
days,  too  (Howard  was  only  just  beginning  his  jail-tours  then),  a  dun- 


236  LITE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

geon  icos  a  dungeon.  It  was  rotten  straw,  foul  air,  darkness,  under- 
•  ground  chill,  and  every  thing  that  was  most  dismal  and  repulsive. 
A  hundred  years  ago  the  Christian  religion  was  just  struggling  into 
existence.  It  had  not  }ret  acquired  force  enough  to  purify  the  pub 
lic  jails  of  remote  Virginia.  But  Jefferson,  philanthropist  as  he 
was,  and,  indeed,  because  he  was  a  philanthropist,  adhered  firmly 
to  the  system  of  retaliation  ;  perceiving,  as  he  told  General  Wash 
ington,  that  retaliation  in  this  instance  was  only  a  more  far-reaching 
kind  of  mercy. 

General  Phillips,  that  "  proudest  man  of  the  proudest  nation  on 
earth,'7  prisoner  of  war  in  a  pleasant  mansion  near  Monticello,  sent  a 
vigorous,  though  moderate  and  respectful,  remonstrance  to  Governor 
Jefferson.  His  chief  point  was,  that  Hamilton  having  capitulated, 
it  was  a  breach  of  faith  on  the^part  of  Virginia  to  treat  him  other- 
wix-  than  as  a  prisoner  of  war.  The  governor  ransacked  authorities, 
but  found  nothing  to  justify  this  view.  It  occurred  to  him,  however, 
that  military  usage,  not  yet  embodied  in  law,  might  have  estab 
lished  the  principle;  and  he  therefore,  with  the  consent  of  his  coun 
cil,  referred  the  matter  to  the  decision  of  General  Washington.  "  L 
have  tin-  highest  idea,"  he  wrote  to  the  general,  "of  those  contracts 
which  take  place  between  nation  and  nation  at  war,  and  would  be 
the  last-on  earth  to  do  any  thing  in  violation  of  them  ;  "  and  '•  my 
own  anxiety  under  a  charge  $f  violation  of  national  faith  by  the  exe 
cutive  of  this  Commonwealth  will,  I  hope,  apologize  for  my  adding 
this  to  the  many  troubles  with  which  I  know  you  to  be  burdened." 
The  Commander-in-chief,  after  much  reflection,  and  consultation 
with  military  men,  thought  it  best,  upon  the  whole,  that  Hamilton 
and  his  companions  should  have  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  Their 
shackles  were,  therefore,  taken  off,  and  they  were  finally  admitted 
to  parole. 

Not  the  less  were  the  governor  and  council  resolved  to  adhere  to 
the  system  of  retaliation.  A  prison-ship,  on  the  fell  pattern  of  those 
used  by  the  English  in  New  York,  was  actually  got  ready,  and  the 
exchange  of  pri>oner»  was  stopped  between  Virginia  and  New  York. 
"  Humane  conduct  on  our  part,"  wrote  the  governor,  "  was  found  to 
produce  no  effect:  the  contrary  was  therefore  to  be  tried.  If  it 
produces  a  proper  lenity  to  our  citizens  in  captivity,  it  will  have  the 
etl'eet  \ve  nn-aiit :  if  it  does  not,  we  shall  return  a  severity  as  terrible 
as  universal.  .....  Iron,"  he  added,  "  will  be  retaliated  by  iron, 


JEFFERSON   GOVERNOR   OF  VIRGINIA.  237 

but  a  great  multiplication  on  distinguished  objects ;- prison-ships  by 
prison-ships,  and  like  for  like  in  general."  But  happily  Governor 
Jefferson,  in  November,  1779,  received  notification  from- head-quar 
ters  that  the  British  generals,  under  the  new  commander,  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  had  changed  their  system,  and  were  treating  prisoners  of 
war  with  an  approach  to  humanity.  Virginians  might  be  pardoned 
for  thinking  that  the  just,  spirited,  and  firm  conduct  of  their 
governor  and  council  had  had  something  to  do  with  this  change. 

Meanwhile  the  governor  had  trouble  enough  with  the  thousands 
of  Burgoyne  prisoners  near  his  own  home.  Their  thriving  gardens, 
attractive  as  they  might  be  to  a  visitor,  could  not  retain  them  when 
there  was  a  chance  to  escape;  and  whenever  there  was  a  British 
force  operating  in  or  near  Virginia,  no  one  could  say,  of  a  squad  of 
soldiers  on  the  tramp,  whether  they  were  deserters  from  that  force, 
or  prisoners  escaped  from  Albemarle.  "  Four  hundred  desertions  in 
the  last  fortnight,"  wrote  Colonel  Bland  in  July,  1779;  and  he  had 
reason  to  believe,  "  with  the  connivance  of  some  of  the  officers." 
This  news  was  not  calculated  to  soothe  the  mind  of  the  new 
governor. 

But  the  grand  object  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  solicitude,  during  the  first 
summer  of  his  administration,  was  to  enable  the  gallant  Colonel 
Clarke  to  make  the  most  of  his  commanding  position  in  the  Far 
West.  The  burning  desire  of  that  hero's  heart  was  to  capture  De 
troit,  the  seat  of  the  enemy's  power  in  the  Indian  country,  and,  as 
Governor  Jefferson  described  it,  "  an  uneasy  thorn  in  our  side."  A 
great  host  of  friendly  Indians  were  assembled  at  Vincennes ;  and  all 
was  ready  for  the  expedition,  except  the  more  costly  supplies,  and 
the  regiment  or  two  of  white  troops  needful  for  the  onset.  Ij;  lay 
heavy  on  the  governor's  mind,  during  the  whole  period  of  his  service, 
that  he  could  never  quite  spare  them.  Several  times  he  thought  he 
had  both  men  and  money  enough.  But,  just  as  the  troops  were 
ready  to  march,  an  exigency  would  occur  so  dire,  so  pressing,  that  he 
was  compelled  to  order  them  elsewhere.  Thus  Detroit  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy ;  remained  a  very  uneasy  thorn  in  the  side 
of  Washington,  the  United  States,  the  Federal  party,  until  John 
Jay  extracted  it  by  treaty  in  1794.  Governor  Jefferson,  unable  to 
get  Detroit,  resolved  to  secure  what  Colonel  Clarke  had  already 
conquered.  A  wild  delusion  prevailed  just  then,  that  peace  was  at 
hand  through  the  mediation  of  Spain ;  and,  supposing  that  each 


LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 


belligerent  would  retain  what  he  actually  held  at  the  moment  of 
tn-ating,  the  governor  ordered  Colonel  Clarke  to  build  certain  forts 
in  the  western  country,  particularly  one  on  the  Mississippi,  at  the 
southern  boundary  of  Virginia,  which  would  make  good  Virginia's 
ancient  claim  to  extend  westward  as  far  as  the  Great  River. 
Colonel  Clarke,  who  was  a  surveyor  by  profession,  —  resembling  in 
thi.s  a-  in  other  respects  Jelferson's  own  father,  —  built  the  fort,  and 
named  it  Fort  Jefferson. 

This  year,  1779,  the  last  of  Williamsburg's  serving  as  the  capital 
of  Virginia,  was  the  last  of  Jefferson's  residence  near  William  and 
Mary  College,  in  which  he  had  been  educated.  Being  now  elected 
a  college  visitor,  he  endeavored,  amid  the  bustle  and  anxieties  of 
war,  to  lop  off  some  of  the  dead  branches  that  hindered,  as  he 
thought,  its  useful  operation.  He  caused  the  grammar-school  to 
be  abolished,  and  the  two  professorships  of  divinity  and  Hebrew  to 
be  Mispressed.  In  place  of  these  he  made  provision  for  the  instruc 
tion  of  the  students  in  chemistry,  natural  history,  anatomy,  medi 
cine,  law,  modern  languages,  the  fine  arts,  natural  justice,  and  the 
laws  of  nations.  In  the  spring  of  1780,  Richmond,  a  village  then 
of  nine  hundred  white  inhabitants,  peculiarly  defenceless  and  unpro 
vided,  became  the  capital  of  Virginia;  the  government  finding 
shelter  —  and  little  more  than  shelter  —  in  extemporized  wooden 
structures. 

The  dream  of  peace  was  rudely  dispelled.  About  the  date  of 
this  removal  to  Richmond,  April  1,  1780,  the  stern  and  bitter  trial 
of  Virginia  and  her  governor  began.  By  the  time  he  had  arranged 
his  new  pigeon-holes  at  Richmond,  came  a  private  letter  from  Madi 
son,  then  in  Congress,  which  must  have  appalled  timid  minds.  The 
army  under  Washington,  Mr.  Madison  said,  was  on  the  verge  of 
dissolution,  being  short  of  bread  and  nearly  out  of  meat;  the  treas 
ury  empty,  and  the  public  credit  gone;  the  currency  nearly  worth 
less,  and  no  visible  means  of  restoring  it;  the  States  pulling  one 
way,  and  Congress  another;  and  everything  in  extremity.  This 
was,  indeed,  the  period  of  profoundest  gloom, — the  black  hour 
before  the  dawn.  It  was  the  time  when  Thomas  Paine,  whose  pen, 
during  the  Revolution,  was  equal  to  a  thousand  men  in  the  field, 
drew  the  year's  salary  due  him  as  clerk  of  the  Pennsylvania  Assem 
bly,  and  began  with  it  a  private  subscription  in  aid  of  the  gasping 
cause,  which  had  an  effect  rivalling  in  importance  a  new  number  of 


JEFFERSON  GOVERNOR   OF  VIRGINIA.  239 

"The  Crisis."  The  sum  was  but  five  hundred  paper  dollars,  it  is 
true  ;  but  it  was  all  he  had,  and  it  kindled  the  patriotism  of  men 
who  had  more. 

By  the.  time  Governor  Jefferson  had  docketed  Mr.  Madison's 
letter,  in.  the  first  week  of  April,  1780,  arrived  news  that  a  British 
fleet  and  army  were  investing  Charleston.  News  followed,  six  weeks 
after,  that  the  city  was  taken,  South  Carolina  helpless,  and  a  British 
army  free  to  move  northward  over  North  Carolina  into  Virginia, 
unless  a  half-armed  militia  could  stop  it. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

VIRGINIA   RAVAGED. 

To  the  governor  of  Virginia,  this  whole  year,  1780,  and  half  the 
next,  was  a  period  of  the  most  rending  anxiety,  and  of  exertion  the 
most  intense  and  constant.  With  four  thousand  five  hundred  Vir 
ginians  already  in  the  army,  we  see  him  stimulating  the  recruiting 
system  in  each  county,  writing  letters,  public  and  private,  to  county 
members  and  magnates,  urging  them  to  utilize  the  dying  currency, 
and  get  out  the  last  man  with  the  last  dollar,  while  it  still  had  a 
semblance  of  value.  He  arranged,  early  in  the  campaign,  three 
lines  of  express-riders,  —  one  to  General  Washington,  one  to  Hamp 
ton  Roads,  one  to  the  head-quarters  of  the  army  of  the  South,  —  so 
that,  at  a  crisis,  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  get  and  send  news  at  the 
rate  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  a  day  and  night.  Still 
further  to  guard  against  surprise,  he  despatched  General  Nelson  on 
a  tour  of  the  eastern  counties,  requesting  him  to  get  the  county 
lieutenants  together,  and  concert  a  plan  of  action  in  case  of  another 
descent  of  the  enemy  from  the  oceans.  At  first  it  was  an  agonizing 
question,  to  which  quarter  Virginia  should  send  her  levies.  Three 
letters  from  the  Committee  of  Congress  at  head-quarters  lay  upon  his 
desk  at  once,  all  asking  for  men  and  means;  but  early  in  July,  Gene 
ral  Gates  arrived  at  Richmond,  on  his  way  to  take  the  command  in 
the  Smith  ;  and,  for  the  next  six  weeks,  every  man,  horse,  wagon,  gun, 
bayonet,  axe,  cartridge-box,  shoe,  belt,  saddle,  blanket,  tent,  and 
coin,  which  Governor  Jefferson  could  beg,  bu}r,  borrow,  or  get  made, 
was  hurried  away  to  General  Gatcs's  head-quarters  in  North  Caro 
lina.  Some  Virginians  saw  with  dismay  the  governor  pouring  into 
General  Gates'a  camp  the  whole  of  Virginia's  means  of  defence. 
His  answer  then  and  ever  after  was,  that  Virginia's  single  chance 
•of  escaping  devastation  by  Cornwallis's  army  lay  in  strengthening 
240 


VIRGINIA  RAVAGED.  241 

Gates.  If  Gates  and  bis  army  did  not  stop  and  hurl  back  upon 
Charleston  the  British  forces,  nothing  could  keep  them  out  of 
Virginia. 

For  the  first  time  in  her  history,  Virginia  became  a  manufac 
turing  State.  "  Our  smiths,"  wrote  the  governor,  August  4,  "  are 
making  five  hundred  axes  and  some  tomahawks  for  General  Gates," 
—  turning  out  twenty  a  day;  "  and  we  are  endeavoring  to  get  bay 
onet-belts  made,"  —  though  leather  was  so  scarce  that  people  stole 
the  flaps  of  cartouch-boxes  from  the  wagons  to  mend  their  shoes 
with.  The  governor  sent  messengers  all  over  the  State  to  pick  up 
little  lots  of  material,  such  as  duck  and  leather.  And,  when  he  had 
accumulated  supplies,  he  was  at  his  wit's  end  for  wagons  in  which 
to  transport  them.  Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  elapsed  since 
Braddock  had  found  wagons  so  scarce  in  Virginia  and  Maryland  ;  and 
Governor  Jefferson,  since  he  had  no  money  in  his  treasury  to  hire  or 
buy  them,  found  them  scarcer  still.,  In  this  extremity  he  was 
obliged  to  impress  wagons,  not  sparing  bis  own.  His  principle  was, 
to  leave  on  every  farm  the  horses  and  vehicles  absolutely  necessary 
to  secure  the  ripening  crops,  and  take  all  the  rest  for  the  public  ser 
vice.  This  he  did  upon  his  own  farms  in  Albemarle.  It  is  inter 
esting  to  note,  that,  in  the  crisis  of  the  campaign,  the  governor  was 
sending  about  to  try  and  find,  for  the  use  of  General  Gates,  a  copy 
of  the  old  map  of  Virginia,  made  when  he  was  a  child,  by  Professor 
Fry  and  his  own  father.  The  ladies,  this  summer,  were  contribut 
ing  the  costly  trifles  of  their  jewel-drawers  to  the  cause,  besides 
huge  packets  of  the  paper-money  of  the  period.  Mrs.  Jefferson, 
the  gentle  wife  of  the  governor,  was  active  in  the  work.  Among  the 
Gates  papers  in  the  priceless  collection  of  the  New- York  Historical 
Society,  is  a  letter  in  the  neatest,  firmest  hand,  which  she  wrote  to  a 
friend  at  this  time,  —  the  only  scrap  of  her  writing,  perhaps,  that  has 
escaped  the  privacy  in  which  her  life  was  passed :  — 

RICHMOND,  Aug.  8,  1780. 

Mrs.  Washington  has  done  me  the  honor  of  communicating  the 
enclosed  proposition  of  our  sisters  of  Pennsylvania,  and  of  informing 
me  that  the  same  grateful  sentiments  are  displaying  themselves  in 
Maryland.  Justified  by  the  sanction  of  her  letter  in  handing  for 
ward  the  scheme,  I  undertake  with  cheerfulness  the  duty  of  furnish 
ing  to  my  country-women  an  opportunity  of  proving  that  they  also 

16 


242  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

participate  of  those  virtuous  feelings  which  gave  birth  to  it.  I  can 
not  do  more  for  its  promotion  than  by  enclosing  to  you  a  number  of 
the  papers,  to  be  distributed  to  such  counties  as  arettivenient  to 
you,  and  to  such  persons  in  them  as  you  think  proper 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  sentiments  of  the  mo^^^Bfect  esteem 
and  respect,  madam, 

Your  most  obedient  and  most  humbl 


The  results  of  this  appeal,  I  fear,  were  not  brilliant;  and  yet  it 
had  results.  Doubtless  a  hard-pressed  treasurer  valued  Mrs.  Sarah 
Gary's  gold  watch-chain,  which  "cost  £7  sterling,"  or  Mrs.  Ambler's 
"  five  gold  rings,''  or  Mrs.  Griffin's  "  ten  half-joes,"  or  Mrs.  Ramsay's 
collection  of  "  one  half-joe,  three  guineas,  three  pistareens,  one  bit," 
more  highly  than  the  same  lady's  sounding  collection  of  four  bundles 
of  paper  money,  containing  in  all  seventj'-five  thousand  five  hun 
dred  and  eighteen  dollars  and  one-third.  This  delusive  sum  was 
not  altogether  to  be  despised.  It  would  buy  one  or  two  blankets,  or 
half  a  dozen  pairs  of  tolerable  marching-shoes. 

These  efforts  were  in  vain.  In  the  midst  of  the  governor's 
endeavors,  while  he  was  in  the  very  act  of  hurrying  away  re-enforce 
ments  and  stores  to  the  scene  of  action,  occurred  (August  16,  1780) 
the  disastrous  defeat  of  Gates  at  Camden.  It  was  a  woful  stroke. 
In  an  hour  —  such  a  destroyer  is  war  —  all  that  Virginia  and  the 
whole  Confederacy  could  accumulate  of  men,  horses,  and  material,  in 
two  months  of  intensest  exertion,  was  scattered  and  gone.  Those 
wagons  so  painfully  got  together,  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty,  were  all  lost,  —  one  of  Jefferson's  among  the  rest.  In  this  sad 
extremity,  the  governor's  first  thought  was  to  gather  precise  and 
full  information  of  the  cause  and  extent  of  the  disaster,  and  transmit 
the  same  to  General  Washington;  his  second,  to  raise  and  equip  new 
levies  (though  "  without  any  money  in  the  treasury,  or  hope  of  any 
till  October"),  and  do  whatever  else  was  possible  to  enable  General 
Gates  to  make  a  new  stand.  For  the  lost  wagons,  lie  tried  to  substi 
tute  barges,  in  which  to  float  provisions  down  the  streams  towards 
General  Gates's  camp;  but  he  was  obliged  to  become  personally 
responsible  for  the  cost  of  their  construction.  It  marks  the  confu 
sion  of  the  time,  that,  when  a  month  had  elapsed  alter  the  Camden 
defeat,  he  was  still  ignorant  of  the  fate  of  his  own  wagoner  and 


VIRGINIA  RAVAGED.  243 

horses.  A  wagon-master  from  the  fatal  field  told  him  that  a  brigade 
quartermaster,  at  the  moment  of  panic,  cut  one  of  his  Lest  horses 
from  the  harness,  and  rode  away  on  him ;  and  that  his  negro 
wagoner,  Phil,  lame  in  one  arm  and  leg,  was  seen  loosening  another 
horse  for  the  same  laudable  purpose  of  saving  himself  for  further 
service.  As  the  public  money  was  carried  in  the  governor's  wagon, 
it  is  also  to  be  presumed  he  never  saw  it  again. 

Camden  is  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  Virginia 
line ;  and  yet  several  months  passed  before  a  soldier  of  the  victorious 
army  trod  Virginia  soil.  The  enterprising  and  resolute  yeomanry 
of  North  Carolina  held  them  in  check,  and  even  compelled  a  retreat 
into  South  Carolina.  It  was  from  another  quarter  that  Virginia  was 
menaced  next. 

It  was  the  22d  of  October,  1780.  Amid  the  universal  horror  and 
consternation  caused  by  Arnold's  defection,  the  governor  of  Virginia 
was  still  sending  forward  from  every  county  all  the  men  it  could 
spare  to  General  Gates,  except  a  force  which  he  still  hoped  to 
reserve  for  Colonel  Clarke's  project  against  Detroit.  Droves  of 
cattle  were  on  the  southern  road;  the  smiths  were  still  working  on 
the  axes,  producing  twenty  a  day;  agents  were  out  buying  the  newly- 
harvested  corn  on  the  credit  of  the  State ;  men  were  ranging  the 
western  counties  for  a  hundred  more  wagons,  all  for  the  new  army 
forming  under  Gates  in  North  Carolina,  —  when  news  came  that  a 
British  fleet  of  sixty  vessels  had  entered  Hampton  Roads,  and  were 
landing  troops  near  Portsmouth  !  Jefferson's  three  lines  of  express- 
riders  stood  him  in  good  stead  now ;  for  against  such  a  force  —  a 
dozen  armed  vessels  and  three  thousand  regular  troops  of  all  arms  — 
there  was  nothing  in  Virginia  that  could  stand  an  hour;  and  he  could 
do  little  more  than  send  the  information  to  "Washington  and  Gates. 
Such  militia  as  were  left  and  had  arms  were  instantly  diverted  to 
this  new  danger;  but  they  could  do  nothing  but  make  a  show  of 
resistance.  To  General  Gates  the  governor  could  now  only  forward 
an  idea :  "  Would  it  not  be  worth  while  to  send  out  a  swift  boat  from 
some  of  the  inlets  of  North  Carolina  to  notify  the  French  admiral 
that  his  enemies  are  in  a  net,  if  he  has  leisure  to  close  the  mouth  of 
it?'7 

"His  enemies!"  Mr.  Jefferson  soon  learned  whose  enemies 
these  new-comers  were,  and  what  they  had  come  to  Virginia  for. 
When  they  had  been  a  week  at  Portsmouth,  doing  nothing  particu- 


244  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

hir,  a  suspicious  character  was  arrested  on  the  road  leading  south 
ward.  While  protesting  his  willingness  to  be  searched,  he  was  seen 
to  put  something  into  his  mouth.  Tobacco,  perhaps?  But  the 
Virginia  militia-men,  experienced  tobacco-chewers,  did  not  recognize 
the  correct  swing  of  the  arm  in  the  motion  made  by  this  unknown; 
and,  taking  the  liberty  to  examine  his  mouth,  they  extracted  there 
from  a  remarkable  quid,  —  a  neat  little  roll  of  the  size  of  a  goose-quill, 
covered  with  goldbeater's-skin,  and  nicely  tied  at  each  end.  It 
proved  to  be  a  letter  from  General  Leslie,  the  commander  of  the 
expedition,  to  Lord  Cornwallis:  "  My  Lord,  I  have  been  here  near  a 
wrrk,  establishing  a  post.  I  wrote  to  you  to  Charleston  and  by 
another  messenger  by  land.  I  cannot  hear  for  a  certainty  where 
you  are.  I  wait  your  orders.  The  bearer  is  to  be  handsomely 
rewarded,  if  he  brings  me  any  note  or  mark  from  your  lordship. 
A.  L." 

This  great  armament,  then,  had  come  to  co-operate  with  Corn- 
waliis  in  the  subjection  of  Virginia.  The  design  was  frustrated  by 
the  activity  and  valor  of  the  North-Carolina  militia  in  annoying  and 
detaining  Cornwallis.  Leslie  waited  a  month  ;  at  the  expiration  of 
which  he  put  to  sea  again  with  all  his  ships  and  all  his  men.  Dur 
ing  his  stay,  the  British  prisoners  in  Albemarle  escaped  in  such 
numbers,  that  the  governor  deemed  it  best  to  march  them  into 
Maryland.  And  none  too  soon!  If  they  had  remained  in  Albe 
marle  through  the  winter,  every  man  of  them  would  have  gone  to 
swell  the  British  army  when  it  made  its  last  stand  at  Yorktown ; 
for  Cornwallis,  in  the  spring,  could  have  struck  the  camp  which  they 
had  made  so  inviting  with  gardens  and  shrubbery.  To  the  last 
week  of  their  stay,  the  agreeable  relations  between  some  of  the 
officers  and  Governor  Jefferson  continued.  To  a  young  German 
lieutenant  of  scientific  tastes,  who  had  poured  forth  fervent  thanks 
givings  for  Mr.  Jefferson's  kindness,  the  governor  sent  an  amiable 
reply,  making  light  of  the  services  he  had  been  able  to  render,  and 
suggesting  to  his  young  friend  to  resume  philosophy  when  the  war 
should  be  over,  and,  settling  in  America,  acquire  a  fame  "founded 
on  the  happiness,  and  not  on  the  calamities,  of  human  nature." 
Really,  these  were  fortunate  prisoners.  The  officers  had  bought  for 
their  pleasure  such  a  large  number  of  the  superior  Virginia  horsey 
that,  upon  their  going  away,  it  became  a  serious  question  whether 
they  ought  to  be  allowed  to  take  the  animals  out  of  a  State  so 


VIRGINIA  KAVAGED.  245 

terribly  in  want  of  them  ;  and  Governor  Jefferson  referred  this  point 
also  to  General  Washington's  decision. 

The  month  of  December,  1780,  was  a  breathing-time  to  the 
Virginians.  The  governor  employed  it  chiefly  in  pushing  measures 
in  aid  of  Colonel  Clarke's  design  against  Detroit.  The  British  were 
again  powerful  in  the  Far  West.  Certain  news  came,  that,  in  the 
spring,  two  thousand  Indians  and  English  would  ravage  the  fron 
tiers,  unless  employment  could  be  found  for  them  nearer  home  ;  and 
it  was  only  too  probable  that  the  scene  of  the  next  regular  campaign 
would  be  Virginia.  Clarke  was  himself  in  Richmond  for  the  pur 
pose  of  urging  and  organizing  the  expedition,  and  wras  waiting,  as 
the  year  1780  drew  to  a  close,  the  final  answer  of  General  Washing 
ton  to  the  governor's  strong  recommendation  of  the  scheme.  The 
general's  consent  and  warm  approval  were  given  in  due  tima;  but, 
before  his  letter  reached  Richmond,  events  again  interposed  their 
irresistible  fiatt 

On  Sunday,  the  last  day  of  the  year  1780,  at  eight  in  the  morn 
ing,  Jefferson  received  intelligence  that  a  fleet  of  twenty-seven  sail 
had  entered  Chesapeake  Bay  the  day  before.  The  messenger  must 
have  ridden  hard,  the  distance  in  a  straight  line  between  Richmond 
and  Old  Point  Comfort  being  not  less  than  a  hundred  and^  twenty 
miles;  and  he  had  not  waited  long  enough  to  learn  what  flag  the 
vessels  bore,  nor  whether  they  were  bound  up  the  bay  or  into  the 
James.  All  the  rulers  of  Virginia  were  in  Richmond  at  the  moment ; 
for  the  legislature  was  in  session,  within  two  days  of  its  adjournment. 
General  Nelson  of  the  State  militia  and  the  heroic  Clarke  were 
there;  and  Baron  Steuben,  who  had  recently  come  to  assist  in  the 
defence  of  the  State,  was  not  far  off.  But  neither  soldier  nor 
civilian  could  assist  an  anxious  governor  in  determining  the  char 
acter  of  the  new  arrival.  Could  it  be  Leslie  back  again?  Might  it 
not  be  the  long-wished-for  French  fleet?  Was  it  that  mysterious 
expedition  fitting  out  lately  in  New  York,  destined,  as  it  was  given 
out,  for  some  Southern  port,  of  which  General  Washington,  three 
weeks  before,  had  sent  his  usual  circular  of  notification  to  the  gov 
ernors  of  States  ?  No  one  could  tell.  And  if  the  fleet  should  prove  to 
be  hostile,  would  the  commanding  general  be  content  with  merely 
ravaging  the  shores  of  the  lower  country,  like  his  two  predecessors', 
or  push  for  regions  which  no  enemy  had  yet  despoiled?  Which 
river  would  he  ascend,  —  the  York,  the  James,  the  Potomac,  the 


246  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Patapsco?  What  town  would  he  first  plunder,  —  Alexandria,  Bal 
timore,  Williamsburg,  Petersburg,  or  Richmond  ? 

Amid  all  this  doubt,  the  governor  could  only  despatch  General 
Nelson,  with  full  powers,  to  the  mouth  of  the  James,  that  he  might 
be  near  the  scene  of  his  duties  in  case  it  were  necessary  to  call  out 
the  militia.  Richmond  has  known  some  anxious  Sundays  since, 
but  perhaps  few  more  distressing  than  this ;  for  the  whole  day 
passed  without  bringing  further  intelligence.  Monday  came  and 
went;  but  not  a  messenger  from  the  lower  country  arrived.  On 
Tuesday  morning,  at  ten,  the  suspense  was  at  an  end.  Word 
came  that  the  fleet  was  British,  not  French,  and  that  it  had  entered 
the  James,  not  gone  up  Chesapeake  Bay.  Instantly  the  governor 
signed  orders,  calling  out  half  the  militia  of  the  region  menaced,  and 
a  third  of  the  militia  of  the  counties  adjacent  to  it,  —  four  thousand 
seven  hundred  men  in  all,  —  and  intrusted  the  orders  to  the  county 
members  just  departing  for  their  homes.  That  done,  he  directed 
the  removal  of  public  property  to  Westham,  a  village  just  above  the 
rapids  which  close  the  navigation  of  the  James  at  Richmond. 

The  next  evening,  Wednesday,  January  3,  the  governor  learned 
that  the  enemy's  fleet  of  light  vessels  had  come  to  anchor  near 
Jamestown,  the  point  where  the  river  is  only  seven  miles  from 
Williamsburg.  Then  all  thought  the  enemy's  first  object  must  be 
the  ancient  capital.  But  it  was  not.  On  Thursday  morning,  two 
hours  before  the  dawn,  came  intelligence  that  the  fleet,  favored  by 
wind  and  tide,  had  swept  on  up  the  broad  James  to  a  landing  below 
where  the  Appomattox  enters  it.  There  was  still,  therefore,  some 
doubt  whether  Richmond  or  Petersburg  was  to  be  visited ;  but  the 
governor,  who  had  now  learned  that  "  the  parricide  Arnold  "  was  the 
commander  of  the  expedition,  called  out  all  the  militia  of  that  part 
of  the  State.  At  five  that  afternoon  all  doubt  was  dispelled  by  a 
despatch  which  informed  the  governor  that  the  foe  had  landed  troops 
at  Westover,  twenty-five  miles  distant. 

In  this  emergency  Governor  Jefferson  found  himself  alone.  Not 
a  member  of  the  Council  or  of  the  Assembly  remained  in  Richmond 
to  aid  him,  for  all  had  gone  to  place  their  families  in  safety,  or  were 
absent  on  public  duty.  lie  sent  his  own  family  —  wife  and  three 
children,  the  youngest  two  months  old — to  the  house  of  a  relative  at 
Tuckahoe,  thirteen  miles  above  the  town.  There  were  two  hundred 
militia  of  the  neighborhood  near  at  hand;  and  stronger  parties  were 


VIRGINIA  RAVAGED.  247 

gathering  at  various  points  under  Steuben,  Clarke,  Nelson,  and 
others;  but  nowhere  in  Virginia  was  there  yet  an  armed  body  capa 
ble  of  holding  in  check  a  regiment  of  regular  troops  led  by  an 
Arnold. 

The  governor  mounted  his  horse,  arid  took  command  of  the  situa 
tion.  His  first  orders  were  to  stop  transporting  stores  to  Westham, 
and  simply  get  every  thing  across  the  river,"  or  into  the  river,  any 
where  so  that  Arnold  could  not  easily  reach  it.  Some  hours  he 
spent  in  superintending  and  urging  on  this  work,  first  at  Richmond, 
later  at  Westham,  reaching  Tuckahoe,  where  his  family  were,  at  one 
in  the  morning.  There  he  remained  long  enough  to  assist  them 
across  the  river,  and  see  them  safely  on  their  way  to  a  securer 
refuge,  eight  miles  above ;  and  then  he  galloped  back  along  the 
James  to  a  point  opposite  Westham,  where,  at  'daylight,  he  resumed 
his  superintendence  of  the  transfer  of  ths  public  property.  At  full 
speed,  on  the  same  tired,  unfed  horse,  he  continued  his  ride  towards 
Manchester,  then  a  small  village,  opposite  Richmond,  Before  he 
reached  it,  his  horse  sank  under  him  exhausted,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  leave  the  animal  dying  in  the  road.  With  saddle  and  bridle  on 
his  own  back,  he  hurried  on  to  the  next  farm-house  for  another 
horse.  He  could  only  borrow  there  a  colt  not  yet  broken,  upon 
which  he  continued  his  journey;  until,  coming  in  sight  of  Rich 
mond,  he  discovered  the  foe  already  in  possession.  After  doing  the 
little  that  was  possible  for  the  security  of  the  public  s'tores  at 
Manchester,  he  rode  away  to  the  head-quarters  of  Baron  Steuben,  a 
few  miles  off,  for  consultation  with  the  only  educated  soldier  within 
his  reach. 

In  war  every  thing,  even  the  elements,  seem  sometimes  to  favor 
audacity.  Arnold  only  remained  in  Richmond  twenty-three  hours  ; 
but  so  promptly  had  the  governor  acted,  and  so  well  was  he  seconded 
by  the  county  militia  and  their  officers,  that  Arnold  only  escaped 
with  his  nine  hundred  men  through  a  timely  change  in  the  wind, 
which  bore  him  down  the  river  with  the  extraordinary  swiftness  of 
his  ascent.  In  five  days  from  the  first  summons,  twenty-five  hun 
dred  militia  were  on  the  traitor's  path,  and  hundreds  more  coming 
in  every  hour;  but  the  breeze  wafted  him  away  from  them  down  the 
James,  with  the  loss  of  thirty  of  his  men,  laid  low  by  a  whiff  of  mus 
ketry  from  a  party  of  militia  under  Colonel  Clarke.  During  the 
brief  stay  of  the  enemy  near  Richmond,  they  burned  a  cannon  foun- 


248  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

deiy,  several  of  the  public  shanties,  a  few  private  houses,  and  a  pro 
digious  quantity  of  tobacco,  besides  throwing  into  the  canal  five  tons 
of  powder,  and 'spoiling  three  hundred  muskets. 

After  three  days'  absence  from  the  capital,  the  governor  returned, 
and  affairs  began  to  resume  their  usual  train.  For  eighty-four  hours 
his  home  had  been  the  saddle.  Arnold  went  plundering  on  to  the 
mouth  of  the  James,  where  he  intrenched  himself  in  the  camp 
abandoned  a  few  weeks  before  by  Leslie. 

A  passionate  desire  pervaded  the  continent  to  have  this  traitor 
brought  to  justice;  or,  as  Jefferson  expressed  it,  "to  drag  him  from 
those  under  whose  wing  he  is  now  sheltered."  When  the  governor 
learned  the  details  of  Arnold's  retreat,  he  felt  that  a  small  band  of 
cool,  resolute  men  could  have  seized  and  carried  him  off;  and  he  now 
proposed  the  scheme  to  an  officer  of  militia.  The  men  to  aid  him 
were  drawn  from  the  regiments  of  western  Virginia,  in  whom  the 
governor  had  u  peculiar  confidence."  The  band,  he  recommended, 
should  be  few  in  number,  the  smaller  the  better;  and  he  left  it  to  the 
discretion  of  the  chief  whether  they  should  enter  Arnold's  camp  as 
friends,  or  lie  in  wait  for  him  without.  "I  will  undertake,"  he 
wrote,  "  if  they  are  successful  in  bringing  him  off  alive,  that  they 
shall  receive  five  thousand  guineas'  reward  among  them  ;  and,  to  men 
formed  for  such  an  enterprise,  it  must  be  a  great  incitement  to  know 
that  their  names  will  be  recorded  with  glory  in  history  with  those 
of  Van  Wart,  Paulding,  and  Williams."  Arnold  grew  wary,  how 
ever,  and  could  not  be  caught. 

From  this  time  the  civil  government  in  Virginia  was,  in  effect, 
almost  suspended.  The  war  was  to  be  fought  out  upon  Virginia 
soil  and  in  Virginia  waters  ;  and  it  is  an  old  saying,  that,  in  the 
presence  of  contending  armies,  laws  are  silent.  Arnold,  Phillips, 
Corn  wall  is,  Tarlton,  Rochambeau,  Greene,  Steuben,  Lafayette,  Xelson, 
Washington,  are  the  names  that  figure  in  the  history  of  Virginia 
during  the  next  nine  months.  Arnold,  re-enforced  and  superseded 
by  Phillips,  ravaged  one  portion  of  the  State,  except  when  checked 
by  Steuben  and  Lafayette.  Cornwallis  and  Tarlton,  long  retarded 
and  eluded  by  Greene,  swept  over  the  border  at  last.  Indians 
threatened  the  western  counties;  and  fleets  arrived,  departed,  con 
tended,  on  the  eastern  shores.  All  that  Virginia  had  of  manhood, 
resources,  credit,  ability,  was  enlisted  in  the  cause  ;  and  so  many 
men  were  in  service  during  the  planting  season,  that  the  governor 


VIRGINIA  RAVAGED.  249 

feared  there  would  not  be  food  enough  raised  for  the  year's  neces 
sities. 

Jefferson,  in  the  midst  of  this  agonizing  chaos,  did  whatever  was 
possible  to  supply  and  re-enforce  Greene,  Steuben,  Lafayette  :  the 
burden  of  his  cry  to  Washington,  to  Congress,  being  always  "the 
fatal  want  of  arms."  The  need  of  arms  became  at  length  so  press 
ing,  that,  after  "  knocking  at  the  door  of  Congress  ;'  by  letter  for 
many  months,  he  requested  Harrison,  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  to 
go  to  Philadelphia,  and  beg  Congress  in  person,  if  they  could  not 
assign  to  Virginia  a  proper  supply  of  arms,  to  at  least  repay  Virginia 
the  arms  she  had  lent  for  the  protection  of  the  Carolinas.  Power 
little  short  of  absolute  was  conferred  upon  the  governor  by  the 
legislature  at  one  of  its  hurried  spring  sessions.  He  was  authorized 
to  call  out  the  whole  of  the  militia ;  to  impress  all  wagons,  horses, 
food,  clothing,  accoutrements,  negroes  ;  to  arrest  the- disaffected  and 
banish  the  disloyal.  He  was  empowered,  also,  to  emit  the  magnifi 
cent  sum  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars,  in  addition  to  the  hundred 
and  twenty  millions  previously  issued  in  the  same  month,  —  the 
whole  amount  being  worth  then  about  twenty-seven  thousand  golden 
guineas.  But  all  this  availed  little.  Virginia  wanted  muskets,  — 
wanted  them,  not  merely  for  the  great  operations  of  the  war,  but  for 
daily  and  nightly  and  hourly  defence  against  predatory  bands. 
Governor  Jefferson  could  not  furnish  them. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE   ENEMY   AT    MOXTICELLO. 

/7J< 

FOUR  times  in  the  spring  of  101  the  legislature  of  Virginia 
were  obliged  to  adjourn  in  haste,  and  fly  before  the  coming  or  the 
menace  of  an  enemy.  First  in  January,  when  Arnold  plundered 
the  capital.  Next  in  March,  when  every  act  was  hurried  through 
from  fear  of  another  interruption.  Then  in  May,  when  an  attack 
seemed  so  imminent,  that  the  few  members  who  had  come  together 
gave  up  trying  to  legislate  at  Richmond,  and  separated  to  meet  at 
Charlottesville,  under  the  shadow  of  Monticello,  little  thinking  that 
the  storm  of  war  was  about  to  sweep  over  Albemarle  also. 

The  day  appointed  for  the  assembling  of  the  legislature  at  Char 
lottesville  was  May  24.  The  governor's  second  term  of  service 
would  expire  on  the  1st  of  June ;  but,  amid  the  hurry  and  alarm  of 
the  time,  the  Assembly  had  as  yet  found  no  opportunity  to  attend  to 
an  election.  There  was  no  quorum  till  the  28th,  when  a  speaker 
was  chosen  ;  but  even  then,  such  was  the  emergency,  the  House 
could  not  enter  into  the  election  of  a  governor.  Cornwallis,  with  all 
his  army,  was  five  days'  march  distant,  and  the  State  seemed  to  lie 
at  his  mercy.  Not  a  boat  could  cross  the  bay  nor  descend  the  James 
without  risk  of  capture  by  the  enemy's  smaller  craft.  The  civil 
government  seemed  a  nullity  at  such  a  moment ;  and  the  governor,  as 
the  last  hours  of  his  term  were  gliding  away,  could  only  serve  his 
State  by  explnining  its  situation  to  Congress  and  the  commander-in- 
chief.  He  felt  that  what  Virginia  needed  then  was  a  gi-iu'ntl,  able, 
strong  in  the  confidence  of  the  people,  acquainted  with  the  State, 
one  who  would  place  himself  in  the  centre  of  the  crisis,  rally  around 
him  every  clement  of  force  Virginia  possessed,  and  direct  it  upon  the 
foe.  He  thought,  moreover,  that  the  seven  thousand  im-n  of  Corn 
wallis  must  be  the  enemy's  principal  force  j  and,  under  this  impres- 
250 


THE  ENEMY  AT    MONTICELLO.  251 

sion,  lie  wrote  to  General  Washington  on  the  28th  of  May,  while  a 
small  quorum  of  the  legislature  were  choosing  their  speaker  within 
sight  of  his  house  :  "  Were  it  possible  for  this  circumstance  to  justify 
in  Your  Excellency  a  determination  to  lend  us  your  personal  aid,  it 
is  evident  from  the  universal  voice  that  the  presence  of  their  beloved 
countryman,  whose  talents  have  so  long  been  successfully  employed 
in  establishing  the  freedom  of  kindred  States,  to  whose  person  they 
have  still  flattered  themselves  they  retained  some  right,  and  have 
ever  looked  upon  as  their  dernier  resort  in  distress,  that  your  appear 
ance  among  them,  I  say,  would  restore  full  confidence  of  salvation, 
and  would  render  them  equal  to  whatever  is  not  impossible." 

The  time  had  not  yet  come  for  Washington's  appearance  on  this 
scene,  though  that  time  was  not  distant.  The  month  of  May  ex 
pired.  Jefferson  was  out  of  office,  and  Virginia  had  no  governor^ 

The  Speaker  of  the  House,  the  President  of  the  Council,  and 
several  members  of  both  bodies,  were  his  guests  at  Monticello,  riding 
over  from  Charlottesville  every  afternoon  after  the  business  of  the 
day  was  at  an  end. 

Just  before  sunrise,  June  4,  1781,  while  as  yet  the  inhabitants  of 
Monticello  slept,  except,  perhaps,  the  early-waking  master  of  the 
mansion,  a  horseman  rode  at  full  speed  up  the  mountain,  and  sprang 
from  his  foaming  steed  at  the  door  of  the  house.  He  was  a  gentle 
man  of  the  neighborhood,  named  Jouitte,  well  known  to  Jefferson. 
He  had  been  spending  the  evening  before  at  a  tavern  in  Louisa, 
twenty  miles  awa}r,  the  county  town  of  the  next  county  eastward 
from  Albeinarle.  An  hour  before  midnight  a  body  of  British 
cavalry,  two  hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  had  galloped  into  the 
town,  had  come  to  a  halt,  dismounted,  and  proceeded  to  refresh  man 
and  beast  with  food  and  rest.  Jouitte  guessed  that  the  object  of 
such  a  band,  so  far  from  the  actual  seat  of  war,  commanded,  too,  by 
the  famous  Tarlton,  could  be  no  other  than  the  surprise  of  the 
governor  and  legislature  of  Virginia.  He  had  his  horse  saddled; 
and,  while  Tarlton,  and  his  men  were  enjoying  their  three  hours' 
halt  at  Louisa,  he  had  struck  into  an  old,  disused  road,  a  short  cut, 
and  ridden  with  all  speed  towards  Charlottesville  to  give  the 
alarm  ;  making  a  slight  detour  on  his  way,  to  warn  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  his  friends  at  Monticello.  He  delivered  his  message  there,  and 
rode  on  to  notify  the  rest  of  the  members  in  the  village. 

The  family,  we  are  told;  breakfasted  as  usual ;  after  which,  the 


252  LITE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

guests  rode  awaj"  to  Charlottesville,  and  the  inmates  of  the  house 
prepared  for  a  journey.  A  carriage  was  made  ready,  and  brought 
round  to  the  door,  in  which  Jefferson  placed  his  most  valued  papers. 
He  sent  his  best  horse  to  be  shod  at  a  shop  on  the  river's  bank,  a 
mile  off.  The  two  most  trusted  of  the  household  servants  gathered 
the  plate  and  other  things  of  value,  and  hid  them  under  the  floor  of 
the  front  portico.  All  these  things  were' done  with  a  certain  deliber 
ation,  because  the  family  naturally  concluded  that  Tarlton  would 
first  strike  Charlottesville,  which  lay  in  plain  sight  from  Monticello, 
and  thus  give  them  ample  notice  of  his  approach.  But  Tarlton,  as 
he  went  thundering  on  towards  the  village,  detached  a  troop  to  seize 
the  governor,  and  hold  Monticello  as  a  lookout  during  his  stay  in  the 
vicinity  ;  and  hence,  when  Jefferson  had  been  employed  something 
less  than  two  hours  in  sorting  and  packing  his  papers,  an  officer  of 
militia  came  in,  breathless,  to  say  that  British  cavalry  were  coming 
up  the  mountain.  Jefferson  had  two  law-pupils  at  the  time,  James 
Monroe,  and  another,  whose  name  is  not  recorded.  Monroe  was  in 
the  field,  jof  course,  during  these  weeks  of  stress  and  ravage.  To 
the  other,  Jefferson  confided  his  family,  directing  him  to  take  them 
to  a  frit-lid's  house  some  miles  distant.  He  sent  to  the  blacksmith's 
for  his  horse,  ordering  the  servant  to  bring  the  animal  to  a  spot 
between  his  own  mountain  and  the  next,  which  he  could  quickly 
reach  by  a  by-road  through  the  woods.  Still  he  lingered  a  few 
minutes  among  his  papers,  wishing  to  give  his  servant  time  to  get 
the  horse  to  the  designated  place.  He  left  his  house  at  length,  tele 
scope  in  hand,  light  sword  of  the  period  at  his  side,  and  walked 
down  through  the  forest  to  the  valley  between  the  two  mountains, 
where  he  found  his  horse.  Before  mounting,  he  paused  to  listen. 
No  sound  was  audible,  except  the  musical  din  of  a  peaceful  June 
morning  in  the  primeval  woods.  No  clang  of  accoutrements,  nor 
tramp  of  armed  men,  nor  distant  thunder  of  a  troop  of  horse.  He 
went  a  little  way  up  the  next  mountain  to  a  rock,  whence,  with  the 
aid  of  his  telescope)  he  could  clearly  see  Charlottesville  ;  but  there 
was  no  unusual  stir  in  the  streets.  A  false  alarm  perhaps  ;  and,  so 
surmising,  he  resolved  to  go  back  to  hij  house,  and  finish  the  sorting 
of  his  papers,  the  accumulated  treasure  of  the  years  that  had  past 
since  the  burning  of  the  house  in  which  he  was  born.  He  had  gone 
some  distance  towards  his  home,  when  he  discovered  that  his  sword 
had  slipped  from  its  scabbard,  as  he  guessed,  when  he  had  stopped 


THE  ENEMY  AT   MONTICELLO.  253 

to  get  a  rest  for  his  spyglass.  He  went  back  for  it.  Before  leaving 
the  rock,  he  took  another  peep  through  his  glass  at  the  village; 
when,  behold,  it  was  all  alive  and  swarming  with  troopers ! 

Then,  for  the  first  time,  he  mounted  his  horse,  and  took  the  road 
to  follow  his  family,  whom  he  rejoined  before  night.  The  dropping 
of  his  sword  was  a  lucky  event.  If  he  had  gone  back  to  the  house, 
he  might  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy ;  for  they  entered 
just  five  minutes  after  he  left  it.  The  two  friendly  slaves  who  were 
hiding  the  family  treasures,  one  in  the  cavity  receiving,  and  the 
other  on  the  portico  handing  down,  were  almost  caught  in  the  act  of 
stowing  away  the  last  article.  They  heard  the  sound  of  hoofs  just 
in  time  for  the  one  above  to  slam  down  the  plank,  shutting  up  the 
other  in  a  dark,  hot,  and  narrow  hole,  during  the  whole  eighteen 
hours'  stay  of  the  troop.  It  proved  to  be  a  superfluous  exertion  of 
fortitude.  Tarlton  had  given  orders  that  nothing  in  the  house  should 
be  injured  or  removed,  and  these  orders  were  obeyed;  except  that 
some  of  the  thirsty  soldiers,  after  their  thirty  hours'  gallop,  helped 
themselves  on  the  sly  to  some  wine  in  the  cellar. 

The  fidelity  of  these  two  slaves,  Martin  and  Caesar,  during  this 
time  of  trial,  was  always  remembered  by  the  family  with  gratitude 
and  pride.  Martin,  after  shutting  down  the  faithful  Caesar  with  the 
treasures,  remained  standing  upon  the  plank  of  the  portico,  where 
he  received  the  captain  of  the  troopers  with  dignified  politeness. 
He  conducted  the  officer  over  the  house.  When  they  reached  the 
library,  where  Jefferson  had,  five  minutes  before,  been  at  work 
among  his  papers,  this  captain  —  McCleod  by  name,  gentleman  by 
nature  — locked  the  door ;  and  then,  handing  the  key  to  Martin,  said, 
in  substance,  "  If  any  of  the  soldiers  ask  you  for  the  key  of  this 
room,  tell  them  /  have  it."  One  of  the  soldiers,  to  test  Martin's 
mettle,  put  a  pistol  to  his  breast,  and  threatened  to  fire  unless  he 
told  which  way  his  master  had  gone.  "  Fire  away,  then,"  replied 
the  slave.  Caesar,  on  his  part,  cramped  and  tortured  as  he  was  in 
his  black  hole,  made  no  movement,  uttered  no  sound,  during  the  whole 
eighteen  hours,  —  all  the  rest  of  that  day  and  all  the  night  follow 
ing. 

Down  the  James,  a  hundred  miles  or  more,  Jefferson  possessed  a 
plantation  named  Elk  Hill,  with  mansion-house,  negro  quarter, 
extensive  stables,  herds  of  cattle,  and  growing  crops.  For  ten  days 
Cornwallis  lived  in  this  house,  which  had  an  elevated  site,  command- 


2.") 4  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

ing  a  view  of  the  whole  estate.  Jefferson  himself  has  put  upon 
record  what  his  lordship  did  or  permitted  during  his  hrief  residence 
there.  He  destroyed  all  the  growing  crops  of  corn  and  tobacco;  he 
burned  all  the  barns,  filled  with  last  year's  product;  he  took  all  the 
cattle,  hogs,  and  sheep,  for  his  army  ;  he  appropriated  all  the  service 
able  horses  ;  he  cut  the  throats  of  the  colts  ;  he  burned  all  the  fences; 
he  carried  off  twenty-seven  slaves.  With  his  usual  exactness,  Jeffer 
son  enumerates  the  items  of  his  loss :  nine  horses,  fifty-nine  cattle, 
thirty  sheep,  sixty  hogs,  seven  hundred  and  eighty  barrels  of  corn, 
nineteen  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  and  two  hundred  and  seventy-five 
acres  of  growing  wheat  and  barley.  Respecting  the  lost  slaves  he 
remarks,  i(  Had  this  been  to  give  them  freedom,  he  would  have  done 
right ;  but  it  was  to  consign  them  to  inevitable  death  from  the  small 
pox  and  putrid  fever,  then  raging  in  his  camp."  A  few  of  these 
slaves  crawled  home  to  recover  or  to  die,  and  to  give  the  fever  to  five 
who  had  not  left  the  plantation.  Cornwallis,  lie  adds,  "  treated  the 
rest  of  the  neighborhood  in  much  the  same  stjrle,  but  not  with  that 
spirit  of  total  extermination  with  which  he  seemed  to  rage  over  my 
possessions." 

For  twelve  days  Virginia  had  no  governor.  If  Tarlton  had  rid 
den  on  that  morning,  without  stopping  for  breakfast,  he  might  have 
caught  a  quorum  of  the  legislature  in  or  near  Charlottesville,  and 
kept  the  State  without  a  government  for  the  rest  of  the  campaign. 
It  would  have  been  no  great  harm  ;  for  during  the  next  five  months, 
while  the  allied  fleets  and  armies,  and  all  the  militia  of  Virginia  that 
Jefferson  had  been  able  to  arm,  were  cornering  the  marauder  of  the 
Southern  States,  there  was  little  for  civilians  to  do.  Tarlton  halted 
at  the  house  of  one  of  Jefferson's  friends,  who  ordered  breakfast  for 
the  colonel  and  his  officers.  But  the  privates  were  as  hungry  as 
their  leaders,  and  devoured  the  food  in  the  kitchen  as  fast  as  the 
cook  could  get  it  ready.  Tarlton  got  no  breakfast  until  he  had 
placed  a  guard  to  protect  the  cook;  and  this  delay  gave  members 
time  to  come  together  at  Charlottesville,  and  adjourn  to  meet,  three 
days  after,  at  Staunton,  forty  miles  to  the  westward,  on  the  safe  side 
of  the  JJlue  llidge. 

They  met,  accordingly,  on  the  7th  of  June.  Discouraged  at  the 
aspect  of  affairs,  soured  and  irritated  by  this  fourth  flight  from  the 
tramp  of  armed  men,  several  of  them  were  disposed  to  Cast  the 
blame  of  these  invasions  upon  Governor  Jefferson.  One  young 


THE  ENEMY  AT   MONT.ICELLO.  255 

member  even  said  as  much  in  the  House,  intimating  that  the  gover 
nor  should  have  foreseen  Arnold's  coming,  and  called  out  the  militia 
in  time.  We  all  know,  from  recent  experience,  that  in  war-time, 
when  affairs  go  ill  in  the  field,  the  civil  administration  sinks  in  the 
esteem  of  the  public ;  and,  indeed,  we  cannot  wonder,  that,  amid 
the  musket-famine  of  this  terrible  year,  Virginians  should  bitterly 
regret  the  arms  and  accoutrements  which  the  governor  had  sent 
down  all  the  highways  to  Carolina,  only  to  have  them  thrown  away 
or  captured  at  Camden  and  Guilford.  Jefferson's  friends  courted, 
demanded,  inquiry  into  his  conduct,  and  insisted  on  having  it  set 
down  as  part  of  the  business  of  the  next  session. 

Still  the  House  refrained  from  the  election  of  a  governor.  Some 
of  the  weaker  members  revived  the  stale  device  of  naming  Patrick 
Henry  dictator,  but  again  laid  the  project  aside  from  fear  of  the  dan 
gers  of  imaginary  patriot-assassins.  "  The  very  thought,"  as  Jeffer 
son  wrote,  "  was  treason  against  the  people,  was  treason  against 
mankind  in  general,  as  riveting  forever  the  chains  which  bow  down 
their  necks,  by  giving  to  their  oppressors  a  proof,  which  they  would 
have  trumpeted  through  the  universe,  of  the  imbecility  of  republican 
government,  in  times  of  pressing  danger,  to  shield  them  from  harm." 
Jefferson  had  a  far  better  device,  one  which  gave  the  State  a  legiti 
mate,  a  constitutional  dictator.  Several  months  before,  he  had 
resolved  to  decline  serving  a  third  term.  In  the  belief,  that,  at  such 
a  crisis,  the  civil  and  military  power  should  be  wielded  by  the  same 
hands,  he  induced  his  friends,  who  were  a  majority  of  the  House, 
to  give  their  votes  to  Thomas  Nelson,  commander-in-chief  of  the 
militia  of  the  State,  who  was  accordingly  elected. 

General  Nelson  had  been  a  main  stay  of  Jefferson's  administration, 
giving  to  it  the  support  of  his  honored  name,  his  military  talents, 
and  the  credit  of  his  vast  estates.  On  his  own  personal  security  he 
had  raised  the  greater  part  of  a  most  timely  loan  of  two  millions  of 
dollars,  and  advanced  money  to  pay  two  Virginia  regiments  who 
would  not  march  for  the  Southern  army  before  their  arrears  were  dis 
charged.  Governor  Nelson  took  the  field.  He  used  without  reserve 
the  despotic  powers  with  which  he  was  intrusted ;  forcing  men  into 
the  field,  and  impressing  wagons,  horses,  negroes,  supplies.  He  was 
in  at  the  death  of  that  foul,  mean,  and  monstrous  war.  At  York- 
town,  his  own  mansion  being  within  the  enemy's  lines,  and  occupied 
by  British  officers,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  sending  cannon-balls 


256  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

crashing  through  his  own  dining-room,  and  breaking  up  festive  par 
ties  making  merry  over  his  own  wine.  It  was  a  happy  stroke  of 
good  sense  and  good  management  in  Jefferson  to  leave  his  office  to 
such  a  successor;  because  he  appeased  the  dictator  party  by  giving 
them  a  dictator,  while  assigning  the  sole  duty  of  the  time  to  one 
fitted  to  perform  it. 

But  General  Nelson  did  not  succeed  in  satisfying  his  countrymen, 
for  whom  he  had  sacrificed  health  and  fortune.  He  was  an  unpop 
ular  governor  ;  for  the  Virginians  did  not  enjoy  a  dictator  when  they 
had  got  one,  and  he  could  not  long  endure  the  opprobrium  which 
the  exercise  of  dictatorial  power  evoked.  He  threw  up  his  office  after 
holding  it  about  six  months ;  and  he,  too,  sought  opportunity  to 
defend  his  administration  before  the  legislature. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

AT    HOME    AFTER    THE    WAK. 

PUBLIC  men  were  apparently  more  sensitive  to  criticism  in  the 
last  century  than  in  this.  Junius  has  had  many  imitators :  he 
founded  a  school ;  he  invented  an  industry;  and  the  efforts  of  so 
many  keen,  reckless,  ill-informed  makers  of  antithesis  and  epigram 
have,  perhaps,  toughened  the  skins  of  public  men,  so  that  they  now 
scarcely  feel  what  would  have  made  the  statesmen  of  other  days 
writhe  in  torment.  It  is  an  easy  mode  of  producing  an  effect,  this 
assailing  the  anxious  and  heavy-laden  servants  of  the  state.  It  was 
not  difficult  for  a  perfumed  dandy  in  the  amphitheatre,  yawning  at 
his  ease,  to  find  fault  with  the  scarred  and  sweating  gladiator  fight 
ing  for  life  in  the  arena.  It  is  not  difficult  to  prepare  in  the  secrecy 
of  a  garret  a  barbed  and  stinging  bolt,  and  hurl  it  from  the  safe 
ambush  of  a  pseudonyme  at  a  distinguished  combatant  while  he  is 
absorbed  in  a  contest  with  open  foes.  Poor  Chatterton  did  it  almost 
as  well  as  Junius.  At  sixteen,  an  attorney's  apprentice  in  far-off 
Bristol,  singularly  ignorant  of  the  world,  knowing  nothing  of  poli 
tics,  he  wrote  fulminations  against  ministers,  which  Wilkes  thought 
good  enough  to  print  in  "  The  North  Briton."  So  easy  a  trade  is  it 
to  one  who  is  ignorant  enough  and  reckless  enough.  It  were  easy 
now  to  prove  that  Junius  himself,  who  showed  such  skill  in  the  arft 
of  hiding,  knew  little  more  of  the  real  character,  aims,  and  difficulties 
of  the  men  whom  he  assailed,  than  the  boy  Chatterton.  Happily 
the  industry  of  so  many  anonymous  and  irresponsible  cowards  has 
lessened  the  power  of  the  most  envenomed  criticism  to  injure  or 
torture  a  good  minister.  Unhappily  it  has  rendered  the  most  just 
exposure  of  a  bad  one  all  but  ineffectual.  Truth  and  calumny  we 
are  apt  alike  to  reject  when  they  concern  a  public  man. 

Jefferson  was  destined  to  suffer  a  very  large  share  of  ignorant 
17  257 


258  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFEHSOX. 

and  reckless  criticism,  which  he  learned  to  endure  with  the  imper 
turbability  of  trained  good  sense.  However,  in  1781,  he  was  not 
only  a  young  man,  but  the  world  was  younger  than  it  is  no\v,  not 
having  outgrown  the  veneration  once  supposed  to  be  due  to  all 
governors  as  such.  It  was  a  fearful  thing  still  to  censure  the  head 
of  a  state.  One  young  man  in  the  legislature  of  Virginia  had  pub 
licly  cast  the  blame  of  Virginia's  desolation,  during  the  first  months 
of  1781,  upon  Governor  Jefferson ;  and  in  this  censure  some  other 
members  were  known  to  acquiesce.  It  fills  the  reader  of  to-day 
with  astonishment  to  observe,  in  Jefferson's  correspondence,  how 
deeply  he  took  this  to  heart,  and  how  long  he  brooded  over  it. 
Every  man  in  a  situation  to  judge  his  conduct  had  commended  it. 
Washington,  Gates,  Greene,  Lafayette,  Steuben,  with  whom  he  had 
co-operated  in  the  defence  of  the  State,  had  applauded  his  wisdom 
und  promptitude ;  and  many  of  his  fellow-citizens  complained  only 
that  he  had  done  too  much.  But  the  single  word  of  censure  out- 
weighed  all  applause.  For  many  months  he  could  not  get  over  it. 
And,  indeed,  we  must  own  that  the  censure  was  ill-timed,  when  his 
estate  was  overrun,  his  old  servants  destroyed,  his  family  driven 
from  their  home,  and  himself  pursued;  all  because  he  had  been  his 
country's  conspicuously  faithful  servant  in  a  perilous  time. 

Such  was  his  indignation,  that  he  forswore  public  service  forever. 
He  would  go  back  once  to  the  legislature  to  meet  his  accusers  face 
to  face  ;  but,  after  that  was  done,  nothing,  no,  nothing,  should  ever 
draw  him  from  his  books,  his  studies,  his  family,  his  gardens,  his 
farms,  again.  He*  had  had  enough  of  public  life.  No  slave,  he 
wrote,  was  so  wretched  as  "  the  minister  of  a  commonwealth."  He 
declared  that  the  only  reward  he  h:i<l  over  desired  for  his  thirteen 
years  of  public  service  was  the  good-will  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and 
he  had  not  even  obtained  that ;  nay,  he  had  lost  the  little  share  of 
their  esteem  he  had  once  enjoyed.  Thus  he  exaggerated  the 
injustice  done  him,  and  nursed,  Achilles-like,  his  mortification. 

In  August,  Lafayette  forwarded  to  him  through  the  lines  a  letter 
from  the  President  of  Congress,  telling  him,  that,  six  weeks  before, 
Congress  had  again  elected  him  to  a  foreign  mission.  ]>ut  he 
would  not  be  consoled.  For  once  the  health  of  his  wife  and  the 
condition  of  his  family  (their  infant  child  had  died  a  few  weeks 
before)  were  such  as  to  permit  their  attempting  the  voyage  together. 
He  might  have  gone  to  Europe  in  1781 ;  he  would  have  gone,  but 


AT   HOME   AFTER   THE  WAR.  259 

for  tins  slight  show  of  legislative  censure.  "  I  lose  an  opportu 
nity,"  he  wrote  to  Lafayette,  "  the  only  one  I  ever  had,  and  perhaps 
ever  shall  have,  of  combining  public  service  with  private  gratifica 
tion  ;  of  seeing  countries  whose  improvements  in  science,  in  arts,  in 
civilization,  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  admire  at  a  distance,  but 
never  to  see,  and  at  the  same  time  of  lending  some  aid  to  a  cause 
which  has  been  handed  on  from  its  first  organization  to  its  present 
stage  by  every  effort  of  which  my  poor  faculties  were  capable. 
These,  however,  have  not  been  such  as  to  give  satisfaction  to  some 
of  my  countrymen ;  and  it  has  become  necessary  for  me  to  remain  in 
the  State  till  a  later  period  in  the  present  year  than  is  consistent 
with  an  acceptance  of  what  has  been  offered  me.7' 

Before  the  legislature  met  again,  the  winter  of  Virginia's  discon 
tent  was  made  glorious  summer  by  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  at 
Yorktown.  All  thought  of  censure  was  swallowed  up  in  that  stupen 
dous  joy.  December  19,  1781,  exactly  a  month  after  the  surrender, 
Jefferson,  occupying  his  ancestral  seat  as  member  for  Albemarle,  — 
to  which  he  had  been  re-elected  without  one  dissentient  vote,  — 
rose  in  his  place,  reminded  the  House  of  the  intimated  censure  of 
the  last  session,  and  said  he  was  ready  to  meet  and  answer  any 
charges  that  might  be  brought  against  him.  ISTo  one  responded. 
His  accuser  was  absent.  There  was  silence  in  the  chamber.  After 
a  pause,  a  member  rose,  and  offered  a  resolution  thanking  him  for 
his  "  impartial,  upright,  and  attentive  administration/'  which 
passed  both  Council  and  Assembly  unanimously. 

Even  this  did  not  heal  the  wound.  As  he  refrained  from  attend 
ing  the  spring  session  of  the  legislature,  James  Monroe  wrote  to 
him  a  letter  of  remonstrance,  telling  him  that  the  public  remarked 
his  absence,  a"nd  were  disposed  to  blame  him  for  withholding  his  help 
at  so  difficult  a  time.  He  answered,  that,  before  announcing  his 
determination  to  retire  from  public  life,  he  had  examined  well  his 
heart,  to  learn  whether  any  lurking  particle  of  political  ambition 
remained  in  it  to  make  him  uneasy  in  a  private  station.  "  I  became 
satisfied,"  he  continued,  "  that  every  fibre  of  that  passion  was 
thoroughly  eradicated."  He  thought,  too,  that  thirteen  years  of 
public  service  had  given  him  a  right  now  to  withdraw,  and  devote 
his  energies  to  the  care  and  education  of  the  two  families  dependent 
upon  him,  and  the  restoration  of  estates  impaired  by  neglect  or  laid 
waste  by  war.  N.or  could  he  forget  the  wrong  done  him  in  the  As- 


2GO  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

sembly.  "I  felt,"  he  wrote,  "that  these  injuries,  for  such  they  have 
since  been  acknowledged,  had  inflicted  a  wound  on  my  spirit  which 
will  only  be  cured  by  the  all-hdaling  grave"  For  these  and  other 
reasons,  lie  held  to  his  purpose  to  withdraw  from  all  participation  in 
public  affairs,  and  dedicate  the  whole  residue  of  his  life  to  the  edu 
cation  of  his  children,  the  culture  of  his  lands,  and  the  sweet  toils 
of  the  library.  He  concluded  by  inviting  his  }*oung  friend  to  visit 
him  at  Monticello.  "You  will  find  me  busy,"  he  said,  "  but  in 
lighter  occupations." 

Yes,  he  was  busy  ;  but  few  persons  who  look  over  the  work  he  was 
then  doing  regard  it  as  a  very  light  occupation.  The  French 
government  had  instructed  its  minister  at  Philadelphia  to  gather  and 
transmit  to  Paris  information  respecting  the  States  of  the  American 
Confederacy  ;  and  the  secretary  of  legation  had  sent  Mr.  Jefferson 
a  list  of  questions  to  answer  concerning  Virginia.  From  childhood 
he  had  observed  nature  in  his  native  land  with  the  curiosity  of  an 
intelligent  and  sympathetic  mind;  and  in  his  maturer  age,  even  in 
the  busiest  and  most  anxious  times,  he  had  been  ever  a  student,  an 
inquirer,  a  collector.  All  the  Stores  of  knowledge  accumulated  in  so 
many  years  he  now  poured  upon  paper,  and  interspersed  subtle  and 
curious  essays  upon  points  of  natural  history,  geography,  morals, 
politics,  and  literature.  M.  de  Marbois  must  have  been  astonished 
to  receive  from  him,  not  a  series  of  short,  dry  answers  to  official 
questions,  but  a  volume,  teeming  with  suggestive  fact  and  thought, 
warm  with  humane  sentiment,  and  couched  in  the  fluent  language 
natural  to  a  sanguine  and  glowing  mind.  It  is  in  this  work  that 
the  chapter  occurs  which  gave  so  man}'  powerful  texts  to  our  noble 
Abolitionists  during  their  eighty  years'  war  with  slavery:  — 

"  The  whole  commerce  between  master  and  slave  is  a  perpetual 
exercise  of  the  most  boisterous  passions,  the  most  unremitting  des 
potism,  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  submissions  on  the  other. 
Our  children  see  this,  and  Ksirn  to  imitate  it;  for  man  is  an  imita 
tive  animal.  This  quality  is  the  germ  of  all  education  in  him. 
From  his  cradle  to  his  grave  he  is  learning  to  do  what  he  sees 
others  do.  The  parent  storms,  the  child  looks  on,  catches  the  linea 
ments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of  smaller  slaves, 
gives  a  loose  to  the  worst  of  passions,  and,  thus  nursed,  educated, 
and  daily  exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but  be  stamped  by  it  with 


AT  HOME  AFTEK  THE  WAR.  261 

odious  peculiarities.  That  man  must  be  a  prodigy  who  can  retain 
his  manners  and  morals  undepraved  by  such  circumstances.  ...  I 
tremble  for  my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just ;  that  his 
justice  cannot  sleep  forever;  that,  considering  numbers,  nature,  and 
natural  means  only,  a  revolution  of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  ex 
change  of  situations,  is  among  possible  events  ;  that  it  may  become 
probable  by  supernatural  interference !  The  Almighty  has  no  attri 
bute  which  can  take  side  with  us  in  such  a  contest." 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  then,  Jefferson  supposed  his  public  life 
ended.  He  was  sure  of  it.  He  had  publicly  said  so.  Monroe  had 
remonstrated  with  him ;  Madison  had  remonstrated ;  his  old  constit 
uents  and  Congress  both  solicited  his  services ;  but  he  could  not  be 
lured  again  from  his  pleasant  mountain  home  and  its  delicious  duties 
into  the  arena  of  public  strife,  whence  he  had  but  lately  issued, 
wounded  and  sore.  I  suppose  he  was  wrong  in  this ;  for  if  he,  with 
his  ample  fortune,  his  fine  endowments,  his  health,  his  knowledge, 
and  his  culture,  was  not  bound  to  render  some  service  to  Virginia  in 
1782,  of  whom  could  public  service  be  reasonably  demanded  ? 

It  was  a  delightful  dream  while  it  lasted,  that  of  spending  a  long 
life  in  the  Garden  of  Virginia,  with  an  adored  wife,  troops  of  affec 
tionate  children,  and  an  ever-growing  library.  We  have  a  glimpse 
of  him  there  in  the  spring  of  1782,  when  he  was  visited  by  one  of 
the  officers  of  the  French  army,  Major-General  the  Marquis  de 
Chastellux.  During  this  year,  while  the  negotiations  for  peace  were 
lingering,  the  French  officers  were  mucli  in  American  society,  mak 
ing  an  impress  upon  manners  and  character  that  is  not  yet  obliter 
ated.  Americans  were  peculiarly  susceptible  then  to  the  influence 
of  men  whose  demeanor  and  tone  were  in  such  agreeable  contrast  to 
those  of  the  English.-  The  French  were  exceedingly  beloved  at  the 
time;  not  the  officers  only,  but  the  men  as  well;  for  had  they  not 
marched  through  the  country  without  burning  a  rail,  without  touch 
ing  an  apple  in  an  orchard,  without  ogling  a  girl  by  the  roadside? 

The  influence  of  the  French  officers  upon  the  young  gentlemen  of 
the  United  States  was  not  an  unmixed  good.  It  was  from  them 
that  the  American  of  eighty  years  ago  caught  the  ridiculous  affecta 
tion  of  fighting  duels,  which  raged  like  a  mania  from  1790  to  1804. 
The  French  nobleman  of  the  old  school  had  also  acquired  an  art, 
which  men  of  our  race  never  attain,  the  art  of  making  sensual  vice 


262  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

seem  elegant  and  becoming.  Anglo-Saxons  are  only  respectable 
when  they  are  strictly  virtuous.  It  has  not  been  given  to  us  to  lie 
with  grace,  and  sin  with  dignity.  We  are  nothing  if  not  moral. 
And,  doubtless,  if  a  man  permits  himself  to  conduct  his  life  on  an 
animal  basis,  it  is  honester  in  him,  it  is  better  for  others,  for  him  to 
appear  the  beast  he  is.  The  dissoluteness  of  the  English  officers  at 
Philadelphia  and  New  York,  being  open  and  offensive,  was  not  cal 
culated  to  make  American  youth  cast  aside  the  lessons  of  purity 
which  they  had  learned  in  their  clean  and  honorable  homes.  Dash 
ing  down  Chestnut  Street  in  a  curricle,  with  a  brazen  hussy  by  your 
side,  is  not  as  pretty  a  feat  as  carrying  on  what  was  styled  "an  in 
trigue,"  in  an  elegant  house.  It  was  these  French  officers  who 
infected  many  American  youths,  besides  Hamilton  and  Burr  and 
their  young  friends,  with  the  most  erroneous  and  pernicious  idea  that 
ever  deluded  youth,  —  that  it  is  but  a  trifling,  if  not  a  becoming, 
lapse  to  be  unchaste. 

Jefferson,  who  had  the  happy  art  of  getting  the  good,  and  letting 
alone  the  evil,  of  whatever  he  encountered  on  his  way  through  life, 
was  strongly  drawn  to  this  Marquis  de  Chastellux,  a  man  of  mature 
age.  of  some  note  in  literature,  a  member  of  the  Academy,  and  full 
of  the  peculiar  spirit  of  his  class  and  time.  Jefferson  had  invited 
him  to  visit  Monticello.  On  an  afternoon  in  the  first  week  of  May, 
1782,  behold  the  marquis  and  his  three  friends  —  a  cavalcade  of  four 
gentlemen,  six  mounted  servants,  and  a  led  horse  —  winding  up  the 
Little  Mount,  and  coming  in  sight  of  the  "rather  elegant,"  unfin 
ished  Italian  villa  on  its  summit.  I  am  afraid  Mrs.  Jefferson  saw 
this  brave  company  dismount  with  some  dism;i3r,  for  she  was  not  in  a 
condition  to  entertain  strangers.  They,  however,  were  well  pleased 
to  see  a  bit  of  Europe  in  those  western  wilds.  "Mr.  Jefferson," 
wrote  the  marquis,  "is  the  first  American  who  has  consulted  the 
fine  arts  to  know  how  he  should  shelter  himself  from-  the  weather;" 
which  was  a  sweeping  statement,  though  not  far  from  the  truth. 
Upon  entering,  he  met  the  master  of  the  house,  —  "  a  man  not  yet 
forty,  tall,  and  with  a  mild  and  pleasing  countenance ; "  "  an  Ameri 
can,  who,  without  ever  having  quitted  his  own  country,  is  at  once  a 
musician,  skilled  in  drawing,  a  geometrician,  an  astronomer,  a  natu 
ral  philosopher,  legislator,  and  statesman;"  "a  philosopher  in  vol 
untary  retirement  from  the  world  and  public  business/'  because 
"  the  minds  of  his  countrymen  are  not  yet  in  a  condition  either  to 


HOME   AFTER  THE  WAB.  263 

bear  the  light  or  to  suffer  contradiction  ; "  blessed  with  "  a  mild  and 
amiable  wife,  and  charming  children  of  whose  education  he  himself 
takes  charge."  Mr.  Jefferson,  he  adds,  received  his  invited  guest 
without  any  show  of  cordiality,  even  with  something  like  coldness ; 
but,  before  they  had  conversed  two  hours,  they  were  as  intimate  as 
if  they  had  passed  their  whole  lives  together.  During  four  days 
the  joy  of  their  intercourse  never  lessened ;  for  their  conversation, 
"  always  varied  and  interesting,  was  supported  by  that  sweet  satis 
faction  experienced  by  two  persons,  who,  in  communicating  their 
sentiments  and  opinions,  are  invariably  in  unison,  and  who  under 
stand  one  another  at  the  first  hint." 

It  so  chanced  that  the  Frenchman  was  a  lover  of  Ossian.  "I 
recollect  with  pleasure,"  he  tells  us,  "  that,  as  we  were  conversing 
one  evening  over  a  bowl  of  punch,  after  Mrs.  Jefferson  had  retired, 
our  conversation  turned  on  the  poems  of  Ossian.  It  was  a  spark  of 
electricity  which  passed  rapidly  from  one  to  the  other.  We  recol 
lected  the  passages  in  those  sublime  poems  which  had  particularly 
struck  us,  arid  entertained  with  them  my  fellow-travellers,  who  for 
tunately  knew  English  well.  In  our  enthusiasm  the  book  was  sent 
for,  and  placed  near  the  bowl,  where,  by  their  mutual  aid,  the  night 
advanced  imperceptibly  upon  us.  Sometimes  natural  philosophy,  at 
others  politics  or  the  arts,  were  the  topics  of  our  conversation ;  for 
no  object  had  escaped  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  it  seemed  as  if  from  his 
youth  he  had  placed  his  mind,  as  he  had  done  his  house,  on  an  ele 
vated  situation,  from  which  he  might  contemplate  the  universe." 

Sometimes  he  rambled  with  his  guests  about  the  grounds,  show 
ing  them  his  little  herd  of  deer,  a  score  in  number.  "  He  amuses 
himself  by  feeding  them  with  Indian  corn,  of  which  they  are  very 
fond,  and  which  they  eat  out  of  his  hand.  I  followed  him  one 
evening  into  a  deep  valley,  where  they  are  accustomed  to  assemble 
towards  the  close  of  the  day,  and  saw  them  walk,  run,  and  bound ; " 
but  neither  guest  nor  host  could  decide  upon  the  family  to  which 
they  belonged.  In  other  branches  of  natural  science  the  marquis 
found  Mr.  Jefferson  more  proficient,  particularly  in  meteorology. 
He  had  made,  in  conjunction  with  Professor  Madison  of  William 
and  Mary,  a  series  of  observations  of  the  ruling  winds  at  Williams- 
burg  and  at  Monticello,  and  discovered,  that,  while  the  north-east 
wind  had  blown  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  times  at  Williams- 
burg,  it  had  blown  but  thirty-two  times  at  Monticello.  The  four 


264  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

days  passed  like  four  minutes,  says  the  marquis.  The  party  of 
Frenchmen  continued  their  journey  towards  the  Natural  Bridge,  on 
land  belonging  to  their  host,  eighty  miles  distant.  Mr.  Jefferson 
would  have  gone  with  them:  "but  his  wife  being  expected  every 
moment  to  lie  in,  as  he  is  as  good  a  husband  as  he  is  an  excellent 
philosopher  and  virtuous  citizen,  he  only  acted  as  my  guide  for  about 
sixteen  miles,  to  the  passage  of  the  little  River  Mechinn,  where  we 
parted,  and,  I  presume  to  flatter  myself,  with  mutual  regret/' 

He  might  flatter  himself  so  far.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  extremely 
pleased  with  him ;  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  that  fondness  for 
the  French  people  which  he  carried  with  him  through  the  rest  of 
his  life. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

DEATH    OF   MRS.    JEFFERSON. 

BEFORE  the  Marquis  deChastellux  had  been  gone  from  Monticello 
many  hours,  the  sixth  child  of  Thomas  and  Martha  Jefferson  was 
born,  making  the  number  of  their  living  children  three.  It  was 
death  to  the  mother.  She  lingered  four  months,  keeping  her 
husband  and  all  the  household  in  what  he  termed  "  dreadful  sus 
pense."  He  took  his  turn  with  his  sister  and  with  her  sister  in 
sitting  up  at  night.  With  his  own  hands  he  administered  her 
medicines  and  her  drinks.  '  For  four  months  he  was  either  at  her 
bedside,  or  at  work  in  a  little  room  near  the  head  of  her  bed,  never 
beyond  call.  His  eldest  daughter,  a  little  girl  of  ten,  but  maturer 
than  her  years  denoted,  never  lost  the  vivid  recollection  of  her 
father's  tender  assiduity  during  those  months.  When  the  morning 
of  September  6  dawned,  it  was  evident  that  she  had  not  many  hours 
to  live;  and  all  the  family  gathered  round  her  bed.  Thirty  years 
after,  six  of  the  female  servants  of  the  house  enjoyed  a  kind  of  hon 
orable  distinction  at  Monticello,  as  "  the  servants  who  were  in  the 
room  when  Mrs.  Jefferson  died,  " —  such  an  impression  did  the  scene 
leave  upon  the  minds  of  the  little  secluded  community.  It  was  a 
tradition  among  the  slaves,  often  related  by  these  six  eye-witnesses, 
that  the  dying  lady  gave  her  husband  "many  directions  about  many 
things  that  she  wanted  done;  "  but  that  when  she  came  to  speak  of 
the  children,  she  could  not  command  herself  for  some  time.  At  last 
she  said  that  she  could  not  die  content  if  she  thought  her  children 
would  ever  have  a  step-mother;  and  her  husband,  holding  her  hand, 
solemnly  promised  that  he  would  never  marry  again.*  Towards 
noon,  as  she  was  about  to  breathe  her  last,  his  feelings  became 

*  Jefferson  at  Monticello,  p.  106. 


266  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

uncontrollable.  He  almost  lost  his  senses.  His  sister,  Mrs.  Carr, 
led  him  staggering  from  the  room  into  his  library,  where  he  fainted, 
and  remained  so  long  insensible  that  the  family  began  to  fear  that 
he,  too,  had  passed  away.  They  brought  in  a  pallet,  and  lifted 
him  upon  it.  He  revived  only  to  a  sense  of  immeasurable  woe. 
His  daughter  Martha,  who  was  to  be  the  solace  of  all  his  future 
years,  ventured  into  the  room  at  night ;  and  even  then,  such  was 
the  violence  of  his  grief,  that  she  was  amazed  and  confounded. 
For  three  weeks  he  remained  in  that  apartment,  attended  day  and 
night  by  this  little  child.  He  walked,  as  she  related,  almost  inces 
santly,  all  day  and  all  night,  only  lying  down  now  and  then,  when 
he  was  utterly  exhausted,  upon  the  pallet  that  had  been  hurriedly 
brought  while  he  lay  in  his  fainting  fit.  When  at  last  he  left  the 
house,  he  would  ride  on  horseback  hours  and  hours,  roaming  about 
in  tne  mountain  roads,  in  the  dense  woods,  along  the  paths  least 
frequented,  accompanied  only  by  his  daughter,  —  "  a  solitary  wit 
ness,"  she  says,  "  to  many  a  violent  burst  of  grief,  the  remembrance 
of  which  has  consecrated  particular  scenes  beyond  the  power  of  time 
to  obliterate." 

So  passed  some  weeks.  He  fell  into  what  he  called  "  a  stupor  of 
mind,"  from  which  the  daily  round  of  domestic  duties  could  not 
rouse  him.  Meanwhile  the  intelligence  of  his  loss  reached  Congress, 
then  in  session  at  Philadelphia,  waiting  with  extreme  solicitude  the 
issue  of  the  negotiations  for  peace  at  Paris.  Six  months  had  already 
passed  since  the  negotiations  had  been  begun,  during  the  last  three 
of  which  Dr.  Franklin  had  been  laid  aside  by  an  attack  of  his 
disease,  leaving  the  chief  burden  to  be  borne  by  Mr.  Jay  alone.  It 
now  occurred  to  the  Virginia  members,  that,  as  the  causes  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  previous  declining  to  cross  the  sea  were  removed,  he 
might  be  willing  to  join  the  commission  to  treat  for  peace.  He  was 
at  once  elected  a  plenipotentiary  by  a  unanimous  vote,  and,  as 
Madison  reports,  "without  a  single  adverse  remark."  The  news  of 
his  election  reached  him  November  25,  1782,  eleven  weeks  after  the 
death  of  his  wife,  when  he  had  gone  with  his  troop  of  children, — 
daughters,  nephews,  and  nieces,  nine  in  all,  —  to  a  secluded  estate 
in  Chesterfield  County  to  have  them  inoculated. 

It  was  like  a  trumpet-call  to  a  war-horse  standing  listless  under  a 
tree  in  the  pasture,  after  a  rest  from  the  exhaustion  and  wounds  of 
a  campaign.  He  accepted  instantly.  He  flew  to  his  long-neglected 


DEATH  OF  MRS.    JEFFERSON. 


desk  to  write  the  necessary  letters,  and  to  bring  up  the  arrears  in 
his  correspondence;  for  the  French  minister  had  offered  him  a  pas 
sage  in  a  man-of-war  which  was  to  sail  from  Baltimore  in  three 
weeks,  and  in  that  vessel  his  beloved  Marquis  de  Chastelluxwas  also 
to  cross  the  ocean!  Enchanting  prospect!  But  there  is  many  a 
slip  'twixt  the  cup  and  the  lip.  When  he  reached  the  port,  after 
many  delays,  it  was  only  to  discover  that  the  enemy's  fleet  blocked 
the  pathway  to  the  sea;  and  before  the  admiral  saw  a  chance  to 
elude  them  came  the  ecstatic  news  that  the  preliminaries  had  been 
signed,  and  there  was  no  need  of  his  going.  So  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Jay  to  give  up  the  lodgings  in  Paris  which  he  had  requested  him 
to  engage  j  and  in  May,  1783,  he  was  at  home  once  more. 


•  \v  \  >. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

IN    CONGRESS    AT   ANNAPOLIS. 

Bur  the  spell  was  broken.  He  had  shown  himself  willing  to  serve 
the  public.  Next  month  the  legislature  elected  him  a  member  of 
Congress ;  and  in  November,  1783,  we  find  him  at  Annapolis  ready 
to  take  his  seat,  after  having  left  his  eldest  daughter  at  school  in 
Philadelphia. 

In  the  universal  languor  which  followed  the  mighty  effort  of  1781, 
it  was  hard  to  get  twenty-five  members  together;  but  Jefferson 
found  them  brimful  of  the  spirit  of  disputation ;  for  Arthur  Lee  was 
a  member,  the  most  disputatious  man  of  whom  history  condescends 
to  hiake  mention.  Caught  in  a  shower  in  London,  he  sought  the 
shelter  of  a  shed,  when  a  gentleman  ventured  the  civil  remark  that 
it  rained  very  hard.  "It  rains  hard,  sir,"  said  Lee,  "  but  I  doubt 
whether  you  can  say  it  rains  very  hard."  One  such  person  would 
suffice  to  set  any  twenty  men  by  the  ears.  Days  were  wasted  in 
the  most  trivial  and  needless  debates,  during  which  the  good-tem 
pered  Jefferson  sat  silent  and  tranquil.  A  member  asked  him  one 
day,  how  he  could  listen  to  so  much  false  reasoning,  which  a  word 
would  refute,  and  not  utter  that  word.  "  To  refute,''  said  he,  "  is  easy  ; 
to  silence,  impossible."  He  added,  that,  in  measures  brought  forward 
by  himself,  he  took,  as  was  proper,  the  laboring  oar;  but,  in  .m-ueral, 
he  was  willing  to  play  the  part  of  a  listener,  content  to  follow  the 
example  of  Washington  and  Franklin,  who  were  seldom  on  their 
feet  more  than  ten  minutes,  and  yet  rarely  spoke  but  to  convince. 
Despite  the  copious  flow  of  words,  many  memorable  things  wi-ro 
done  by  this  Congress;  and  though  Jefferson  sat  in  it  but  five 
months,  his  name  is  imperishably  linked  with  some  of  its  most  inter 
esting  measures.  It  is  evident  that  he  often*  took  "the  laboring 
oar."  Twice  during  the  sickness  of  the  president,  he  was  elected 

268 


IN   CONGKESS  AT  ANNAPOLIS.  269 

chairman  of  the  body ;  and  his  name  stands  at  the  head  of  every 
committee  of  much  importance. 

He  it  was,  whoj  as  chairman  of  the  committee  of  arrangements, 
wrote  the  much-embracing  address  with  which  the  President  of  Con 
gress  received  General  Washington's  resignation  of  his  commission. 
He  assisted  in  arranging  the  details  of  that  affecting  and  immortal 
scene.  The  spectacle  presented  in  the  chamber  at  Annapolis  im 
pressed  mankind ;  and  the  two  addresses  winged  their  way  round  the 
world,  affording  "  a  lesson  useful  to  those  who  inflict  and  to  those 
who  feel  oppression."  As  a  member  of  this  Congress,  Thomas  Jef 
ferson,  with  four  other  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
namely,  Roger  Sherman,  Elbridge  Gerry,  Robert  Morris,  and  William 
Ellery,  signed  the  treaty  of  peace  which  acknowledged  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  United  States. 

A  currency  for  the  new  nation,  to  take  the  place  of  the  chaos  of 
coins  and  values  which  had  plagued  the  colonies  from  an  early  day, 
was  among  the  subjects  considered  at  this  session.  Jefferson,  chair 
man  of  the  committee  to  which  the  matter  was  referred,  assisted  to 
give  us  the  best  currency  ever  contrived  by  man,  —  a  currency  so 
convenient,  that,  one  after  another,  every  nation  on  earth  will  adopt 
it.  Two -years  before  Gouverneur  Morris,  a  clerk  in  the  office  of  his 
uncle,  Robert  Morris,  had  conceived  the  most  happy  idea  of  applying 
the  decimal  system  to  the  notation  of  money.  But  it  always  re- 
•quires  several  men  to  complete  one  great  thing.  The  details  of  the 
system  devised  by  Gouverneur  Morris  were  so  cumbrous  and  awk 
ward  as  almost  to  neutralize  the  simplicity  of  the  leading  idea. 
Jefferson  rescued  the  fine  original  conception  by  proposing  our  pres 
ent  system  of  dollars  and  cents ;  the  dollar  to  be  the  unit  and  the 
largest  silver  coin.  He  recommended  also  a  great  gold  coin  of  ten 
dollars  value,  a  silver  coin  of  the  value  of  one-tenth  of  a  dollar,  and 
a  copper  coin  of  the  value  of  one-hundredth  of  a  dollar.  He  sug 
gested  three  other  coins  for  the  convenience  of  making  change,  —  a 
silver  half-dollar,  a  silver  double-tenth,  and  a  copper  twentieth.  It 
remained  only  to  invent  easy  names  for  these  coins,  which  was  done 
in  due  time. 

This  perfect  currency  was  not  adopted  without  much  labor  and 
vigorous  persistence  on  the  part  of  Jefferson,  both  in  and  out  of 
Congress.  His  views  prevailed  over  those  of  Robert  Morris,  the  first 
name  in  America  at  that  time  in  matters  of  finance.  Jefferson 


270  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

desired  to  apply  the  decimal  system  to  all  measures ;  and  this,  doubt 
less,  will  one  day  be  done.  "  I  use,"  he  tells  us,  "  when  I  travel,  an 
odometer,  which  divides  the  miles  into  cents,  and  I  find  every  one 
comprehends  a  distance  readily  when  stated  to  him  in  miles  and 
cents  ;  so  he  would  in  feet  and  cents,  pounds  and  cents." 

Jefferson  struck  another  blow  at  slavery  this  winter,  which  again 
his  Southern  colleagues  warded  off.  The  cession  by  Virginia  of  her 
vast  domain  in  the  north-west,  out  of  which  several  States  have  been 
formed,  was  accepted  by  this  Congress ;  and  it  was  Mr.  Jefferson 
who  drew  the  plan  for  its  temporary  government.  He  inserted  a 
clause  abolishing  slavery  "  after  the  year  1800  of  the  Christian  era." 
In  a  Congress  of  twenty-three  members,  only  seven  voted  no;  but,  as 
a  measure  could  only  be  adopted  by  a  majority  of  States,  these  suf 
ficed  to  defeat  it.  Every  member  from  a  Northern  State  voted  for  it, 
and  every  Southern  member  except  two  against  it. 

In  this  ordinance,  Jefferson  assigned  names  to  various  portions  of 
the  territory.  If  his  names  had  held,  we  should  to-day  read  upon 
the  map  of  the  United  States,  Sylvania,  Michigania,  Cherron. 
Assenisipia,  Mesopotamia,  Illinoia,  Saratoga,  Polypotamia,  IVlispia, 
instead  of  the  present  names  of  the  States  west  and  north-west  of 
Virginia.  We  have  improved  upon  his  names.  Ohio  is  better  than 
Pelispia ;  and  the  least  agreeable  of  the  present  names  is  not  so  bad 
as  Assenisipia. 

Absorbed  as  he  was  in  these  public  duties,  he  could  not  forget  the 
desolation  of  his  home  ;  and  he  seems  to  have  thought  of  returning 
to  Monticello  with  some  degree  of  dread.  But  when  the^strongest 
tie  is  severed,  others  grow  stronger.  He  had  another  ihSrn  of  the 
future  now,  suggested  by  his  young  friend,  James  Monroe,  talk 
ing  of  buying  a  farm  near  Monticello  with  a  view  to  settle  there. 
His  three,  most  congenial  and  beloved  friends  at  this  time  were 
James  Madison,  James  Monroe,  and  William  Short.  We  might 
almost  style  them  his  disciples ;  for  they  had  been  educated  under  his 
inilueiice.  or  guidance,  and  were  curiously  in  accord  with  him  on 
questions  moral  and  political.  Why,  he  asked,  could  not  they  nil 
live  near  one  another  in  Albemarle,  and  pass  their  days  in  study 
and  contemplation,  a  band  of  brothers  and  philosophers  ?  Madison, 
just  disappointed  in  love,  which  kept  him  a  bachelor  for  many  a 
year,  had  gone  home  to  his  father's  house  in  Orange,  where  he  sought 
relief  in  the  most  intense  and  unremitting  study.  Who  was  better 


IN   CONGRESS   AT   ANNAPOLIS.  271 

fitted  to  console  him  than  Jefferson,  who  had  had  a  similar  experi 
ence  in  his  tender  youth  ?  Jefferson  did  his  best,  and  begged  him 
to  ride  over  to  Monticello  as  often  as  he  chose,  and  regard  the  library 
there  as  his  own.  And  more,  "Monroe  is  buying  land  almost 
adjoining  me.  Short  will  do  the  same.  What  would  I  not  give  if 
you  could  fall  into  the  circle.  With  such  a  society,  I  could  once 
more  venture  home,  and  lay  myself  up  for  the  residue  of  life,  quitting 
all  its  contentions,  which  daily  grow  more  and  more  insupportable.'7 
There  was  a  little  farm  two  miles  from  Monticello,  of  a  hundred 
and  forty  acres  of  good  land,  with  a  small,  old,  indifferent  house 
upon  it,  that  would  just  do,  Jefferson  thought,  for  a  republican  and 
a  philosopher ;  for  it  was  just  such  an  establishment  as  his  beloved 
friend,  Dabney  Carr,  had  been  so  happy  in.  It  could  be  bought  for 
two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  "  Think  of  it,"  he  urged.  "  To  ren 
der  it  practicable  only  requires  you  to  think  so."  Madison,  all  un 
suspicious  of  the  different  career  in  store  for  himself  and  his  three 
friends,  replied  that  he  could  neither  accept  nor  renounce  the  capti 
vating  scheme.  He  could  not  then  change  his  abode  ;  but,  in  a  few 
years,  he  thought  he  might  make  one  of  the  circle  proposed.  The 
large  estates  of  his  father  required  his  attention  and  presence.  Mon 
roe  alone  settled  in  the  neighborhood,  though  Madison  lived  all  his 
life  within  a  day's  ride. 

With  General  Washington,  too,  we  find  Mr.  Jefferson  in  close 
•elations  during  the  spring  of  1784.  They  agreed  in  deploring  the 
weakness,  the  utter  insufficiency,  of  the  central  power,  and  in  think- 
ng  there  must  be  SOMETHING  besides  Congress,  if  only  a  committee 
>f  memberjgtoipemain  at  the  seat  of  government  during  the  absence 
)f  the  main  body.  The  country  was  feeling  its  way  to  a  constitu- 
ion.  Independence  had  been  won,  but  a  nation  had  not  yet  been 
created.  It  was  just  after  receiving  General  Washington's  concurr 
rence,  that  Jefferson  brought  forward  his  proposition  to  divide  the 
work  of  Congress  into  legislative  and  executive,  and  to  intrust  the 
Bxecutive  functions  to  a  permanent  committee  of  one  from  each 
State.  This  was  the  first  attempt  towards  a  government ;  and  its 
ailure,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  records,  was  speedy  and  complete.  A  com- 
•nittee  of  thirteen  was  only  a  more  disputatious  and  unmanageable 
Congress.  The  committee  being  appointed,  Congress  adjourned, 
eaving  it  the  supreme  power  of  the  continent ;  but  they  "quarrelled 
rery  soon/'  split  into  two  parties,  abandoned  their  post,  and  left  the 


272  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

government  without  any  visible  head  until  the  next  meeting  of 
Congress.  Jefferson  remarks  that  many  attributed  their  disruption 
to  the  disputatious  propensity  of  certain  men ;  but  the  wise,  to  the 
nature  of  man.  The  failure  of  the  executive  committee  had  its 
effect  in  preparing  the  way  for  the  convention  of  1787. 

On  another  point  Jefferson  and  Washington  were  in  full  accord 
this  winter.  For  more  than  ten  years  the  general  had  been 
warmly  interested  in  connecting  the  great  system  of  western  waters 
with  the  Atlantic  Ocean  by  way  of  the  Potomac  River.  Besides 
public  reasons,  General  Washington  had  a  private  one  for  favoring 
this  scheme.  He  owned  a  superb  tract  of  land  on  the  Ohio,  which 
was  dearer  to  his  pride  than  important  to  his  fortune ;  for  he  had 
won  it  by  his  valor  and  conduct  in  the  defence  of  his  native  land  in 
the  French  War.  If  the  Potomac  were  but  rendered  navigable  back 
to  the  mountains,  and  then  connected  with  the  nearest  branch  of  the 
Ohio  by  a  canal,  this  fine  western  estate  would  be  advantageously 
accessible.  The  general  was  deep  in  the  scheme  when  he  was 
elected  to  take  command  of  the  army  in  1775,  and  resumed  it  as  soon 
as  he  was  released  in  1783 ;  and  he  now  pursued  it  with  the  more 
zeal  for  a  new  reason.  He  had  become  acquainted  during  the  war 
with  the  pushing  energy  of  the  people  of  New  York.  He  had  pro 
phetic  intimations  of  the  Erie  Canal.  In  March,  1784,  when  De 
Witt  Clinton  was  a  school-boy  of  fifteen,  General  Washington,  the 
father  of  our  internal-improvement  system,  wrote  thus  to  Thomas 
Jefferson,  "  With  you,  I  am  satisfied  that  not  a  moment  ought  to 
be  lost  in  recommencing  this  business,  as  I  know  the  Yorkers  will 
delay  no  time  to  remove  every  obstacle  in  the  way  <>f  the  other  com 
munication,  so  soon  as  the  posts  of  Oswego  and  Niagara  are  surren 
dered  ;  and  I  shall  be  mistaken  if  they  do  not  build  vessels  for  the 
navigation  of  the  lakes,  which  will  supersede  the  necessity  of  coast 
ing."  Any  one  familiar  with  the  magnificent  line  of  cities  created 
by  the  Erie  Canal,  and  with  the  harbors  of  Buffalo,  Toledo.  Oswego, 
and  Chicago,  finds  it  difficult  to  realize  that  this  sentence  was 
written  less  than  ninety  years  ago. 

The  general  ha<\  acquired  in  some  way  a  strong  conviction  of  the 
resistless  enterprise  of  the  New  Yorkers.  He  returns  to  the  subject 
in  a  letter  to  Benjamin  Harrison.  "No  person,"  he  says,  "  that 
knows  the  temper,  genius,  and  policy  of  those  people  as  well  as  I 
do,  can  harbor  the  smallest  doubt  of  their  connecting  New  York  and 


IN  CONGEESS   AT   ANNAPOLIS.  273 

the  lakes  by  a  canal.  It  is  curious  these  same  New  Yorkers, 
in  1874,  after  having  dug,  enlarged,  and  superseded  their  own  canal, 
should  be  carrying  out  Washington's  idea  in  a  way  he  never 
dreamed  of,  by  completing  the  railroad  from  Richmond  to  the  Ohio. 
Such  is  the  "temper,  genius,  and  policy  of  those  people." 

A  topic  of  the  deepest  interest  at  this  time  was  the  Society  of  the 
Cincinnati,  the  first  annual  meeting  of  which  was  to  occur  in  May. 
Members  of  Congress,  not  of  the  order,  viewed  it  with  extreme  dis 
approval,  and  were  resolved,  as  Jefferson  reports,  "  to  give  silent 
preferences  to  those  who  were  not  of  the  fraternity,"  in  the  bestowal 
of  office.  It  was  not  in  human  nature  for  such  men  as  Henry, 
Madison,  Jefferson,  Samuel  Adams,  Elbridge  Gerry,  and  John 
Page,  to  regard  with  favor  an  institution  designed  to  perpetuate  the 
distinctions  of  the  war,  even  to  remote  generations ;  an  institution 
that  would  give  a  valuable  advantage  to  the  posterity  of  a  raw  lieu 
tenant  of  one  campaign  over  the  offspring  of  the  most  illustrious 
sages  of  the  civil  service.  Besides,  the  events  of  the  last  eighteen 
years  had  implanted  in  the  minds  of  reflecting  Americans  a  dread 
ind  horror  of  the  hereditary  principle,  to  which  the  recent  bloody 
isruption  of  the  British  Empire  was  due.  General  Washington, 
svho  was  to  preside  at  the  coming  assembly,  was  troubled  and 
anxious  at  the  growing  opposition.  He  asked  Jefferson's  opinion. 
Tefferson  was  utterly  opposed  to  the  order,  and  said  so  in  a  long  and 
ngenious  letter  to  the  general ;  and  when  Washington  passed 
;hrough  Annapolis,  a  few  weeks  after,  on  his  way  to  the  meeting,  he 
ailed  on  Jefferson  to  talk  the  matter  over  with  him. 

They  sat  together  alone  at  Jefferson's  lodgings  from  eight  o'clock 
n  the  evening  until  midnight.  They  agreed  that  the  object  of  the 
>fficers  in  founding  the  society  was  to  preserve  the  friendships  of  the 
var  by  renewing  their  intercourse  once  a  year.  Nothing  more 
nnocent  than  the  motive.  But  they  agreed,  also,  that  there  was 
great  danger  of  the  order  degenerating  into  an  hereditary  aristoc- 
acy ;  and,  meanwhile,  it  was  odious  to  the  great  body  of  civilians. 
In  the  course  of  the  conversation  Jefferson  suggested,  that,  if  the 
lereditary  quality  were  suppressed,  there  would  be  no  harm  in  the 
)fficers  who  had  actually  served  coming  together  in  a  social  way 
low  and  then.  "No,"  said  the  general,  "*not  a  fibre  of  it  ought  to 
>e  left,  to  be  an  eyesore  to  the  public,  a  ground  of  dissatisfaction, 
ind  a  line  of  separation  between  them  and  their  country." 


274  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

The  general  resumed  his  journey,  fully  resolved  to  use  liis  influ 
ence  with  the  members  of  the  order  to  induce  them  to  disband.  He 
tried  his  best.  Most  of  the  old  officers  came  into  his  views  at  length, 
and  he  thought  he  had  secured  a  majority  against  going  on;  but 
just  then  arrived  from  France  Major  1'Infant,  as  Jefferson  tells  us, 
11  with  a  bundle  of  eagles  for  which  he  had  been  sent  there,  with 
rs  from  the  French  officers  who  had  served  in  America  praying 
for  admission  into  the  order,  and  a  solemn  act  of  their  king  permit 
ting  them  to  wear  its  ensign."  All  was  changed  in  a  moment. 
Such  was  the  revulsion  of  feeling,  that  the  general  could  only 
obtain  the  suppression  of  the  hereditary  principle;  which,  however, 
sufficed  to  render,  the  order  as  unobjectionable  as  the  societies  of  simi 
lar  nature  which  were  formed  after  the  late  war. 

Jefferson  had  a  new  pleasure  during  this  session,  that  of  writing 
to  his  daughter  Martha  in  Philadelphia.  No  one  who  has  ever 
loved  a  child  can  read  his  letters  to  his  children  without  emotion  ; 
least  of  all,  those  written  while  the  anguish  of  their  irreparable  loss 
was  still  recent.  It  is  difficult  to  quote  them,  because  nearly  every 
sentence  is  so  lovely  and  wise,  that  we  know  not  what  to  select. 
Imagine  all  that  the  tenderest  and  most  thoughtful  father  could 
wi.-h  for  the  most  engaging  child.  But  the  burden  of  his  song  was, 
that  goodness  is  the  greatest  treasure  of  human  beings.  "  If  you 
love  me/'  he  says,  "strive  to  be  good  under  every  situation,  and  to 
all  living  creatures,  and  to  acquire  those  accomplishments  which  I 
have  put  in  your  power."  A  curious  trait  of  the  times  is  this  :  "  It 
produces  great  praise  to  a  lady  to  spell  well."  Happy  would  it  be  for 
those  benefactors  of  our  race,  the  wise  and  faithful  teachers  of  the 
young,  if  every  parent 'would  use  such  words  as  these  in  writing  to 
his  children  at  school:  "Consider  the  good  Judy  who  has  taken  you 
under  her  roof,  who  has  undertaken  to  see  that  you  perform  all  your 
exercix-s,  and  to  admonish  you  in  all  those  wanderings  from  what  is 
right,  and  what  k  clever,  to  which  your  inexperience  would  expose 
you ;  consider  her,  I  say,  as  your  mother,  as  the  only  person  to 
whom,  since  the  loss  with  which  Heaven  has  heen  pleased  to  afflict 
you,  you  can  n<>w  Ionic  uj>;  and  that  her  displeasure  or  disapproba 
tion,  on  any  occasion,  would  be  an  immense  misfortune,  which, 
should  you  be  so  unhappy  as  to  incur  by  any  unguarded  act,  think 
no  concession  too  much  to  regain  her  good-will." 

The  session  drew  to   great  length.      "When   pressing  domestic 


IN   CONGRESS  AT  ANNAPOLIS.  275 

measures  had  been  disposed  of.  Congress  turned  its  attention  to 
foreign  affairs  ;  and  this  led  to  an  important  change  in  the  career 
of  Jefferson.  "  I  have  been  thrown  back,"  he  wrote  to  General 
Washington,  April  16,  1784,  "  on  a  stage  where  I  had  never  more 
thought  to  appear.  It  is  but  for  a  time,  however,  and  as  a  day- 
laborer,  free  to  withdraw,  or  be  withdrawn,  at  will."  Three  weeks 
after  these  words  were  written,  Congress  found  a  piece  of  work  for 
this  day-laborer  to  do. 

It  was  the  golden  age  of  "  protection."  All  interests  were  pro 
tected  then,  except  the  interests  of  human  nature  5  and  every  right 
was  enforced,  except  the  rights  of  man.  British  commerce  and 
manufactures,  since  Charles  II.,  had  been  so  rigorously  protected, 
that,  when  a  member  of  Parliament  moved  that  Americans  should 
be  compelled  to  send  their  horses  to  England  to  be  shod,  there  was 
room  for  doubt  whether  he  was  in  jest  or  earnest.  James  Otis 
believed  he  -spoke  ironically ;  only  believed  !  But  there  was  no 
doubt  of  the  seriousness  of  the  parliamentary  orator  who  avowed 
the  opinion  that  {C  not  a  hobnail  should  be  made  in  America ;  "  nor 
of  the  binding  force  of  the  law  which  made  it  penal  for  an  Ameri 
can  to  carry  a  fleece  of  wool  across  a  creek  in  a  canoe.  John 
Adams,  looking  back  in  his  old  age  upon  the  studies  of  his  early 
professional  life,  declared,  that,  as  a  young  lawyer,  he  never  turned 
»ver  the  leaves  of  the  British  statutes  regulating  American  trade 
*  without  pronouncing  a  hearty  curse  upon  them."  He  felt  them 
'  as  a  humiliation,  a  degradation,  a  disgrace,"  to  his  country,  and  to 
limself  as  a  native  of  it. 

One  consequence  of  this  fierce  protection  was,  that  America  was 
not  on  trading  terms  with  the  nations  of  the  earth ;  and  Congress 
elt  that  one  of  its  most  important  duties,  after  securing  indepen 
dence,  was  to  propose  to  each  of  them  a  treaty  of  commerce.  With 
France,  Holland,  and  Sweden,  such  treaties  had  already  been  nego- 
;iated ;  but  Congress  desired  commercial  intercourse,  "on  the 
boting  of  the  most  favored  nation,"  with  Great  Britain,  Hamburg, 
Saxony,  Prussia,  Denmark,  Russia,  Austria,  Venice,  Rome,  Naples, 
Tuscany,  Sardinia,  Genoa,  Spain,  Portugal,  Turkey,  Algiers,  Tripoli, 
Tunis,  and  Morocco.  Congress  wielded  sovereign  power ;  a  nation 
was  coming  into  existence  ;  and  the  conclusion  of  treaties  was  at 
once  a  dignified  way  of  asserting  those  not  sufficiently  obvious 
;ruths,  and  a  convenient  mode  of  getting  them  acknowledged  by 


276  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

other  nations.  Congress,  as  Jefferson  confesses,  though  it  would 
not  condescend  to  ask  recognition  from  any  of  the  powers,  yet  "  we 
are  not  unwilling  to  furnish  opportunities  for  receiving  their  friend 
ly  salutations  and  welcome." 

Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Adams,  who  ^till  represented  Congress  in 
Europe,  were  not  supposed  to  be  equal  to  so  much  labor.  May  7, 
1784,  Congress  agreed  to  add  a  third  plenipotentiary  to  aid  them  in 
negotiating  commercial  treaties  ;  and  their  choice  for  this  office  fell 
upon  Thomas  Jefferson.  The  appointment  was  for  two  years,  at  the 
reduced  salary  of  nine  thousand  dollars  a  year.  He  accepted  the 
post;  and,  expecting  to  be  absent  only  two  years,  he  determined  to 
spare  himself  a  laborious  journey  home,  and  the  re-opening  of  a 
healing  wound,  by  going  direct  from  Annapolis  northward  "  in  quest 
of  a  passage."  This  he  could  do  the  easier,  since,  as  he  records,  u  I 
asked  an  advance  of  six  months'  salary,  that  I  might  be  in  cash  to 
meet  the  first  expenses ;  which  was  ordered."  His  two  younger 
children  were  in  safe  hands  at  home  ;  and  his  eldest  daughter  he 
would  take  with  him,  and  place  at  school  in  Paris.  His  nephews  he 
left  to  the  guardianship  of  James  Madison,  to  whom,  on  the  day 
after  his  election,  he  wrote  in  an  affecting  strain  :  — 

"  I  have  a  tender  legacy  to  leave  you  on  my  departure.  I  will 
not  say  it  is  the  son  of  my  sister,  though  her  worth  would  justify  it 
on  that  ground ;  but  it  is  the  son  of  my  friend,  the  dean-st  friend 
I  knew,  who,  had  fate  reversed  our  lots,  would  have  been  a  father  to 
my  children.  He  is  a  boy  of  fine  dispositions,  and  of  sound,  mascu 
line  talents.  I  was  his  preceptor  myself  as  long  as  I  staid  at 
home;  and,  when  I  came  away,  I  placed  him  with  Mr.  Maury. 
There  is  a  younger  one,  just  now  in  his  Latin  rudiments.  If  I  did 
not  fear  to  overcharge  you,  I  would  request  you  to  recommend  a 
school  for  him." 

Mr.  Madison  fulfilled  this  trust  with  affectionate  care,  and  kept- 
his  friend  informed  of  the  progress  of  his  nephews  during  his  long 
absence. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

! 

ENVOY  TO  FRANCE. 

MAY  11,  four  days  after  his  election,  the  plenipotentiary  left 
Annapolis  for  Philadelphia,  a  four  days'  journey  then  ;  and,  while  his 
daughter  was  getting  ready  for  her  departure,  he  improved  the  oppor 
tunity  to  collect  precise  and  full  information  respecting  the  com 
merce  of  the  port ;  for  was  he  not  going  to  Europe  on  commercial 
business  ?  One  of  the  toasts  given  in  1784,  at  the  May-day  festi 
val  of  the  St.  Tammany  Society  of  Philadelphia,  which  he  probably 
read  in  the  newspapers  during  his  stay,  gave  him  a  hint  of  what 
was  desired,  "  Free-trade  in  American  Bottoms."  Pleasing  dream  ! 
Many  a  year  must  yet  pass  before  it  comes  true".  It  was  a  buoyant, 
expectant  time,  when  Mr.  Jefferson  made  this  sea-board  journey. 
The  refuse  of  the  war  was  clearing  away,  and  new  projects  were  in 
the  air.  It  was  while  Jefferson  was  in  Philadelphia  on  this  occasion, 
that  some  ingenious  contriver  managed  to  extract  from  the  deep 
mud  of  the  bottom  of  the  Delaware  those  chevaux-de-frise  which 
Dr.  Franklin  had  placed  there  nine  years  before  to  keep  out  the 
British  fleet,  to  the  sore  obstruction  of  the  navigation  ever  since. 
It  was  an  "  Herculean  task/7  said  the  newspapers,  requiring  "  vast 
apparatus;"  but  up  came  the  biggest  cheval  of  them  all  at  the 
first  yank  of  the  mighty  engine. 

But  this  was  a  small  matter  compared  with  the  project  for  an 
/'  air-balloon  "  of  silk,  sixty  feet  high,  also  announced  while  Jeffer 
son  was  in  Philadelphia,  to  be  paid  for  by  private  subscriptions. 
Philadelphia,  too,  should  behold  the  new  wonder  of  the  world,  de 
scribed  at  great  length  in  a  Paris  volume  lately  received  from  Dr. 
Franklin.  Gentlemen  were  invited  to  send  their  money,  and  phi 
losophers-  their  advice,  to  the  committee  having  the  scheme  in 
charge.  The  glowing  prospectus  issued  by  the  committee  may  have 

277 


278  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

drawn  a  guinea  and  a  smile  from  Jefferson.  "  Is  it  not  probable," 
asked  these  sanguine  gentlemen,  "  that  those  who  sometimes  travel 
through  the  parched  and  sandy  deserts  of  Arabia,  where  there  is 
danger  of  perishing  for  want  of  water,  or  of  being  buried  under 
mountains  of  sand  suddenly  raised  by  whirling  eddies  of  wind,  as 
hath  too  often  been  the  case,  would  prefer  a  voyage  by  means  of  an 
air-balloon  to  any  other  known  method  of  conveyance  ?  In  places 
where  the  plague  may  suddenly  appear,  it  is  capable,  when  im 
proved,  of  rescuing  those  from  danger  who  happen  to  be  travelling 
through  that  region  without  any  other  means  of  making  their  escape. 
It  may  perform  the  same  service  to  such  as  are  suddenly  surprised 
by  unexpected  sieges,  and  to  whom  no  other  means  of  safety  may  be 
left."  "  Quick  advices  may  be  given  of  intended  invasions  ;  "  and, 
in  short,  war  rendered  so  little  destructive,  that  no  one  will  think  it 
worth  while  to  resort  to  that  "  unchristian  mode  of  arbitrating  dis 
putes."  Then,  "  by  means  of  these  balloons,  the  utmost  despatch 
may  be  given  to  express-boats,"  which  they  will  both  lift  and  draw. 
They  were  expected  also  to  enable  philosophers  to  push  their  dis 
coveries  into  the  upper  regions  of  the  air,  to  ascertain  "  the  causes 
of  hail  and  snow,"  and  "  make  further  improvements  in  thermome 
ters,  barometers,  hygrometers,  in  astronomy  and  electricity."  This 
programme  of  blessings  did  not  tempt  the  guineas  fast  enough, 
until  the  committee  added  personal  solicitation;  and  when,  at  last, 
the  balloon  ascended,  they  were  obliged  to  charge  two  dollars  for  the 
best  places  in  the  amphitheatre. 

It  was  a  simple,  credulous  world,  then,  full  of  curiosity  respecting 
the  truths  which  science  was  beginning  to  disclose.  This  balloon 
prospectus,  with  its  betrayals  of  ignorance,  credulity,  and  curiosity, 
was  perfectly  characteristic  of  the  period.  I  am  not  sure  that 
Franklin  and  Jefferson  would  have  deemed  it  so  very  absurd,  though 
Franklin  might  have  thought  it  improbable  that  a  traveller  caught 
by  an  unexpected  siege  would  have  a  balloon  in  his  trunk.  Frank 
lin  had  high  hopes  of  the  balloon.  "  Of  what  use  is  this  discovery 
which  makes  so  much  noise?"  some  one  asked  him,  soon  after  the 
first  ascension  in  Paris.  "Of  \\  is  a-  new-born  child?"  was 

his  reply.  ;  L  < 

In  quest  of  a  passage  to  France,  the  plenipotentiary,  his  daughter, 
and  William  Short,  whom  he  was  so  happy  as  to  have  for  a'secretary, 
left  Philadelphia  near  the  en^1  of  May,  and  went  to  New  York. 

if 


ENVOY  TO   FRANCE.  279 

The  monthly  Havre  packet,  La  Sylph  e,  had  been  gone  ten  days. 
After  a  few  days'  stay  in  New  York,  where  he  continued  his  com 
mercial  studies,  the  party  resumed  their  "  quest,"  travelling  eastward 
from  port  to  port  in  the  leisurely  manner  of  the  time.  At  New 
Haven,  could  he  fail  to  pause  a  day  or  two  to  view  a  college  so  dis 
tinguished  as  Yale,  and  converse  with  the  president  and  professors, 
and  promise  to  send  them  from  Europe  some  account  of  the  new  dis 
coveries  and  the'new  books  ?  The  newspapers,  silent  as  to  his  stay 
in  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  chronicle  the  arrival  of  His  Excellency 
at  New  Haven  on  the  7th  of  June,  and  his  departure  for  Boston  on 
the  9th.  At  Boston  the  travellers  met  another  disappointment, 
peculiarly  aggravating.  A  good  ship  was  within  thirty-six  hours 
of  sailing,  in  which  Mrs.  Adams  was  going  to  join  her  husband ; 
and  she  would  have  been  as  agreeable  a  companion  to  the  father 
as  a  kind  protector  to  the  daughter.  But,  in  those  days,  passengers 
had  to  lay  in  stores  of  various  kinds,  and  make  extensive  prepara 
tions  for  a  voyage,  which  could  not  be  done  in  so  short  a  time,  even 
if  the  plenipotentiary  had  regarded  his  commercial  information  as 
complete.  Mrs.  Adams  sailed  without  them ;  but,  while  Jefferson 
was  thinking  of  returning  in  all  haste  to  New  "Sork  to  catch  the 
next  French  packet,  he  heard  of  a  Boston  ship  loading  for  London, 
that  would,  it  was  thought,  put  him  ashore  on  the  French  coast.  It 
proved  to  be  the  ship  Ceres,  belonging  to  Nathaniel  Tracy,  one  of 
the  great  merchants  of  New  England,  who  was  going  in  her  him 
self,  and  would  land  the  party  at  Portsmouth,  after  .having  passed 
the  whole  voyage  in  communicating  commercial  knowledge  to  Mr. 
Jefferson.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  fortunate. 

Boston  gave  the  Virginian  a  courteous  ahd  warm  reception  on  this 
occasion.  A  chair  in  the  chamber  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of 
Representatives  was  assigned  to  "His  Excellency,  Thomas  Jefferson, 
late  governor  of  Virginia,  and  now  one  of  the  commissioners  for 
negotiating  treaties  ;  "  and  "no  small  part  of  my  time,"  as  he  wrote 
to  Elbridge  Gerry,  "  has  been  occupied  by  the  hospitality  and  civilities 
of  this  place,  which  I  have  experienced  in  the  highest  degree."  Mr. 
Gerry  not  reaching  home  in  time  to  see  him  off,  Jefferson  left  for 
him  a  present,  not  common  then,  which  he  was  rather  fond  of  giv 
ing,  a  portable  writing-desk.  To  add  to  his  knowledge  of  business, 
he  made  an  excursion  along  the  coast  to  Salem,  Newburyport,  Ports 
mouth,  towns  beginning  already  to  feel  the  impulse  towards  the 


280  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

remoter  commerce  which  was  to  enrich  them.  Harvard,  noted  from 
of  old  for  a  certain  proclivity  towards  science,  had  at  this  time,  in  Dr. 
"\Vilhird,  a  president  who  was  particularly  interested  in  scientific 
discovery.  Jefferson  made  his  acquaintance  now,  became  his  corre 
spondent,  and  thus  kept  the  college  informed  of  the  progress  of 
knowledge. 

The  Fourth  of  July  was  Sunday  this  year.  There  was  the  usual  cele 
bration  on  Monday;  but  it  was  on  that  day  the  'Ceres  sailed,  bear 
ing  away  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  So  far  as 
we  know,  Jefferson  was  not  yet  known  to  the  public  as  the  writer  of 
that  document.  About  the  time  in  the  morning  of  July  5  when 
the  Declaration  was  read  in  Faneuil  Hall,  the  Ceres  spread  her 
sails,  and  glided  out  into  the  ocean  between  the  emerald  isles  that 
form  Boston  Harbor.  They  had  a  splendid  passage,  —  nineteen  days 
from  shore  to  shore,  three  days  dead  calm  and  cod  fish  ing  on  the 
Banks,  only  six  passengers,  and  every  thing  delightful.  Thirty- 
two  days  after  leaving  Boston,  the  plenipotentiary  was  at  a  hotel  in 
Paris,  while  a  house  was  making  ready  for  him.  He  was  at  once  a 
familiar  member  of  the  easy,  happy  circle  of  able  men  and  amiable 
women  who  assembled  at  Dr.  Franklin's  pleasant  abode  in  the  subur 
ban  village  of  Passy. 

The  aged  philosopher  could  not  but  smile  at  the  mountain  of  new 
duties  which  Congress  had  imposed  upon  him,  instead  of  the  permis 
sion  to  return  home  for  which  he  had  applied.  It  so  chanced  that 
he  was  writing  to  Mr.  Adams  upon  the  subject  on  the  very  day  of 
Jefferson's  arrival  in  Paris  ;  and  he  discussed  it  with  that  sly  humor 
with  which  he  knew  how  to  parry  and  return  every  disagreeable 
stroke  :  "  You  will  see  that  a  good  deal  of  business  is  cut  out  for  us, 
—  treaties  to  be.  made  with,  I  think,  twenty  powers,  in  two  years, — 
so  that  we  are  not  likely  to  eat  the  bread  of  idleness  ;  and,  that  we 
may  not  eat  too  much,  our  masters  have  diminished  our  allowance  " 
(from  $11,000  to  $0,000  per  annum).  "I  commend  their  econ 
omy,  and  shall  imitate  it  by  diminishing  my  expense.  Our  too 
liberal  entertainment  of  our  countrymen  here  has  been  reported  at 
home  by  our  guests,  to  our  disadvantage,  and  has  given  offence. 
They  must  be  contented  for  the  future,  as  I  am,  with  plain  beef  and 
pudding.  The  readers  of  Connecticut  newspapers  ought  not  to  be 
troubled  with  any  more  accounts  of  our  extravagance.  For  my  own 
part,  if  I  could  sit  down  to  dinner  on  a  piece  of  their  excellent  salt 


ENVOY  TO  FRANCE.  281 

pork  and  pumpkin,  I  would  not  give  a  farthing  for  all  the  luxuries 
of  Paris." 

In  three  weeks  Mr.  Adams  arrived ;  and  the  three  plenipotentiaries 
held  their  first  meeting  at  Dr.  Franklin's  house,  agreeing  to  meet 
there  every  day  until  the  business  was  concluded.  Besides  announ 
cing  their  mission  to  various  ambassadors,  they  did  nothing  during 
the  first  month  except  prepare  the. draught  of  a  treaty  such  as  they 
would  be  willing  to  sign.  What  an  amiable,  harmless,  useless  docu 
ment  it  seems !  But  it  was  the  first  serious  attempt  ever  made  to 
conduct  the  intercourse  of  nations  on  Christian  principles ;  and  it 
was  made  by  three  men  to  whom  Arrogance  has  sometimes  denied 
the  name  of  Christians  !  Many  of  its  twenty-seven  articles  were 
nothing  but  the  formal  concession  of  the  natural  right  of  a  man  to 
go,  come,  stay,  buy,  and  sell,  according  to  his  own  interest  and  pleas 
ure,  subject  only  to  the  laws  of  the  country  in  which  he  may  be. 
One  article  provided  that  shipwrecked  mariners  should  not  be  plun 
dered  ;  and  another,  that  "when  the  subjects  or  citizens  of  the  one 
party  shall  die  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  other,  their  bodies  shall 
be  buried  in  the  usual  burying-grounds,  or  other  decent  and  suitable 
places,  and  shall  be  protected  from  violence  and  disturbance."  What 
a  tale  of  savage  intolerance  is  told  by  the  mere  proposal  of  such  an 
article ! 

It  was  into  the  latter  half  of  the  treaty  that  the  three  representa 
tives  of  the  United  States  put  most  of  their  hearts.  Their  great 
object  was  to  confine  the  evils  of  war,  as  much  as  possible,  to  belli 
gerents.  They  desired  to  have  war  conducted  in  the  manner  of  a 
play-ground  fight,  where  a  ring  is  formed,  and  no  one  is  hit  but  the 
combatants,  and  they  are  prevented  from  striking  a  foul  blow.  No 
privateering.  No  confiscation  of  neutral  property.  No  molestation 
of  fishermen,  farmers,  or  other  noncombatants.  No  ravaging  an 
enemy's  coasts.  No  seizure  of  vessels  or  other  property  for  the  pur 
poses  of  war.  No  crowding  of  prisoners  of  war  into  unwholesome 
places.  Article  XVII.  was  wonderful  for  its  advanced  magnanim 
ity :  "If  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  either  party,  in  danger  from 
tempests,  pirates,  or  other  accidents,  shall  take  refuge  with  their 
vessels  or  effects  within  the  harbors  or  jurisdiction  of  the  other,  they 
shall  be  received,  protected,  and  treated  with  humanity  and  kind 
ness,  and  shall  be  permitted  to  furnish  themselves,  at  reasonable 
prices,  with  all  refreshments,  provisions,  and  other  things  necessary 


282  LITE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

for  their  subsistence,  health,  and  accommodation,  and  for  the  repair  of 
their  vessels."  Such  was  the  treaty  drawn  by  three  early  Christians 
in  Dr.  Franklin's  house  at  Pass^y  in  1784.  It  marks  "a  new  era 
in  negotiation,"  wrote  General  Washington  when  he  read  it;  and 
he  regarded  it  always  as  the  most  original  and  liberal  treaty  ever 
negotiated. 

When  they  had  finished  their  draught,  and  when,  as  I  suppose,  the 
doctor  had  caused  a  few  copies  to  be  struck  oft*  on  the  little  printing- 
press  which  he  kept  in  his  house  for  such  odd  jobs,  they  sought  a 
conference  with  that  worthy,  but  extremely  unsentimental  minister 
for  foreign  affairs,  the  Count  de  Vergennes,  and  asked  him  how  they 
had  better  proceed  in  order  to  conciliate  the  twenty  powers  (includ 
ing  Algiers,  Tunis,  Morocco,  and  Tripoli),  and  dispose  them  to  con 
clude  such  a  treaty  with  the  Honorable  Congress.  I  wish  we  had 
some  account  of  the  interview.  We  only  know,  from  Jefferson's  too 
brief  report,  that  the  astute  old  diplomatist  did  not  attach  much  im 
portance  to  the  labors  of  the  commissioners.  He  evidently  thought 
that  Congress,  in  sending  Jefferson  to  Europe  on  this  errand,  had 
performed  a  superfluous  work,  and  that  the  proposal  of  such  a  treaty 
to  the  l)ey  of  Algiers,  or  to  the  personage  styled  in  the  instructions 
of  the  commissioners  "  the  high,  glorious,  mighty,  and  most  noble 
Prince,  King,  and  Emperor  of  the  Kingdom  of  Fez,  Morocco,  Taffi- 
lete,  Sus,  and  the  whole  Algasbe,  and  the  territories  thereof,"  would 
be  a  diplomatic  absurdity.  He  thought  it  better,  and  the  commis 
sioners  came  into  the  same  opinion,  "  to  leave  to  legislative  regula 
tion,  on  both  sides,  such  modifications  of  our  commercial  intercourse 
as  would  voluntarily  flow  from  amicable  dispositions." 

The  commissioners  did,  nevertheless,  fulfil  their  instructions  by 
"sounding  "  the  several  ambassadors  resident  at  Paris,  most  of  whom 
forwarded  copies  of  the  draught  to  their  courts.  At  that  moment  there 
was  in  Europe  but  one  intelligent  man  upon  a  throne,  —  "old  Fred 
erick  of  Prussia,''  as  Jefferson  styles  him,  who  "met  us  cordially 
and  without  hesitation  ;"  and  with  him  the  treaty,  with  unimpor 
tant  changes,  was  concluded.  Denmark  and  Tuscany  also  enter,--.! 
into  negotiations.  The  other  powers  appeared  so  indifferent,  that  the 
commissioners  could  not,  consistently  with  self-respect,  press  the 
matter.  "They  seemed,  in  fact/'  says  Jefferson,  "to  know  little 
about  us,  except  as  rebels  who  had  been  successful  in  throwing  off 
the  yoke  of  the  mother  country.  They  were  ignorant  of  our  com- 


ENVOY  TO  FRANCE.  283 

nierce,  which  had  always  been  monopolized  by  England,  and  of  the 
exchange  of  articles  it  might  offer  advantageously  to  both  parties.'' 
In  short,  the  commission  to  negotiate  commercial  treaties  had  but  one 
important  result,  namely,  the  composition  of  the  draught  of  the  treaty, 
and  its  preservation  in  the  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  against  the  time  when  the  nations  shall  want  it.  It  seems  a 
mockery  of  noble  endeavor  that  such  a  draught  should  have  been 
placed  on  record  on  the  eve  of  wars  which  desolated  Europe  for 
twenty  years,  during  which  every  principle  of  humanity  and  right 
was  ruthlessly  trampled  under  foot.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  a 
youth  of  sixteen  when  the  commissioners  completed  it.  The  treaty 
to  this  day  remains  only  an  admonition  and  a  prophecy. 

Nine  months  passed.  On  the  2d  of  May,  1785,  the  youngest  of 
the  commissioners  received  from  Mr.  Jay,  secretary  for  the  foreign 
affairs  of  Congress,  a  document  of  much  interest  to  him,  signed  by 
the  President  of  Congress,  Richard  Henry  Lee  :  — 

"  The  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  to  our  trusty 
and  well-beloved  Thomas  Jefferson^  Esq-,  send  greeting :  — 

"  We,  reposing  special  trust  and  confidence  in  your  integrity,  pru 
dence,  and  ability,  have  nominated,  constituted,  and  appointed,  and 
by  these  presents  do  nominate,  constitute,  and  appoint  you,  the  said 
Thomas  Jefferson,  our  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  reside  at  the  court 
of  his  most  Christian  Majesty;  and  do  give  you  full  power  and 
authority  there  to  represent  and  do  and  perform  all  such  matters 
and  things  as  to  the  said  place  or  office  doth  appertain,  or  as  may  by 
our  instructions  be  given  unto  you  in  charge.  This  commission  to 
continue  in  force  for  the  space  of  three  years  from  this  day  (March 
10,  1785),  unless  sooner  revoked." 

This  honorable  charge  Jefferson  gratefully  and  gladly  accepted. 
"You  replace  Dr.  Franklin,"  said  the  Count  de  Vergennes  to  him, 
when  he  went  to  announce  his  appointment.  "  I  succeed ;  no  one 
can  replace  him,"  was  Jefferson's  reply.  He  witnessed  the  memo 
rable  scene  of  Dr.  Franklin's  departure  from  Passy,  on  the  12th  of 
July.  All  the  neighborhood,  and  a  great  number  of  friends  from 
Paris,  gathered  to  bid  the  noble  old  man  farewell.  The  king  could 
not  have  been  treated  with  an  homage  more  profound  or  more  sincere. 
Indeed,  it  was  often  remarked  at  the  time,  that  only  the  young  king 


284  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

was  ever  greeted  by  the  people  of  Paris  so  warmly  as  Franklin. 
The  queen,  mindful  of  his  age  and  infirmities,  had  sent  her  own 
travelling-litter,  a  kind  of  Sedan  chair  carried  between  two  mules, 
to  convey  him  to  Havre.  At  four  o'clock  on  that  summer  afternoon, 
he  was  assisted  into  this  strange  vehicle,  and  began  his  long,  slow 
journey,  followed  by  the  heartfelt  benedictions  of  friends  and  neigh 
bors.  "  It  seemed,"  wrote  Jefferson,  "  as  if  the  village  had  lost  its 
patriarch." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

FIRST    IMPRESSIONS    OF    EUROPE. 

THE  United  States  has  contributed  to  the  diplomatic  circles  of 
the  Old  World  some  incongruous  members,  heroes  of  the  caucus  and 
the  stump,  not  versed  in  the  lore  of  courts,  and  unskilled  in  draw 
ing-room  arts.  So,  at  least,  we  are  occasionally  told  by  persons  who 
think  it  a  prettier  thing  to  bow  to  a  lady  than  to  an  audience,  and 
nobler  to  chat  agreeably  at  dinner  than  to  discourse  acceptably  to  a 
multitude.  Perhaps  we  shall  do  better  in  the  diplomatic  way  by  and 
3y.  Hitherto  our  diplomatists  have  won  their  signal  successes  sim 
ply  by  being  good  citizens.  We  have  never  had  a  Talleyrand,  nor 
Hie  of  the  Talleyrand  kind  (though  we  came  near  it  when  Aaron 
Burr  was  pressed  for  a  foreign  appointment),  and  no  American  has 
jver  been  sent  to  lie  abroad  for  his  country's  good.  We  have  had, 
tiowever,  besides  a  large  number  of  respectable  ministers  in  the  ordi 
nary  way,  three  whose  opportunity  was,  at  once,  immense  and  unique, 
—  Franklin,  Jefferson,  and  Washburne ;  and  each  of  these  proved 
3qual  to  his  opportunity. 

It  is  not  as  a  record  of  diplomatic  service  that  Jefferson's  five 
pears'  residence  in  France  is  specially  important  to  us.  France  and, 
A.merica  were  like  lovers  then,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  negotiate 
Between  lovers.  His  master,  in  the  diplomatic  art  was  the  greatest 
naster  of  it  that  ever  lived,  —  Benjamin  Franklin's  excellence 
Deing,  that  he  conducted  the  intercourse  of  nations  on  the  princi 
ples  which  control  men  of  honor  and  good  feeling  in  their  private 
Business,  who  neither  take,  nor  wish,  nor  will  have,  an  unjust 
idvantage,  and  look  at  a  point  in  dispute  with  their  antagonist's 
syes  as  well  as  their  own,  never  insensible  to  his  difficulties  and  his 
scruples.  XtJs_\vJiaiLJELrance  did  to  Jefferson  that  makes  his  long 
:esidenceithere  historically  important ;  because  the  mind  he  carried 

285 


286  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

home  entered  at  once  into  the  forming  character  of  a  young  nation, 
and  became  a  part  of  it  forever.  All  these  millions  of  people,  whom 
•we  call  fellow-citizens,  are  perhaps  more  or  less  different  in  their 
character  and  feelings  from  what  they  would  have  been,  if,  in  the 
distribution  of  diplomatic  offices  in  1785,  Congress  had  sent  Jeffer 
son  to  London  instead  of  Paris,  and  appointed  John  Adams  to  Paris 
instead  of  London. 

At  first  he  had  the  usual  embarrassments  of  American  ministers: 
he  could  read,  but  not  speak,  the  French  language,  and  he  was 
sorely  puzzled  how  to  arrange  his  style  of  living  so  as  not  to  go 
beyond  his  nine  thousand  dollars  a  year.  The  language  was  a  diffi 
culty  which  diminished  every  hour,  though  he  never  trusted  him 
self  to  writ <'  French  on  any  matter  of  consequence  ;  but  the  art  of 
living  in  the  style  of  a  plenipotentiary,  upon  the  allowance  fixed  by 
Congress,  remained  difficult  to  the  end.  Nor  could  he,  during  the 
first  years,  draw  much  revenue  from  Virginia.  He  left  behind  him 
there  so  long  a  "list  of  debts"  (the  result  of  the  losses  and  desola 
tions  of  the  war),  that  the  proceeds  of  two  crops,  and  the  arrears  of 
his  salary  as  governor,  voted  by  the  legislature,  only  sufficed  to 
satisfy  the  most  urgent  of  them. 

A  Virginia  estate  was  a  poor  thing  indeed  in  the  absence  of  the 
master;  and  unhappily,  the  founders  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  in  arranging  salaries,  made  no  allowance  for  the 
American  fact,  that  the  mere  absence  of  a  man  from  home  usually 
lessens  his  income  and  increases  his  expenditure.  Even  Franklin 
took  it  for  granted  that  we  should  always  have  among  us  men  of 
leisure,  most  of  whom  would  be  delighted  to  serve  the  public  for 
nothing.  Who,  indeed,  could  have  foreseen  a  state  of  things,  such 
as  we  see  around  us  now,  when  the  richer  a  man  is  the  harder  he 
works,  and  when,  in  a  flourishing  city  of  a  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants,  not  one  man  of  leisure  can  be  found,  nor  one  man  of 
ability  who  can  "afford  "  to  go  to  the  legislature?  Jefferson,  Adams, 
and  perhaps  I  may  say  most  of  the  public  men  of  the  country,  have 
suffered  agonies  of  embarrassment  from  the  failure  of  the  first  Con 
gresses  to  adopt  the  true  republican  principle  of  paying  for  all 
service  done  the  public  at  the  rate  which  the  requisite  quality  of 
service  commands  in  the  market.  The  only  great  error,  perhaps, 
of  Washington^  career  was  his  aristocratic  disdain  of  taking  fair 
wages  for  his  work,  —  an  error  which  most  of  his  succespors  and 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS   OF  EUROPE.  28T 

many  of  their  most-valued  ministers  have  rued  in  silent  bitterness. 
Nay,  he  rued  it  himself.  What  anxious  hours  Washington  himself 
passed  from  the  fact  that  there  were  so  few  competent  statesmen  in 
the  country  who  chanced  to  be  rich  enough  to  live  in  Philadelphia- 
cm  the  salary  of  a  secretary  of  state  ! 

Jefferson  was  somewhat  longer  than  usual  in  getting  used  to 
what  he  called  "the  gloomy  and  damp  climate"  of  Paris,  —  such  a 
contrast  to  the  warmth,  purity,  and  splendor  of  the  climate  of  his 
mountain  home.  We  find  him,  too,  still  mourning  his  lost  wife,  and 
writing  to  his  old  friend  Page,  that  his  "principal  happiness  was 
now  in  ths  retrospect  of  life."  Moreover,  the  condition  of  humati 
nature  in  Europe  astonished  and  shocked  him  beyond  measure.  He 
was  not  prepared  for  it ;  he  could  not  get  hardened  to  it.  While 
experiencing  all  those  art  raptures  which  we  should  presume  he 
would,  —  keenly  enjoying  the  music  of  Paris  above  all,  and  the 
architecture  only  less,  falling  in  love  with  a  statue  here  and  an 
edifice  there,  —  still,  he  could  not  become  reconciled  to  the  hideous 
berms  on  which  most  of  the  people  of  France  held  their  lives.  At 
his  own  pleasant  and  not  inelegant  abode,  gathered  most  that  was 
brilliant,  amiable,  or  illustrious  in  Paris.  Who  so  popular  as  the 
minister  of  our  dear  allies  across  the  sea,  the  successor  of  Franklin, 
the  friend  of  Lafayette,  the  man  of  science,  the  man  of  feeling,  the 
scholar  and  musical  amateur  reared  in  the  wilderness  ?  He  liked 
the  French,  too,  exceedingly.  He  liked  their  manners,  their  habits, 
their  tastes,  and  even  their  food.  He  was  glad  to  live  in  a  com 
munity,  where,  as  he  said,  "a  man  might  pass  a  life  without 
encountering  a  single  rudeness,"  and  where  people  enjoyed  social 
pleasures  without  eating  like  pigs  and  drinking  like  Indians.  But 
none  of  these  things  could  ever  deaden  his  heart  to  the  needless 
misery  of  man  in  France.  Head  his  own  words  :  — 

First  to  his  young  friend  and  pupil,  James  Monroe,  in  June, 
1785,  when  he  had  been  ten  months  in  Paris:  "The  pleasure  of  the 
trip  [to  Europe]  will  be  less  than  you  expect,  but  the  utility  greater. 
It  will  make  you  adore  your  own  country,  —  its  soil,  its  climate,  its 
3quality,  liberty,  laws,  people,  and  manners.  My  God!  how  little 
lo  my  countrymen  know  what  precious  blessings  they  are  in  pos 
session  of,  and  which  no  other  people  on  earth  enjoy !  I  confess  I 
aad  no  idea  of  it  myself." 

To  Mrs.  Trist,  in  August,  1785:  "It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how 


288  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

so  good  a  people,  with  so  good  a  king,  so  well-disposed  rulers  in 
general,  so  genial  a  climate,  so  fertile  a  soil,  should  be  rendered  so 
ineffectual  for  producing  human  happiness  by  one  single  curse, — 
that  of  a  bad  form  of  government.  But  it  is  a  fact,  in  spite  of  the 
mildness  of  their  governors,  the  people  are  ground  to  powder  by  the 
vices  of  the  form  of  government.  Of  twenty  millions  of  people  sup 
posed  to  be  in  France,  I  am  of  opinion  there  are  nineteen  millions 
more  wretched,  more  accursed  in  every  circumstance  of  human  exist 
ence,  than  the  most  conspicuously-wretched  individual  of  the  whole 
United  States." 

To  an  Italian  friend  in  Virginia,  September,  1785 :  "  Behold  me, 
at  length,  on  the  vaunted  scene  of  Europe !  You  are,  perhaps,  curi 
ous  to  know  how  it  has  struck  a  savage  of  the  mountains  of 
America.  Not  advantageously,  I  assure  you.  I  find  the  general 
fate  of  mankind  here  most  deplorable.  The  truth  of  Voltaire's 
observation  offers  itself  perpetually,  that  every  man  here  must  be 
either  the  hammer  or  the  anvil.  It  is  a  true  picture  of  that  country 
to  which  they  say  we  shall  pass  hereafter,  and  where  we  are  to  see 
God  and  his  angels  in  splendor,  and  crowds  of  the  damned  trampled 
under  their  feet. 

To  George  Wythe  of  Virginia,  in  August,  1786 :  "  If  anybody 
thinks  that  kings,  nobles,  or  priests  are  good  conservators  of  the 
public,  happiness,  send  him  here.  It  is  the  best  school  in  the  universe 
to  cure  him  of  that  folly.  He  will  see  here,  with  his  own  eyes,  that 
these  descriptions  of  men  are  an  abandoned  conspiracy  against  the 
happiness  of  the  people.  Preach,  my  dear  sir,  a  crusade  against 
ignorance  ;  establish  and  improve  the  law  for  educating  the  common 
people.  Let  our  countrymen  know,  that  the  people  alone  can  pro 
tect  us  against  these  evils,  and  that  the  tax  which  will  be  paid  for 
this  purpose  is  not  more  than  the  thousandth  part  of  what  will  be 
paid  to  kings,  priests,  and  nobles,  who  will  rise  up  among  us  if  we 
leave  the  people  in  ignorance." 

T«»  ( Irneral  Washington,  in  November,  178G  :  "To  know  the  mass 
of  evil  which  flows  from  this  fatal  source  [an  hereditary  aristocracy], 
a  person  must  be  in  France;  he  must  see  the  finest  soil,  the  finest 
ciimale,  and  the  most  compact  State,  the  most  benevolent  character 
of  people,  and  every  earthly  advantage  combined,  insufficient  to  pre 
vent  this  scourge  from  rendering  existence  a  curse  to  twenty-four 
out  of  twenty-live  parts  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  country." 


FIRST   IMPRESSIONS   OF  EUROPE.  289 

To  James  Madison,  in  January,  1787  :  "  To  have  an  idea  of  the 
curse  of  existence  under  a  government  of  force,  it  must  be  seen.  It 
is  a  government  of  wolves  over  sheep." 

To  another  American  friend,  in  August,  1787  :  "If  all  the  evils 
which  can  arise  among  us  from  the  republican  form  of  government, 
from  this  day  to  the  day  of  judgment,  could  be  put  into  scale  against 
what  this  country  suffers  from  its  monarchical  form  in  a  week,  or 
England  in  a  month,  the  latter  would  preponderate.  No  race  of 
kings  has  ever  presented  above  one  man  of  common  sense  in  twenty 
generations.  The  best  they  can  do  is  to  leave  things  to  their  minis 
ters;  arid  what  are  their  ministers  but  a  committee  badly  chosen?" 

To  Governor,  Kutledge  of  South  Carolina,  August,  1787  :  "  The 
European  are  governments  of  kites  over  pigeons.'7 

To  another  American  friend,  in  February,  1788  :  "  The  long- 
expected  edict  at  length  appears.  It  is  an  acknowledgment  (hitherto 
withheld  by  the  laws),  that  Protestants  can  beget  children,  and  that 
they  can  die,  and  be  offensive  unless  buried.  It  does  not  give  them 
permission  to  think,  to  speak,  or  to  worship.  It  enumerates  the 
humiliations  to  which  they  shall  remain  subject,  and  the  burthens  to 
which  they  shall  continue  to  be  unjustly  exposed.  What  are  we  to 
think  of  the  condition  of  the  human  mind  in  a  country  where  such 
a  wretched  thing  as  this  has  thrown  the  State  into  convulsions,  and 
how  must  we  bless  our  own  situation  in  a  country  the  most  illiterate 
peasant  of  which  is  a  Solon  compared  with  the  authors  of  this  law. 
Our  countrymen  do  not  know  their  own  superiority." 

Such  were  the  feelings  with  which  he  contemplated  the  condition 
of  the  French  people.  But  he  was  in  a  situation  to  know,  also,  how 
far  "the  great"  in  France  were  really  benefited  by  the  degradation 
of  their  fellow-citizens.  Their  situation  was  dazzling;  but  there 
was,  he  thought,  no  class  in  America  who  were  not  happier  than 
they.  Intrigues  of  love  absorbed  the  younger,  intrigues  of  ambition 
the  elder.  Conjugal  fidelity  being  regarded  as  something  provincial 
and  ridiculous,  there  was  no  such  thing  known  among  them  as  that 
"tranquil,  permanent  felicity  with  which  domestic  society  in  America 
blesses  most  of  its  inhabitants,  leaving  them  free  to  follow  steadily 
those  pursuits  which  health  and  reason  approve,  and  rendering  truly 
delicious  the  intervals  of  those  pursuits." 

Such  sentiments  as  these  were  in  vogue  at  the  time,  even  among 
19 


290  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  ruling  class.  Beaumarchais'  Marriage  of  Figaro  was  in  its  first 
run  when  Jefferson  reached  Paris.  Doubtless  he  listened  to  the  bar 
ber's  soliloquy  in  the  fifth  act  (a  stump-speech  a  la  mode  de  Paris), 
the  longest  soliloquy  in  a  modern  comedy,  in  which  Beaumarchais, 
as  we  should  say,  "arraigns  the  administration."  "I  was  thought 
of  for  a  government  appointment,"  says  poor  Figaro,  "  but,  unfortu 
nately,  I  was  not  fit  for  it .  An  arithmetician  was  wanted,  —  a  dancer 
got  it."  Jefferson  rarely  mentions  the  theatre  in  his  French  letters ; 
but  the  theatre  in  Paris  is  like  dinner,  too  familiar  a  matter  to  get 
upon  paper.  Beaumarchais  himself  he  knew  but  too  well ;  for  the 
brilliant  dramatist  was  a  claimant  of  sundry  millions  from  the  Hon 
orable  Congress  for  stores  furnished  during  the  war,  which  puzzled 
and  perplexed  every  minister  of  the  United  States  from  Franklin 
to  Hives. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE  WORK   OF   HIS   MISSION. 

OUR  plenipotentiary  was  one  of  the  most  laborious  of  men  during 
his  residence  in  Europe.  He  had  need  of  all  his  singular  talent  for 
industry.  The  whole  of  a  long  morning  he  usually  spent  in  his 
office  hard  at  work ;  and  sometimes,  as  his  daughter  reports,  when 
he  was  particularly  pressed,  he  would  take  his  papers,  and  retire 
to  a  monastery  near  Paris,  in  which  he  hired  an  apartment,  and 
remain  there  for  a  week  or  two,  all  the  world  shut  out,  till  his  task 
was  done.  In  the  afternoon  he  walked  seven  miles  into  the  country, 
and  hack  again  ;  and,  in  the  evening,  music,  art,  science,  and  society 
claimed  him  by  turns.  I  must  endeavor,  in  a  few  words,  to  indicate 
the  nature  and  objects  of  such  incessant  toil. 

And,  first,  as  to  his  public  and  official  duties.  The  two  continents 
were  then  as  far  apart  as  America  is  now  from  Australia.  It  took 
Jefferson  from  fourteen  to  twenty  weeks  to  get  an  answer  from  home ; 
and,  if  his  letters  missed  the  monthly  packet,  there  was  usually  no 
other  opportunity  till  the  next.  It  was  part  of  his  duty  as  minister 
to  send  to  Mr.  Jay,  secretary  for  the  foreign  affairs  of  Congress,  not 
only  a  regular  letter  of  public  news,  but  files  of  the  best  newspapers. 
He  did,  in  fact,  the  duty  of  own  correspondent,  as  well  as  that  of 
plenipotentiary,  with  much  that  is  now  done  by  consuls  and  com 
mercial  agents.  As  it  was  then  a  part  of  the  system  of  governments 
in  Europe  to  open  letters  intrusted  to  the  mail,  important  letters 
had  to  be  written  in  cipher;  which  was  a  serious  addition  to  the 
labor  of  all  official  persons.  An  incident  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  second 
year  serves  to  show  at  once  the  remoteness  of  America  from  Europe, 
the  difficulty  of  getting  information  from  one  continent  to  another, 
and  the  variety  of  employments  which  then  fell  to  the  lot  of  the 
American  minister.  He  received  a  letter  making  inquiry  concerning 

291 


292  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

a  young  man  named  Abraham  Albert  Alphonso  Gallatin;  who  had 
emigrated  from  Switzerland  to  America  six  years  before,  and  of 
whose  massacre  and  scalping  by  the  Indians  a  report  had  lately 
reached  his  friends  in  Geneva.  It  was  to  the  American  minister  that 
the  distressed  family  (one  of  the  most  respectable  in  Switzerland), 
applied  for  information  concerning  the  truth  of  the  report.  In  case 
this  young  man  had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  savages,  Mr.  JelFerson 
was  requested  to  procure  a  certificate  of  his  death,  and  a  copy  of 
his  will.  It  was  in  this  strange  way  that  Thomas  Jefferson  first 
obtained  knowledge  of  the  Albert  Gallatin  whom  he  was  destined  to 
appoint  secretary  of  the  treasury. 

France  and  America,  I  say,  were  like  lovers  thent  And  yet,  in 
one  respect,  the  new  minister  found  Frenchmen  disappointed  with 
the  results  of  the  alliance  between  the  two  countries.  The  moment 
the  war  closed,  commerce  had  resumed  its  old  channel;  so  that  the 
new  flag  of  stars  and  stripes,  a  familiar  object  on  the  Thames,  was 
rarely  seen  in  a  port  of  France.  Why  is  this  ?  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
frequently  asked.  Does  friendship  count  for  nothing  in  trade  ?  Is 
this  the  return  France  had  a  right  to  expect  from  America  ?  Do 
Americans  prefer  their  enemies  to  their  friends  ?  The  American 
minister  made  it  his  particular  business,  first,  to  explain  the  true 
reason  of  this  state  of  things,  and  then  to  apply  the  only  reined)'. 
In  other  words,  he  made  himself,  both  in  society  and  in  the  audi 
ence-room  of  the  Count  de  Yergennes,  an  apostle  of  free-trade. 

The  spell  of  the  protective  system,  in  1785,  had  been  broken  in 
England,  but  not  in  France.  Jefferson  showed  the  Count  de  Y<T- 
gennes  that  it  was  the  measure  of  freedom  of  trade  which  British 
merchants  enjoyed  that  gave  them  the  cream  of  the  world's  com 
merce,  lie  told  the  count  (an  excellent  man  of  business  and  an 
honorable  gentleman,  but  as  ignorant  as  a  king  of  political  economy), 
that  if  national  preferences  could  weigh  with  merchants,  the  whole 
commerce  of  America  would  forsake  England  and  come  to  France. 
But,  said  he,  in  substance,  our  merchants  cannot  buy  in  France,  be 
cause  you  will  not  let  them  sell  in  France.  One  day  he  went  over 
the  whole  list  of  American  products,  and  explained  the  particular 
restriction,  or  system  of  restrictions,  which  rendered  it  impossible 
for  American  merchants  to  sell  it  in  France  at  a  profit.  Indigo, — 
France  had  tropical  islands,  the  planters  of  which  she  must '' pro 
tect."  Tobacco,  —  Oh,  heavens  !  in  what  a  coil  and  tangle  of  protec- 


THE  WORK  OF  HIS  MISSION.  293 

tion  was  that  fragrant  weed  !  First,  the  king  had  the  absolute 
monopoly  of  the  sale  of  it.  Secondly,  the  king  had  "  farmed  "  the 
sale  to  some  great  noblemen,  who,  in  turn,  had  sub-let  the  right  to 
men  of  business.  These  gentlemen  had  concluded  a  contract  with 
Robert  Morris  of  Philadelphia,  giving  him  a  complete  monopoly  of 
the  importation  for  three  years.  Morris  was  to  send  to  France 
twenty  thousand  hogsheads  a  year  at  a  fixed  price;  and  no  other 
creature  on  earth  could  lawfully  send  a  pound  of  tobacco  to  France. 

The  learned  reader  perceives  that  there  was  a  tobacco  Ring  in 
1735,  which  included  king,  noblemen,  French  merchants,  and  Mr. 
Jefferson's  friend,  Robert  Morris.  When,  in  the  course  of  this 
enumeration,  he  came  to  the  article  of  tobacco,  and  explained  the 
mode  in  which  it  was  "  protected,"  the  count  remarked  that  the  king 
received  so  large  a  revenue  from  tobacco,  that  it  could  not  be 
renounced.  "  I  told  him,"  as  Mr.  Jefferson  relates,  "  that  we  did  not 
wish  it  to  be  renounced,  or  even  lessened,  but  only  that  the  monopoly 
should  be  put  down ;  that  this  might  be  effected  in  the  simplest 
manner  by  obliging  the  importer  to  pay,  on  entrance,  a  duty  equal 
to  what  the  king  now  received,  or  to  deposit  his  tobacco  in  the  king's 
warehouses  till  it  was  paid,  and  then  permitting  a  free  sale  of  it. 
'Mafoi!9  said  the  count,  'that  is  a  good  idea:  we  must  think  of 
it.'  " 

They  did  think  of  it.  Mr.  Jefferson  kept  them  thinking  during 
the  whole  of  his  residence  in  Paris.  In  many  letters  and  in  conver 
sation,  vivid  with  his  own  clear  conviction,  and  warm  with  his  ear 
nest  purpose  to  serve  both  countries,  and  man  through  them,  he 
expounded  the  principles  of  free-trade.  "  Each  of  our  nations,"  he 
said,  "  has  exactly  to  spare  the  articles  which  the  other  wants.  We 
have  a  surplus  of  rice,  tobacco,  furs,  peltry,  potash,  lamp-oils,  timber, 
which  France  wants ;  she  has  a  surplus  of  wines,  brandies,  esculent 
oils,  fruits,  manufactures  of  all  kinds,  which  we  want.  The  govern 
ments  have  nothing  to  do  but  not  to  hinder  their  'merchants  from 
making  the  exchange." 

To  the  theory  of  free-trade  every  thinking  man,  of  course,  assented. 
But  when  it  came  to  practice,  he  generally  found  (as  free-traders 
now  do)  that  private  interest  was  too  powerful  for  him.  It  was  in 
France  very  much  as  it  was  in  Portugal.  After  negotiating  for 
years  with  the  Portuguese  minister  for  the  free  admission  of  Amer 
ican  products,  Jefferson  succeeded  in  getting  his  treaty  signed,  and 


294  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON". 

sent  to  Lisbon  for  ratification.  The  astute  old  Portuguese  ambassa 
dor  predicted  its  rejection.  "  Some  great  lords  of  the  court,"  said 
he  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  "  derive  an  important  part  of  their  revenue  from 
their  interest  in  the  flour-mills  near  the  capital,  which  the  admission 
of  American  flour  will  shut  up.  The//  will  prevail  upon  the  king  to 
reject  it."  And  so  it  proved.  Jefferson,  however,  was  not  a  man 
to  prefer  no  bread  to  half  a  loaf.  He  did  really  succeed  in  France, 
after  twelve  months'  hard  work  and  vigilant  attention,  aided  at 
every  turn  by  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette,  whose  zeal  to  serve  his 
other  country  across  the  ocean  knew  no  diminution  while  he  lived, 
in  obtaining  some  few  crusts  of  free-trade  for  the  merchants  of 
America ;  which  had  an  important  effect  in  nourishing  the  infant 
commerce  between  the  two  countries.  Nor  did  he  rest  content  with 
them.  He  could  not  break  the  Moms  contract,  nor  even  wish  it 
broken  ;  but,  aided  by  Lafayette's  potent  influence,  he  obtained  from 
the  ministry  an  engagement  that  no  contract  of  the  same  nature 
should  ever  again  be  permitted.  To  the  last  month  of  his  stay  in 
Europe,  we  find,  in  his  voluminous  correspondence,  that  he  still 
strove  to  loosen  what  he  was  accustomed  to  call  utlie  shackles  upon 
trade." 

His  efforts  in  behalf  of  free-trade  in  tobacco  exposed  him  to  the 
enmity  of  Robert  Morris  and  his  kindred,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
circles  in  the  United  States,  including  Gouverneur  Morris,  as  able 
and  honorable  an  aristocrat  as  ever  stood  by  his  order,  —  a  man  of 
Bismarckian  acuteness,  candor,  integrity,  and  humor.  In  writing 
of  this  matter,  in  confidence,  to  James  Monroe,  Jefferson  held  this 
language  :  "  I  have  done  what  was  right ;  and  I  will  not  so  far  wound 
my  privilege  of  doing  that  without  regard  to  any  man's  interest,  as 
to  enter  into  any  explanations  of  this  paragraph  with  Kobert  Morris. 
Yet  I  esteem  him  highly,  and  suppose  that  hitherto  he  had  esteemed 
me."  The  paragraph  to  which  he  alludes  was  one  in  a  letter  of  the 
French  minister  of  finance,  in  which  there  was  an  expression 
implying  that  Mr.  Jefferson  had  recommended  the  annulling  of  the 
Morris  contract.  This  he  had  not  done.  On  the  contrary,  he  had 
maintained  that  to  annul  it  would  be  unjust.  But  he  deemed  it 
unbecoming  in  him  as  a  public  man  to  so  much  as  correct  this 
misapprehension. 

The  reader,  perhaps,  has  supposed  that  the  evils  resulting  from 
tariff-tinkering  are  peculiar  to  the  United  States.  Mr.  Jefferson 


THE  TFORK  OF   HIS  MISSION.  295 

knew  better.  As  often  as  he  succeeded  in  getting  a  restriction  upon 
trade  loosened  a  little,  an  injured  interest  cried  out,  and  did  not 
always  cry  in  vain.  In  1788  he  obtained  a  revisal  of  the  tariff  in 
favor  of  American  products,  which  admitted  American  whale-oil 
(before  prohibited)  at  a  duty  of  ten  dollars  a  tun.  This  was  a  vast 
boon  to  Yankee  whalers.  But  an  existing  treaty  between  France 
and  England  obliged  France  to  admit  English  oil  on  the  terms  of 
"  the  most-favored  nation."  At  once  the  English  oils  "  flowed  in," 
over-stocked  the  market,  and  lowered  the  price  to  such  a  point,  that 
the  French  fishermen  and  sealmen  could  not  live.  An  outcry  arose, 
which  the  French  Ministry  could  not  disregard.  Then  it  was  pro 
posed  to  exclude  all  "  European  oils,  which  would  not  infringe  the 
British  treaty ; "  and  this  idea  Jefferson,  free-trader  as  he  was, 
encouraged  with  patriotic  inconsistency,  because,  as  he  says,  it  would 
give  to  the  French  arid  American  fisheries  a  monopoly  of  the  French 
market."  The  arret  was  drawn  up;  ministers  were  assembled;  and 
in  a  moment  more  it  would  have  been  passed,  to  the  enriching  of 
Nantucket  and  the  great  advantage  of  all  the  New-England  coast. 
Just  then  a  minister  proposed  to  strike  out  the  word  European, 
which  would  make  the  measure  still  more  satisfactory  to  French  oil 
men.  The  amendment  was  agreed  to ;  the  arret  was  signed ;  and, 
behold,  Nantucket  excluded  ! 

As  soon  as  Jefferson  heard  of  this  disaster,  he  put  forth  all  his 
energies  in  getting  the  arret  amended.  Not  content  with  verbal  and 
written  remonstrance,  he  took  a  leaf  from  Dr.  Franklin's  book,  and 
caused  a  small  treatise  upon  the  subject  to  be  printed,  "  to  entice 
them  to  read  it,"  particularly  the  new  minister,  M.  Necker,  who, 
minister  as  he  was,  had  "some  principles  of  economy,  and  will  enter 
into  calculations."  He  succeeded  in  his  object,  and  soon  had  the 
pleasure  of  sending  to  Nantucket,  through  Mr.  Adams,  a  notification 
that  the  whalemen  might  put  to  sea  in  full  confidence  of  being 
allowed  to  sell  their  oil  in  French  ports  on  profitable  terms.  He 
testified  to  the  generous  aid  he  had  had  in  this  business  from  Lafa 
yette  :  "  He  has  paid  the  closest  attention  to  it,  and  combated  for 
us  with  the  zeal  of  a  native." 

Other  curious  incidents  of  his  five-years'  war  against  the  protec 
tive  system  press  for  mention ;  but,  really,  one  suffices  as  well  as 
a  thousand.  It  is  always  the  same  story:  the  interests  of  men 
against  the  rights  of  man,  —  temporary  and  local  advantage  opposed 


296  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

to  the  permanent  interest  of  the  human  race,  —  a  shrinking  from  a 
fair,  open  contest,  and  compelling  your  adversary  to  go  into  the  ring 
with  one  hand  tied  behind  him.  Nevertheless,  Mich  is  the  nature  of 
man,  that  the  progress  from  restriction  to  freedom,  whether  in  poli 
tics,  religion,  or  trade,  must  be  slow  in  order  to  be  sure.  It  is  human 
to  cry,  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians,"  when  you  live  by  mak 
ing  images  of  the  chaste  goddess.  Even  Jefferson,  a  free-trader  by 
the  constitution  of  his  mind,  was  not  so  very  ill-content  with  a 
"monopoly''  which  shut  English  whalemen  out  of  the  ports  of  France, 
and  let  his  own  countrymen  in.  The  principle  was  wrong,  but.  he 
could  bear  it  in  this  instance.  It  required  many  years  of  pig-headed 
outrage  to  kill  his  proud  and  yearning  love  for  the  land  of  his  ances 
tors  ;  but  the  thing  was  done  at  last,  with  a  completeness  that  left 
nothing  to  be  desired. 

Among  the  powers  with  \vhich  the  commissioners  of  the  United 
States  endeavored  to  negotiate  treaties  of  amity  and  commerce  on 
sublime  Christian  principles,  were  Tunis,  Algiers,  Tripoli,  and  "  the 
high,  glorious,  mighty,  and  most  noble  King,  Prince,  and  Emperor" 
of  Morocco.  Before  Mr.  Jefferson  had  held  the  post  of  plenipoten 
tiary  many  weeks,  he  was  reminded  most  painfully,  that  those 
powers  were  not  yet,  perhaps,  quite  prepared  to  conduct  their  for 
eign  affairs  in  the  lofty  style  proposed.  A  rumor  ran  over  Europe, 
that  J)r.  Franklin,  on  liis  voyage  to  America,  had  been  captured  by 
the  Algerines,  and  carried  to  Algiers  ;  where,  being  held  for  ransom, 
he  bore  his  captivity  with  the  cheerfulness  and  dignity  that  might 
have  been  expected  of  him.  Nor  was  such  an  event  impossible,  nor 
even  improbable.  The  packets  plying  between  Havre  and  Xe\v 
York  were  not  considered  safe  from  the  Algerine  corsairs  in  1785. 
Nothing  afloat  was  safe  from  them,  unless  defended  by  superior  guns, 
or  protected  03*  an  annual  subsidy.  Among  the  curious  bits  of 
information  which  Jefferson  contrived  to  send  to  Mr.  Jay,  was  a  list 
of  the  presents  made  by  the  Dutch,  in  1784,  to  the  aforesaid  King, 
Prince,  and  Emperor  of  Morocco.  The  Dutch,  we*  should  infer  from 
this  catalogue,  supplied  the  emperor  with  the  means  of  preying  upon 
the  commerce  of  the  world;  for  it  consists  of  items  like  these  :  G9 
masts,  30  cables,  L'f'>7  pieces  of  cordage,  70  cannon,  21  anchors.  L>  ~> 
pieces  of  sail-cloth,  1,450  pulleys,  51  chests  of  tools,  12  quadrants,  12 
compasses,  2G  hour-glasses,  27  sea-charts,  50  dozen  sail-needles,  24 
tons  of  pitch ;  besides  such  "  extraordinary  presents  "  as  2  pieces  of 


THE  WORK  OF   HIS  MISSION.  297 

scarlet  cloth,  2  of  green  cloth,  280  loaves  of  sugar,  one  chest  of  tea, 
24  china  punch-bowls,  50  pieces  of  muslin,  3  clocks,  and  one  "very 
large  watch."  He  learned,  too,  that  Spain  had  recently  stooped  to 
buy  a  peace  from  one  of  these  piratical  powers  at  a  cost  of  six  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars. 

It  was  in  the  destiny  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  at  a  later  time,  .to  extort  a 
peace  from  these  pirates  in  another  way,  and,  in  fact,  to  originate  the 
system  that  rid  the  seas  of  them  forever.  But  at  present  the  coun 
try  which  he  represented  was  not  strong  enough  to  depart  from  the 
established  system  of  purchase.  The  United  States  was  a  gainer 
even  by  the  treaty  for  which  Spain  had  paid  so  high  a  price  ;  for 
Spain  was  then  in  close  alliance  with  the  republic  which  had  humbled 
the  great  enemy  of  the  House  of  Bourbon.  In  the  spring  of  1785 
came  news  that  the  American  brig  Betsy  had  been  captured  and 
taken  to  Morocco,  where  the  crew  were  held  for  ransom.  It  was  the 
good  offices  of  Spain  that  induced  the  King,  Prince,  and  Emperor  of 
Morocco  to  make  a  present  to  the  American  minister  at  Cadiz  of 
the  liberty  of  the  Betsy's  crew.  But  when  Mr.  Carmichael  waited 
on  the  Spanish  ambassador  to  thank  him,  "  in  the  best  Spanish  he 
could  muster,"  for  the  friendly  act  of  the  king,  he  was  given  to 
understand,  that,  unless  the  United  States  sent  an  envoy  to  Morocco 
with  presents  for  the  emperor,  no  more  crews  would  be  released 
except  on  the  usual  terms.  Mr.  Carmichael  notified  Mr.  Jefferson  of 
these  events,  arid  added  that  he  feared  further  depredations  from  the 
Algerines.  Thirteen  prizes  had  recently  been  brought  in  by  them, 
chiefly  Portuguese,  he  thought.  "  The  Americans,  I  hope,  are  too 
much  frightened  already,"  said  he,  "  to  venture  any  vessels  this  way, 
especially  during  the  summer.'-'  And  they  ran  some  risk  even  in 
the  more  northern  latitudes. 

A  month  later  Mr.  Jefferson  received  a  .doleful  letter  from  three 
American  captains  in  Algiers,  which  brought  the  subject  home  to 
him  most  forcibly:  "We,  the  subjects  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  having  the  misfortune  of  being  captured  off  the  coast  of 
Portugal,  the  24th  and  30th  of  July,  by  the  Algerines,  and  brought 
into  this  port,  where  we  are  become  slaves,  and  sent  to  the  work 
houses,  our  sufferings  are  beyond  our  expressing  or  your  concep 
tion,  ....  being  stripped  of  all  our  clothes,  and  nothing  to  exist  on 
but  two  small  cakes  of  bread  per  day,  without  any  other  necessa 
ries  of  life."  But  the  captains  had  found  a  friend:  "Charles  Logie, 


298  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Esq.,  British  consul,  seeing  our  distressed  situation,  has  taken  us 
three  masters  of  vessels  out  of  the  workhouse,  and  has  given  security 
for  us  to  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  King  of  Cruelties"  The  sailors,  how 
ever,  remained  in  the  workhouses,  where  they  would  certainly  starve, 
the  captains  thought,  if  Mr.  Jefferson  could  not  at  once  prevail  upon 
Congress  to  grant  them  relief. 

In  writing  this  letter,  the  three  captains  provided  Mr.  Jefferson 
with  seven  years'  trouble.  During  all  the  remainder  of  his  resi 
dence  at  Paris,  arid  years  after  his  return  home,  one  of  his  chief 
employments  was  to  procure  the  deliverance  of  those  unfortunate 
prisoners  from  captivity.  After  making  some  provision  for  their 
maintenance,  he  explained  to  Congress  the  necessity  of  treating  with 
the  pirates  as  the  Spaniards  had  done,  money  in  hand.  He  was 
authorized  to  give  twenty  thousand  dollars  to  the  High  and  Mighty 
Prince  and  Kmperor  of  Morocco,  and  the  same  sum  to  the  King  of 
Cruelties,  for  a  treaty  of  peace.  Inadequate  as  these  sums  were, 
they  seemed  stupendous  to  a  Congress  distressed  with  the  debt  of 
the  Revolution,  fearing  to  learn  by  every  arrival  that  their  credit 
was  gone  in  Europe,  through  the  failure  of  their  agents  to  effect  a 
new  loan.  Jefferson  and  Adams  took  the  liberty  of  doubling  the 
price  for  a  treaty  with  Algiers;  offering  forty  thousand  dollars  for  a 
treaty  and  the  twenty  prisoners.  They  felt  that  this  was  assuming 
a  responsibility  which  nothing  could  justify  but  the  emergency  of 
the  case.  "  The  motives  which  led  to  it,"  wrote  Jefferson  to  Mr. 
Jay,  "must  be  found  in  the  feelings  of  the  human  heart,  in  a  par 
tiality  for  those  sufferers  who  are  of  our  own  country,  and  in  the 
obligations  of  every  government  to  yield  protection  to  their  citizens 
as  the  consideration  for  their  obedience."  He  assured  the  secretary, 
"that  it  would  be  a  comfort  to  know  that  Congress  did  not  disap 
prove  this  step."  He  received  that  comfort  in  due  time  ;  but  the 
forty  thousand  dollars  did  not  get  the  treaty,  nor  bring  home  the 
captives.  The  agents  whom  he  despatched  returned  with  the  report 
that  upon  such  terms  no  business  could  be  done. 

And  so  the  affair  drew  on.  In  the  spring  of  1786  Mr.  Jefferson, 
upon  an  intimation  received  from  Mr.  Adams,  hurried  over  to  Lon 
don  to  confer  with  the  ambassador  of  Tripoli  upon  the  matter;  sup 
posing  that  whatever  bargain  they  might  make  with  Tripoli  would 
be  a  guide  in  their  negotiations  with  Algiers  and  Morocco.  The 
two  Americans  met  the  ambassador,  and  had  a  conversation  with 


THE  WORK   OF   HIS  MISSION.  299 

him  which  one  would  think  more  suitable  to  A.  D.  1100  tnan  1786. 
The  first  question  discussed  between  them  was,  whether  it  were  bet 
ter  for  the  United  States  to  buy  a  temporary  peace  by  annual  pay 
ments,  or  a  permanent  peace  by  what  our  English  friends  elegantly 
style  "a  lump  sum."  The  ambassador  was  much  in  favor  of  a  per 
manent  peace.  Any  stipulated  annual  sum,  he  said,  might  cease  to 
content  his  countrj- ;  and  an  increased  demand  might  bring  on  a  war, 
which  would  interrupt  the  payments,  and  give  new  cause  of  differ 
ence.  It  would  be  much  cheaper  in  the  long  run,  he  assured  them,  for 
the  United  States  to  come  down  handsomely  at  once,  and  make  an 
nd  of  the  business. 

That  question  having  been  duly  considered,  the  Americans  were 
ady  to  listen  to  the  terms ;  which  were  these  :  for  a  treaty  of  peace 
ith  Tripoli,  to  last  one  year,  with  privilege  of  renewal,  twelve  thou 
sand  five  hundred  guineas'to  the  government,  and  one  thousand  two 
hundred    and  fifty  guineas  to  the   ambassador;  for  a  permament 
peace,  thirty  thousand  guineas  to  the  government,  and  three  thou 
sand  guineas  to  the  ambassador ;  cash  down  on  receipt  of  signed 
treaty.     N.B.  —  Merchandise  not  taken.     On  the  same  terms,  the 
ambassador  assured  them,  a  peace  could  be  had  with  Tunis ;  but, 
ith  regard  to  Algiers  and  Morocco,  he  could  not  undertake  to  prom- 
.se  any  thing.     Peace  with   the  four  piratical  powers,  then,  would 
x>st  Congress  at  least  six  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars.     If 
;he  affair  had  not  involved  the  life  and  liberty  of  countrymen,  the 
American  commissioners  might  have  laughed  at  the  disproportion 
Between  the  sums  they  were  empowered  to  offer  and  those  demanded. 
Disguising  their  feelings  as  best  they  could,  they  "took  the  lib 
erty  to  make  some  inquiries  concerning  the  ground  of  the  preten- 
ions  to  make  war  upon  nations  who  had  done  them  no  injury." 
Che  ambassador  replied :  It  was  written  in  their  Koran,  that  all  na- 
jions  which  had  not  acknowledged  the  Prophet  were  sinners,  whom 
t  was  the  right  and  duty  of  the  faithful  to  plunder  and  enslave; 
nd  that  every  Mussulman  who  was  slain  in  this  warfare  was  sure 
o  go  to  paradise.     He  said,  also,  that  the  man  who  was  the  first  to 
>oard  a  vessel  had  one  slave  over  and  above  his  share;   and  that 
hen  they  sprang  to  the  deck  of  an  enemy's  ship,  every  sailor  held 
dagger  in  each  hand  and  a  third  in  his  mouth,  which  usually 
ck  such  terror  into  the  foe  that  they  cried  out  for  quarter  at 
nee.     It  was   the  opinion  of  this  enlightened  public  functionary 


300  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

that  the  Devil  aided  his  countrymen  in  these  expeditions;  for  thej 
were  almost  always  successful. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize,  only  eighty-six  years  after  (his  con- 
versation,  that  it  could  ever  havejbeen  held  ;  still  less  that  the  Ameri 
can  commissioners  should  have  seriously  reported  it  to  Mr.  Jay,  wit! 
an  offer  of  their  best  services  in  trying  to  borrow  the  money  in  Hoi 
land  or  elsewhere,  and  in  concluding  the  several  bargains  for  pcaei 
with  the  four  powers ;  least  of  all,  that  Mr.  Jay  should  have  sub 
mitted  the  offers  of  the  ambassador  to  Congress.  Congress,  in  thei: 
turn,  referred  the  matter  back  to  Mr.  Jay  for  his  opinion,  which  IK 
guve  with  elaboration  and  exactness.  The  substance  of  his  ivpor 
was  this:  AVe  cannot  raise  the  money;  and  it  would  be  an  injury  t< 
our  credit  to  attempt  to  do  so,  and  not  succeed. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  confine  his  efforts  to  the 
mere  deliverance  of  the  captives  by  ransom.  This,  too,  was  a  mat 
ter  demanding  the  most  delicate  and  cautious  handling;  for  tin 
price  of  a  captive  was  regulated  like  professional  fees,  according  tc 
the  wealth  of  the  parties  interested.  Let  those  professional  pirate* 
but  suppose  a  government  concerned  in  a  slave's  ransom,  and  tin 
price  ran  up  the  scale  to  a  height  most  alarming.  Jefferson  wa; 
obliged  to  conceal  from  every  one,  and  especially  from  the  prisoners 
that  he  had  any  authority  to  treat  for  their  release,  —  a  course  tha 
brought  upon  him  a  kind  of  censure  hard  to  bear  indeed.  AVhili 
he  was  exerting  every  faculty  in  behalf  of  the  captives,  he  woul( 
receive  from  them  "cruel  letters,"  as  he  termed  them,  accusing  him 
not  merely  of  neglecting  their  interests,  but  of  disobeying  the  pusi 
tive  orders  of  Congress  to  negotiate  their  ransom. 

He  availed  himself  at  length  of  the  services  of  an  order  of  monk; 
called  the  Mathurins,  instituted  for  the  purpose  of  begging  alms  foi 
the  ransom  of  Christian  captives  held  to  servitude  among  the  Infi 
dels.  Agents  of  theirs  constantly  lived  in  the  ]>arl>ary  States 
searching  out  captives,  and  driving  hard  bargains  in  their  purchase 
As  it  was  known  that  the  Mathurins  could  ransom  cheaper  than  anj 
other  agency,  they  were  frequently  employed  by  government*  am 
by  families  in  procuring  the  deliverance  of  captives.  The  chief  of 
the  order  received  Mr.  Jefferson  with  the  utmost  benignity,  and  woi 
his  favorable  regard  by  making  no  allusion  to  the  religious  heresy  of 
the  American  captives,  lie  offered  to  undertake  the  purchase,  pro 
vided  the  most  profound  secrecy  were  observed;  and  lie  thought  th< 


THE  WORK  OF  HIS  MISSION.  301 

;wenty  captives  would  cost  Congress  ten  thousand  dollars.  Congress 
authorized  the  expenditure.  But  that  was  the  time  when  it  over- 
;axed  the  credit  of  the  United  States,  even  to  subsist  their  half  a 
dozen  representatives  in  Europe.  "  The  moment  I  have  the  money/7 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  obliged  to  write,  "the  business  shall  be  set  in 
notion."  But  the  money  was  long  in  coming.  A  new  government 
was  forming  at  Philadelphia.  All  was  embarrassment  in  the 
inances,  and  confusion  in  the  minds,  of  the  transitory  administration. 
The  poor  captives  lingered  in  slavery  year  after  year,  dependent  for 
daily  sustenance,  for  months  at  a  time,  on  advances  made  by  the 
Spanish  ambassador.  As  late  as  1793  we  still  find  Mr.  Jefferson 
msied  about  the  same  prisoners  in  Algiers. 

While  doing  what  he  could  for  the  relief  and  protection  of  his 
)wn  countrymen,  he  set  on  foot  a  nobler  scheme  for  delivering  the 
^essels  of  all  the  maritime  nations  from  the  risk  of  capture  by  these 
pirates.  He  drew  up  a  plan,  which  he  submitted  to  the  diplomatic 
corps  at  Versailles,  for  keeping  a  joint  fleet  of  six  frigates  and  six 
smaller  vessels  in  commission,  one-half  of  which  should  be  always 
cruising  against  the  corsairs,  waging  active  war,  until  the  four  Bar- 
)ary  States  were  willing  to  conclude  treaties  of  peace  without  sub 
sidy  or  price.  Portugal,  Naples,  the  two  Sicilies,  Venice,  Malta, 
Denmark,  and  Sweden,  all  avowed  a  willingness  to  share  in  the 
enterprise,  provided  France  offered  no  opposition.  Having  satisfied 
;he  ambassadors  on  this  point,  he  felt  sure  of  success  if  Congress 
would  authorize  him  to  make  the  proposition  as  from  them,  and  to 
support  it  by  undertaking  to  contribute  and  maintain  one  of  the 
rigates.  But  the  power  of  the  Congress  of  the  old  confederacy, 
never  sufficient,  was  now  waning  fast.  What  could  it  ever  do  but 
*ecommend  the  States  to  pay  their  share  of  public  expenses?  And 
;he  recommendations  of  this  nature,  as  Jefferson  remarked,  were 
now  so  openly  neglected  by  the  States,  that  Congress  "declined  an 
engagement  which  they  were  conscious  they  could  not  fulfil  with 
punctuality."  It  was  an  excellent  scheme.  Jefferson  had  drawn  it 
up  in  great  detail,  and  with  so  much  forethought  and  good  sense, 
;hat  it  looks  on  paper  as  though  it  might  have  answered  the  pur 
pose. 

It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Jefferson  to  negotiate  and  sign  a  convention 
between  France  and  the  United  States  which  regulated  the  consular 
services  of  both  nations.  Does  the  reader  happen  to  know  what 


302  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

despotic  powers  a  consul  exercised  formerly  ?  He  was  a  terrible  being 
He  was  invested  with  much  of  the  sacredness  and  more  than  th 
authority  of  an  ambassador.  The  laws  of  the  country  in  which  h 
lived  could  not  touch  him,  — could  neither  confine  his  person,  no 
seize  his  goods,  nor  search  his  house.  Over  such  of  his  country mei 
as  fell  into  lys  power  he  exercised  autocratic  sway.  If  'he  suspectei 
a  passenger  of  being  a  deserter  or  a  criminal,  he  could  send  bin 
home  ;  if  he  caught  a  ship  in  a  contraband  act,  he  could  order  i 
back  to  its  port.  When  Dr.  Franklin  came  to  arrange  the  consula 
service  of  the  two  countries,  the  Count  de  Vergennes  siinpl 
handed  him  a  copy  of  the  consular  convention  established  betwee: 
France  and  the  continental  powers  ;  and  this  the  doctor  acceptec 
signed,  and  sent  home  for  ratification,  supposing  it  to  be  the  correc 
and  only  thing  admissible.  "Congress  received  it,"  as  Jefferso: 
reports,  "  with  the  deepest  concern.  They  honored  Dr.  Franklii 
they  were  attached  to  the  French  nation,  but  they  could  not  relin 
quish  fundamental  principles."  The  convention  was  returned  t< 
Jefferson,  with  new  instructions  and  powers  ;  and  he  succeeded,  afte 
a  long  and  difficult  negotiation,  in  inducing  the  French  governmen 
to  limit  those  excessive  consular  powers.  The  government,  h 
explains,  anticipated  a  very  extensive  emigration  from  France  to  th 
United  States,  which,  under  the  old  consular  system,  they  coul 
have  controlled  ;  and  hence  they  yielded  it  "  with  the  utmost  reluc 
tance,  and  inch  by  inch."  But  they  yielcjed  it  at  last  with  frank 
ness  and  good-humor,  and  the  consular.  sys*tem;was  arranged  as  w 
find  it  now. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

UNOFFICIAL    LABORS. 

WHEN  we  turn  from  the  plenipotentiary's  public  duties  to  his 
semi-official  and  voluntary  labors,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  stirred 
to  admiration  and  gratitude.  I  do  not  know  what  public  man  has 
ever  been  more  solicitous  to  use  the  opportunities  which  his  office 
conferred  of  rendering  solid  service  to  his  country,  to  institutions, 
to  corporations,  to  individuals.  He  kept  four  colleges  —  Harvard, 
Yale,  William  and  Mary,  and  the  College  of  Philadelphia  —  advised 
of  the  new  inventions,  discoveries,  conjectures,  books,  that  seemed 
important.  And  what  news  he  had  to  send  sometimes  !  It  was  he 
who  sent  to  America  the  most  important  piece  of  mechanical  intelli 
gence  that  pen  ever  recorded,  —  the  success  of  the  Watt  steam- 
engine,  by  means  of  which  "  a  peck  and  a  half  of  coal  performs  as 
much  work  as  a  horse  in  a  day."  He  conversed  at  Paris  with 
Boulton,  who  was  Watt's  partner  in  the  manufacture  of  the  engines, 
and  learned  from  his  lips  this  astounding  fact.  But  it  did  not 
astound  him  in  the  least.  He  mentions  it  quietly  in  the  postscript 
of  a  long  letter;  for  no  man  yet  foresaw  the  revolution  in  all  human 
aifairs  which  that  invention  was  to  effect.  He  went  to  see  an  engine 
at  work  in  London  afterwards ;  but  he  was  only  allowed  to  view  the 
outward  parts  of  the  machinery,  and  he  could  not  tell  whether  the 
mill  "  was  turned  by  the  steam  immediately,"  or  by  a  stream  of 
water  which  the  steam  pumped  up. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  system  of  manufacturing  watches, 
clocks,  arms,  and  other  objects,  in  parts  so  exactly  alike  that  they 
can  be  used  without  altering  or  fitting.  It  was  Jefferson  who  sent 
to  Congress  an  account  of  this  admirable  idea,  which  he  derived 
from  its  ingenious  inventor,  a  French  mechanic.  He  also  forwarded 
specimens  of  the  part  of  a  musket-lock,  by  way  of  illustration. 

303 


304  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

The  system,  which  was  at  first  employed  only  in  the  manufacture 
of  arms,  seems  now  about  to  be  applied  to  all  manufactures.  He 
sent  to  Virginia  particular  accounts  of  the  construction  of  canals 
and  locks,  and  of  the  devices  employed  in  Europe  for  improving 
and  extending  the  navigation  of  rivers ;  information  peculiarly 
welcome  to  General  Washington  and  the  companies  formed  under 
his  auspices  to  extend  the  navigation  of  the  James  and  the  Potomac 
back  to  the  mountains. 

Virginian  as  he  was,  he  had  a  Yankee's  love  for  an  improved 
implement  or  utensil ;  and  he  was  always  sending  something  ingeni 
ous  in  that  way  to  a  friend.  He  scoured  Paris  to  find  one  of  the 
"new  lamps"  for  Richard  Henry  Lee,  failed  to  get  a  good  one, 
tried  again  in  London,  and  succeeded.  Madison  was  indebted  to 
him  for  getting  made  the  most  perfect  watch  the  arts  could  then 
produce,  —  price  six  hundred  francs,  —  and  a  portable  copying- 
press  of  his  own  contriving,  besides  a  great  number  of  books  for  his 
library.  A  stroll  among  the  book-stalls  was  one  of  his  favorite 
afternoon  recreations  during  the  whole  of  his  residence  in  Paris,  so 
one  of  his  daughters  records;  and  he  picked  up  many  hundreds  of 
prizes  in  the  way  of  rare  and  curious  books,  for  Madison,  Wythe, 
Monroe,  and  himself. 

Europe  is  still  the  chief  source  of  our  intellectual  nourishment ; 
but,  when  Jefferson  was  minister  in  Paris,  it  was  the  only  source. 
America  had  contributed  nothing  to  the  intellectual  resources  of 
man,  except  Franklin  ;  and  the  best  of  Franklin  was  not  yet  acces 
sible.  AVe  had  no  art,  little  science,  no  literature  ;  not  a  poem,  not 
a  book,  not  a  picture,  not  a  statue,  not  an  edifice.  Jefferson  evident 
ly  recognized  it  as  a  very  important  part  of  his  duty  to  be  a  channel 
of  communication  by  which  the  redundant  intellectual  wealth  of  one 
continent  should  go  to  lessen  the  poverty  of  the  other.  He  had  in 
his  note-book  a  considerable  list  of  Americans,  such  as  Dr.  Frank 
lin.-  James  Ma«lison,  George  Wythe,  Edmund  Randolph,  Dr.  Stiles, 
of  whom  he  was  the  literary  agent  in  Europe,  for  whom  he  received 
the  volumes  of  the  Encyclopaedia  as  they  appeared,  and  subscribed 
for  copies  of  any  work  of  value  which  was  announced  for  publica 
tion.  In  advance  of  international  copyright,  and,  indeed,  before 
Noah  Wrb.-ter  had  prormvd  a  home  copyright  for  his  spelling-book 
from  a  few  of  the  State  legislatures  (the  beginning  of  our  copyright 
system),  Jefferson  aided  two  American  authors  to  gain  something 


UNOFFICIAL  LABORS.  305 

from  the  European  sale  of  their  writings.  He  got  forty  guineas  for 
an  early  copy  of  Ramsay's  History  of  the  Revolutionary  War  for 
translation  into  French  ;  and  when  he  found  that  the  London  book 
sellers  did  not  dare  sell  the  book,  he  sent  for  a  hundred  copies,  and 
caused  it  to  be  advertised  in  the  London  papers,  that  persons  in 
England  wishing  the  work  could  have  it  from  Paris,  per  diligence. 
Similar  service  he  rendered  Dr.  Gordon,  author  of  the  history  of  the 
war  to  which  he  had  himself  contributed. 

Some  opportunities  which  occurred  to  him  of  aiding  the  growth 
of  a  better  taste  in  America  for  architecture,  he  eagerly  seized. 
Virginia  was  about  to  disfigure  Richmond  with  public  buildings; 
and  the  commissioners  wrote  to  him  for  plans,  particularly  a  plan 
for  a  Capitol.  What  commission  could  have  been  more  welcome  ? 
From  his  youth  up,  before  he  had  ever  seen  an  edifice  that  was  not 
repulsive,  he  was  an  enthusiast  in  architecture;  and  now,  in  Paris, 
it  was  a  daily  rapture  to  pass  one  of  his  favorite  buildings.  He 
would  linger  near  it,  he  tells  one  of  his  friends,  for  a  long  time; 
would  often  go  out  of  his  way  to  catch  a  view  of  it ;  loved  to  study 
it  in  new  lights  and  unusual  conditions  of  the  atmosphere,  and 
never  grew  weary  of  admiring  it. 

As  soon,  therefore,  as  he  received  the  letter  from  Richmond,  he 
engaged  the  best  architect  of  the  day,  and  entered  upon  the  joyous 
work.     They  took  for  their  model  the  liaison  Quarree  of  Nismes, 
which,  he  thought,  was  "  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  if  not  the  most 
beautiful  and  precious  morsel  of  architecture  left  us  by  antiquity ; 
.  .  .  very  simple,  but  noble  beyond  expression."     All  the  time  he 
could  spare  from  pressing  public  duties  he  spent  in'  adapting  the 
ancient  model  to  modern  utilities.     But,  with  all  his  zeal,  the  plan 
consumed  time ;  and  he  was  aghast  one  day,  to  receive  news  from 
home  that  the  commissioners  were  beginning  to  build  without  it. 
He  wrote  to  Madison,  begging  him  to  use  all  his  influence  for  delay. 
"  How  is  a  taste,"  he  asked,  "  for  this  beautiful  art  to  be  formed  in 
our  countrymen  unless  we  avail  ourselves  of  every  occasion  when 
public  buildings  are  to  be  erected,  of  presenting  to  them  models  for 
their  study  and  imitation  ?  "     The  loss  of  a  few  bricks,  he  thought, 
was  not  to  be  weighed  against  "the  comfort  of  laying  out  the  pub 
lic  money  for  something  honorable,  the  satisfaction  of  seeing    an 
object  and  proof  of  national  good  taste,  and  the  regret  and  mortifi 
cation  of   erecting  a  monument   of   our  barbarism,  which  will   be 
20 


306  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

loaded  with  execrations  as  long  as  it  shall  endure."  He  seems  to 
have  smiled  at  his  own  vehemence.  "  You  see/'1  he  concluded,  "  I 
am  an  enthusiast  on  the  subject  of  arts;  but  it  is  an  enthusiasm 
3f  which  I  um  not  ashamed,  as  its  object  is  to  improve  the  taste  of 
my  countrymen,  to  increase  their  reputation,  to  reconcile  to  them  the 
respect  of  the  world,  and  procure  them  its  praise." 

Madison  exerted  himself;  the  work  was  stopped;  the  plan  was 
accepted.  But  the  home  architect,  as  Professor  Tucker  tells  us, 
mingled  an  idea  or  two  of  his  own  with  those  of  the  ancient  master, 
and  considerations  of  economy  were  allowed  to  modify  parts  of  the 
design.  The  result  many  readers  have  seen  in  that  ill-starred,  for 
lorn-looking  edifice,  the  Capitol  of  Virginia  at  Richmond.  Xear  it, 
on  the  Capitol  grounds,  is  the  best  thing  America  has  yet  paid  for 
in  the  way  of  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  deserving  men,  —  the 
monument  to  Washington  and  other  Virginians  most  distinguished 
in  the  Revolutionary  struggle.  Jefferson  was  much  occupied  with 
details  of  this  fine  work  during  his  residence  in  Paris.  For  Virginia, 
also,  he  bought  some  thousands  of  stands  of  arms  and  other  warlike 
material ;  for  who  had  yet  so  much  as  thought  that  Virginia  was 
not  a  sovereign  State? 

Tlic re  was  no  end  of  his  services  to  the  infant  unskilled  agricul 
ture  of  his  country.  In  Charleston  and  Philadelphia  there  was 
already  something  in  the  way  of  an  agricultural  society,  to  which 
he  sent  information,  seeds,  roots,  nuts,  and  plants;  thus  continuing 
the  work  begun  in  his  father's  youth  by  John  Bartram  of  Philadel 
phia,  to  whom  be  honor  and  gratitude  forever!  To  the  Charleston 
society,  Jefferson's  benefactions  were  most  numerous  and  important. 
Upon  receiving  the  intelligence  that  he  had  been  elected  a  member 
of  the  society,  he  sent  them, 'with  his  letter  of  acknowledgment, 
"some  seeds  of  a  grass  that  had  been  found  very  useful  in  the 
southern  parts  of  Europe,"  and  was  almost  the  only  grass  cultivated 
in  Malta.  It  is  to  be  feared  the  seed  was  not  duly  cared  for  by  the 
society;  for  the  Northern  eye  looks  in  vain,  in  the  Carolinas,  for  a 
vivid  lawn  or  a  fine  field  of  grass.  Afterwards  he  procured  for  them 
a  quantity  of  the  acorns  of  the  cork-oak.  Where  are  the  cork-oaks 
that  should  have  sprung  from  them?  He  "burned  with  desire  to 
introduce  the  olive  culture  into  the  Southern  States ;  and  he  returns 
again  and  again  to  the  subject  in  his  letters.  He  saw  what  a  great 
good  the  olive-tree  was  to  Europe,  from  its  hardiness,  its  fruitfulncss, 


UNOFFICIAL  LABORS.  307 

the  low  quality  of  the  soil  in  which  it  flourishes,  and  the  agreeable 
flavor  it  imparts  to  many  viands  otherwise  tasteless  or  disagreeable. 
He  urged  the  Charleston  society  to  make  it  a  chief  object  to  intro 
duce  the  olive,  and  offered  to  send  them  bountiful  supplies  of  plants 
of  every  valuable  variety,  and  to  be  one  of  five  persons  to  contribute 
ten  guineas  a  year  to  their  experimental  culture  in  South  Carolina. 

"I  "  he  wrote  to  President  Drayton,  "the  memory  of  those  per 
sons  is  held  in  great  respect  in  South  Carolina  who  introduced  there 
the  culture  of  rice,  a  plant  which  sows  life  and  death  with  almost 
equal  hand,  what  obligations  would  be  due  to  him  who  should 
introduce  the  olive-tree,  and  set  the  example  of  its  culture !  Were 
the  owners  of  slaves  to  view  it  only  as  the  means  of  bettering  their 
condition,  how  much  would  he  better  that  by  planting  one  of  those 
trees  for  every  slave  he  possessed  !  Having  been  myself  an  eye 
witness  to  the  blessings  which  this  tree  sheds  on  the  poor,  I  nevei 
had  my  wishes  so  kindled  for  the  introduction  of  any  article  of  new 
culture  into  our  own  country." 

Olive-oil,  however,  despite  his  generous  efforts,  is  not  yet  an 
American  product.  The  society  accepted  his  offers.  He  sent  them 
a  whole  "cargo  of  plants."  The  culture  was  begun  with  enthusi 
asm.  But  whether  from  want  of  skill,  or  want  of  perseverance,  or 
the  unsuitableness  of  the  climate,  or  the  excessive  richness  of  the 
soil,  the  trees  did  not  flourish.  The  caper,  too,  of  which  he  sent 
seeds  and  amplest  information,  we  still  import  in  long,  thin  bottles, 
from  Europe.  .  Cotton  he  dismisses  with  curious  brevity,  consider 
ing  the  importance  it  has  since  attained.  In  writing  of  East  India 
products  to  the  Charleston  society,  he  says,  "Cotton  is  a  precious 
resource,  and  which  cannot  fail  with  you." 

Rice  was  the  great  theme  of  his  agricultural  letters.  He  was 
surprised,  upon  settling  for  the  first  time  in  a  Catholic  community, 
at  the  vast  quantities  of  rice  consumed ;  for  it  was  the  great  resource 
of  all  classes  during  Lent.  Fish  was  then  a  costly  article,  so  far 
from  the  sea.  Voltaire  laughs  at  the  Paris  dandies  of  his  day,  who 
alleviated  the  rigors  of  Lent  by  breakfasting  with  their  mistresses 
on  a  fresh  fish  brought,  post,  from  St.  Malo,  that  cost  five  hundred 
francs,  —  a  delicate  mark  of  attention,  he  observes,  to  a  pretty  pen 
itent.  Rice,  however,  was  the  standing  dish  in  France  during  the 
fasting-season,  and  the  merchants  timed  their  importations  accord 
ingly.  Jefferson  was  struck  with  the  small  quantity  of  American 


308  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

rice  brought  to  French  ports  and  the  low  price  it  brought.  Upon 
inquiry,  lie  was  told  that  the  American  rice  (whi.-h  reached  France 
by  way  of  England)  was  inferior  in  quality  to  that  of  Piedmont,  and 
not  so  well  cleaned.  ,He  sent  to  Charleston  specimens  of  the  kinds 
of  rice  sold  in  Paris,  explained  the  inconveniences  of  a  circuitous 
commerce,  urged  the  Carolinians  to  send  cargoes  direct  to  Havre, 
and  told  them  to  be  sure  to  get  the  bulk  of  the  supply  in  port  a 
month  before  Lent.  As  to  the  imperfect  cleaning,  he  resolved  to 
investigate  that  point  to  the  uttermost.  Being  at  Marseilles  in 
1787,  he  inquired  on  every  hand  concerning  the  machine  employed 
in  Italy  to  hull  and  clean  the  rice.  No  one  could  tell  him.  The 
vast  national  importance  of  the  matter,  together  with  the  warm 
responses  which  he  had  received  from  Charleston  to  his  letters  upon 
rice,  induced  him  to  cross  the  Alps,  and  traverse  the  rice-country  on 
purpose  to  examine  the  hulling-mill  employed  there,  to  the  use  of 
which  ho  supposed  the  higher  price  of  the  Italian  rice  was  due.  "  I 
found  their  machine,"  he  wrote  to  Edward  Itutledge  of  South  Caro 
lina,  "  exactly  such  a  one  as  you  had  described  to  ine  in  Congress  in 
the  year  17831" 

P.ut  lu-  did  not  cross  the  Alps  in  vain.  Seeing  that  the  Italians 
cleaned  their  rice  by  the  very  mill  used  in  South  Carolina,  lie  con 
cluded  that  the  Italian  rice  was  of  a  better  kind,  and  resolved  to 
send  some  of  the  seed  to  Charleston.  It  was,  however,  part  of  the 
barbaric  protective  system  to  prevent  the  exportation  of  whatever 
could  most  signally  bless  other  nations;  and  no  one  was  allowed  to 
send  seed-rice  out  of  the  country.  Jefferson,  falling  back  on  the 
higher  law,  "took  measures  with  a  muleteer  to  run  a  couple  of  sacks 
across  the  Apennines  to  Genoa;"  but,  having  small  faith  in  the 
muleteer's  success,  he  filled  the  pockets  of  his  coat  and  overcoat  with 
the  best  rice  of  the  best  rice-producing  district  in  Italy,  and  sent  it, 
in  two  parcels  by  different  ships,  to  Charleston.  The  muleteer 
failed  to  run  his  sacks  ;  but  this  small  store  reached  the  Charleston 
society,  who  distributed  it  among  the  rice-planters,  a  dozen  or  two 
of  grains  to  each.  These  were  carefully  sown  and  watched,  usually 
under  the  master's  eye.  The  species  succeeded  well  in  the  rice 
country,  and  enabled  the  South-Carolina  planters  to  produce  the 
best  rice  in  the  world.  If  tin-  read'  r  has  had  to-day  a  pudding  of 
superior  rice,  its  grains  were,  in  all  probability,  descended  lineally 
from  those  which  Jeil'crsoii  carried  oft'  in  his  pockets  in  1787. 


UNOFFICIAL  LABORS.  309 

He  afterwards  sent  the  society  rough  seed-rice  from  the  Levant, 
from  Egypt,  frpm  Cochin-China,  from  the  East  Indies ;  besides  an 
"  improved  tooth  "  of  a  rice-mill.  He  also  perfected  with  the  French 
government  and  with  French  merchants  the  best  arrangements  then 
possible  for  the  direct  importation  of  rice  from  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia.  No  man  was  ever  more  vigilant  than  he  in  detecting 
opportunities  to  benefit  his  country.  How  did  he  get  unhulled  rice 
from  Cochin-China  ?  "  The  young  prince  of  that  country,  lately 
gone  from  hence,  having  undertaken  that  it  shall  come  to  me." 

Nor  did  he  confine  his  services  to  his  own  country;  for,  as  he  said 
more  than  once,  he  regarded  the  office  which  he  filled  as  interna 
tional,  and  he  wished  to  be  the  medium  of  good  to  both  countries. 
Among  other  American  productions,  he  sent  for  two  or  three  hundred 
pecan-nuts  from  the  Far  West,  for  planting  in  France.  To  Dr. 
Stiles  he  wrote,  t:  Mrs.  Adams  gives  me  an  account  of  a  flower 
found  in  Connecticut,  which  vegetates  when  suspended  in  the  air. 
She  brought  one  to  Europe.  What  can  be  this  flower?  It  would 
be  a  curious  present  to  this  continent."  Such  hints  were  seldom 
dropped  in  vain.  Some  of  his  correspondents  took  extraordinary 
pains  to  gratify  his  desires  of  this  nature.  The  venerable  Buffon, 
getting  past  eighty  then,  and  verging  to  the  close  of  his  illustrious 
career,  was  indebted  to  Jefferson  for  torrents  of  information  concern 
ing  nature  in  America,  as  well  as  for  many  valuable  specimens.  He 
gave  the  great  naturalist  the  skin  of  a  panther,  which  the  old  man 
had  never  seen,  and  had  not  mentioned  in  his  work  ;  also  the  horns 
and  skins  of  American  deer,  the  feet  and  combs  of  American  birds, 
and  many  other  similar  objects. 

He  did  not,  it  seems,  always  agree  with  Buffon.  The  old  man 
held  chemistry  in  contempt,  —  mere  cooker}',  he  called  it,  —  and 
held  that  a  chemist  was  no  better  than  a  cook.  "  I  think  it,"  said 
Jefferson,  "on.  the  contrary,  the  most  useful  of  sciences,  and  big 
with  future  discoveries  for  the  utility  and  safety  of  the  human  race." 
He  combated,  also,  the  Count  de  Buffon's  theory  of  the  degeneracy 
of  animals  in  America.  After  much  discussion,  he  tried  an  argu 
ment  similar  to  that  which  Dr.  Franklin  had  used,  when,  in  reply 
to  a  remark  of  the  same  nature,  he  requested  all  the  Americans 
seated  on  one  side  of  the  table  to  stand,  and  then  all  the  Frcnehmen, 
who  happened  to  sit  in  a  row  on  the  other  side.  The  Americans 
towered  gigantic  above  the  little  Gauls,  and  the  doctor  came  off 


310  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

triumphant.  Jefferson,  on  his  part,  wrote  to  General  Sullivan  of 
Nt-w  Hampshire  to  send  him  the  bones  and  skin  of  a  moose, 
mightiest  of  the  deer  kind;  Sullivan  exaggerating  the  importance 
of  the  object,  on  fire  to  do  honor  to  his  country  and  oblige  its 
representative,  formed  a  hunting  party,  plunged  into  the  measureless 
snows  of  the  New-Hampshire  hills,  found  a  herd,  killed  one,  cut  a 
road  twenty  miles  to  get  it  home,  got  the  flesh  from  the  bones, 
packed  skeleton  and  skin  in  a  great  box,  with  horns  of  five  other 
varieties  of  American  deer,  and  sent  it  on  its  way  to  the  ocean.  In 
the  course  of  time  Mr.  Jefferson  received  a  bill  of  thirty-six  guineas 
for  the  carriage  of  the  box,  and  a  glowing  account  from  General 
Sullivan  of  his  exertions -in  procuring  its  contents.  He  paid  the 
bill  with  a  wry  face,  but  the  moose  did  not  arrive.  Six  months 
after  the  grand  hunt,  he  wrote  thus:  "That  the  tragedy  might  not 
want  a  proper  catastrophe,  the  box,  bones  and  all,  are  lost;  so  that 
this  chapter  of  natural  history  will  still  remain  a  blank.  l>ut  I 
have  written  to  him  not  to  send  me  another.  I  will  leave  it  for  my 
successor  to  fill  up,  whenever  I  shall  make  my  bow  here."  A  week 
later,  however,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  sending  the  box  to  the  Count 
de  Buffon,  promising  much  larger  horns  another  season.  The 
naturalist  gracefully  acknowledged  the  gift,  and  owned  that  the 
moose  was  indeed  an  animal  of  respectable  magnitude.  "I  should 
have  consulted  you,  sir,"  said  he,  "before  publishing  my  natural 
history,  and  then  I  should  have  been  sure  of  my  facts."  He  died 
next  year,  too  soon  to  enjoy  the  enormous  pair  of  buck's  horns 
coming  to  Jefferson  from  his  native  mountains,  to  maintain  in 
Europe  the  credit  of  his  native  continent. 

The  publication  of  Jefferson's  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  in  English  and 
in  French,  was  an  interesting  event  of  his  residence  in  Europe. 
Saturated  as  the  book  was  with  the  republican  sentiment  of  which 
he  was  the  completest  living  exponent,  it  was  eagerly  sought  after 
in  Paris,  and  had  its  effect  upon  the  time.  He  appears  to  have 
taken  a  modest  view  of  the  merits  of  the  work.  "I  have  some 
times  thought,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Hopkinson  of  Philadelphia, 
"of  sending  my  'Notes'  to  the  Philosophical  Society  as  a  tribute 
due  to  them  ;  but  this  would  seem  as  if  I  considered  them  as  worth 
something,  which  T  am  conscious  they  are  not.  I  will  not  ask  for 
your  advice  on  this  occasion,  because  it  is  one  of  those  on  which 
no  man  is  authorized  to  ask  a  sincere  opinion." 


UNOFFICIAL  LABORS.  311 

A  work  much  more  important,  upon  which  he  valued  himself 
more  than  upon  any  thing  he  ever  wrote  in  his  life,  except  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  far  more  meritorious  than  that, 
was  published  in  Paris  in  1786.  I  mean  his  Act  for  Freedom  of 
Keligion,  passed  in  that  year  by  the -Virginia  legislature.  He  had 
copies  of  it  printed,  according  to  his  custom.  It  was  received  and 
circulated  with  an  ominous  enthusiasm.  I  say  ominous ;  for  the 
first  effect  of  ideas  so  much  in  advance  of  the  state  of  things  could 
not  be  but  destructive  and  disastrous.  The  whole  diplomatic 
corps  complimented  the  author  by  asking  for  a  copy  to  transmit  to 
their  several  courts;  and  he  had  it  inserted  in  the  Encyclopedic,  to 
which  he  had  contributed  articles,  and  material  for  articles,  on 
subjects  relating  to  the  United  States.  "  I  think,"  he  wrote  to  his 
old  friend  and  mentor,  George  Wy  the,  that  "  our  Act  for  Freedom 
of  Religion  will  produce  considerable  good  even  in  these  countries, 
where  ignorance,  superstition,  poverty,  and  oppression  of  body  and 
mind  in  every  form,  are  so  firmly  settled  on  the  mass  of  the  people, 
that  their  redemption  from  them  can  never  be  hoped."  Never  is  a  long 
time.  lie  told  George  Wythe,  that  if  every  monarch  in  Europe 
were  to  try  as  hard  to  emancipate  the  minds  of  his  subjects  from 
ignorance  and  prejudice,  as  he  was  then  trying  to  keep  them 
benighted,  a  thousand  years  would  not  raise  them,  to  the  American 
level.  He  attributed  the  superiority  of  Americans,  in  freedom  and 
dignity  of  mind,  to  their  severance  from  the  parent  stock,  and  their 
separation  from  it  by  a  wide  ocean ;  which  had  placed  all  things 
"  under  the  control  of  the  common  sense  of  the  people" 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

HIS    TRAVELS    IX    EUROPE. 

A  SUMMONS  from  Mr.  Adams,  his  colleague  in  the  commission  for 
negotiating  commercial  treaties,  called  him  to  London  in  March, 
1786.  He  spent  two  months  in  England.  The  visit  was  an  utter 
and  a  woful  failure.  What  evils  might  have  been  averted  —  the 
war  of  1S1L',  for  one  item  —  if  that  unhappy  dotard  of  a  king  bad 
had  the  least  glimmer  of  sense,  or  the  smallest  touch  of  nobleness! 
He  received  these  two  gentlemen,  representatives  of  an  infant  nation 
offering  amity  and  reciprocal  good,  in  a  manner  so  churlish  as  left 
them  no  hope  of  being  so  much  as  decently  listened  to.  And  they 
were  not  decently  listened  to.  Ministers  were  cold,  vague,  evasive. 
Merchants  said  to  them,  in  substance,  America  must  send  us  her 
produce,  must  buy  our  wares:  we  are  masters  of  the  situation. 
Why  should  we  treat?  What  do  we  want  more?  Society,  too, 
gave  them  the  cold  shoulder.  These  two  men,  the  most  important 
personages  upon  the  island,  if  England  could  but  have  known  it, 
were  held  of  less  account  than  a  couple  of  attaches  of  the  Austrian 
legation.  It  required  "  courage,"  as  Mr.  Adams  intimates,  for  a 
nobleman  to  converse  with  them  at  an  assembly.  "  That  nation," 
wrote  Mr.  Jefferson,  "hate  us;  their  ministers  hate  us  ;  and  their 
king  more  than  all  other  men."  Strange  infatuation!  Fatal 
blindness ! 

Of  course,  being  human,  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  relish  England. 
He  found  the  people  heavy  with  beef  and  beer,  of  a  growling  tem 
per,  and  excessively  prone  to  worship  power,  rank,  and  wealth. 
"They  are  by  no  means  the  five-minded  people  we  suppose  them  in 
America.  Their  learned  men,  too,  are  few  in  number,  and  are  less 
learned,,  and  infinitely  less  emancipated  from  prejudice,  than  those 
of  France."  In  the  mechanic  arts,  he  admitted,  they  surpassed  all 

312 


HIS  TRAVELS  IN  EUROPE.  313 

the  world ;  and  he  enjoyed  most  keenly  the  English  gardens  and 
parks.  London  he  thought  a  handsomer  city  than  Paris,  but  nob 
as  handsome  as  Philadelphia ;  and  the  architecture  generally,  in 
England,  the  "  most  wretched  "  he  ever  saw,  not  excepting  America, 
nor  even  Virginia,  "  where  it  is  worse  than  in  any  other  part  of 
America  I  have  seen." 

He  set  the  Londoners  right  on  one  point.  The  noted  invention 
of  the  moment  was  a  carriage-wheel,  the  circumference  of  which 
was  made  of  a  single  piece  of  wood.  As  these  wheels  were  patented 
and  made  in  London,  the  invention  was  claimed  as  English.  He 
told  his  friends,  and  caused  the  fact  to  be  published,  that  the  farmers 
in  New  Jersey  were  the  first,  since  Homer's  day,  who  were  known 
to  have  formed  wheels  in  that  manner.  Dr.  Eranklin,  some  years 
before,  had  chanced  to  mention  it  to  the  person  who  then  held  the 
patent.  The  idea  struck  him  ;  and  the  doctor  went  to  his  shop,  and 
assisted  him  in  making  a  wheel  of  one  piece.  The  Jersejmien  did 
it  by  merely  bending  a  green  sapling,  and  leaving  it  bent  till  it  was 
set ;  but  as  in  London  there  were  no  saplings,  the  philosopher  was 
kept  experimenting  for  several  weeks.  He  triumphed  at  length, 
and  made  a  free  gift  of  the  process  to  the  carriage-maker,  who  made 
a  fortune  by  it.  Jefferson  visited  the  shop  in  which  Dr.  Eranklin 
had  worked  out  the  idea,  where  he  received  the  story  from  the  owner, 
who  gave  the  whole  credit  to  Eranklin,  and  "spoke  of  him  with  love 
and  gratitude.'7  He  also  found,  in  the  Iliad,  the  passage  which  proves 
that  the  Greeks  and  the  Jersey  farmers  employed  the  same  process : 
"  He  fell  on  the  ground  like  a  poplar  which  has  grown  smooth  in 
the  western  part  of  a  great  meadow,  with  its  branches  shooting  from 
its  summit.  But  the  chariot-maker  with  the  sharp  axe  has  felled  it, 
that  he  may  bend  a  wheel  for  a  beautiful  chariot.  It  lies  drying  on 
the  banks  of  a  river." 

In  company  with  Mr.  Adams,  he  made  the  usual  tour  of  England, 
visiting  the  famous  parks,  towns,  battle-fields,  edifices.  So  far  as 
his  letters  show,  nothing  kindled  him  in  England  but  the  gardens, 
"  the  article  in  which  England  excels  all  the  earth  ;  "  and  he  made 
the  most  minute  inquiries  as  to  the  cost  of  maintaining  those  exqui 
site  places,  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  it  were  possible  for  him  to 
have  a  really  fine  garden  at  Monticello.  It  is  to  be  presumed  he 
applauded  Mr.  Adams's  harangue  to  the  rustics  on  the  battle-field  of 
Worcester,  —  Cromwell's  "  crowning  mercy."  The  impetuous  Adams, 


314  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

exalted  by  the  recollections  called  up  by  the  scene,  was  offended  at 
the  stolid  indifference  of  the  people  who  lived  near  by.  "  Do  Eng 
lishmen,"  he  exclaimed,  "so  soon  forget  the  ground  where  liberty 
was  fought  for  ?  Tell  your  neighbors  and  your  children  that  this  is 
holy  ground,  much  holier  than  that  on  which  your  churches  stand! 
All  England  should  come  in  pilgrimage  to,  this  hill  once  a  year  ! " 
The  by-standers,  as  Mr.  Adams  reports,  were  animated  and  pleased 
by  this  compliment  to  their  native  field.  The  two  Americans  visited 
Stratford-upon-Avon ;  but  Mr.  Jefferson  only  records  that  he  paid 
a  shilling  for  seeing  Shakspeare's  house,  another  for  seeing  his  tomb, 
four  shillings  and  twopence  for  his  entertainment  at  the  inn,  and 
two  shillings  to  the  servants.  Mr.  Adams,  on  the  contrary,  ventured 
the  bold  ivmark  that  Shakspeare's  wit,  fancy,  taste,  and  judgment, 
his  knowledge  of  life,  nature,  and  character,  were  immortal. 

Jefferson  played  his  last  piece  upon  the  violin  in  Paris.  Walking 
one  day  with  a  friend,  four  or  five  miles  from  home,  absorbed  in  ear 
nest  conversation,  he  fell,  and  dislocated  his  right  wrist.  He  grasped 
it  firmly  with  his  other  hand,  and,  resuming  the  conversation, 
walked  home  in  torture,  of  which  his  companion  suspected  nothing. 
It  was  unskilfully  set ;  and  he  never,  as  long  as  he  lived,  recovered 
the  proper  use  of  it,  —  could  never  again  write  with  perfect  ease,  could 
never  again  play  upon  his  instrument.  Mr.  Randall  remarks  the 
curious  fact,  that,  so  inveterate  had  become  the  habit  of  entering  his 
expenditures*  he  continued  to  record  items  that  very  afternoon,  using 
his  left  hand.  In  the  morning,  before  the  accident,  he  entered  the 
payment  to  his  steward,  Petit,  of  five  hundred  and  four  francs  for 
various  household  expenses,  and  in  the  afternoon,  after  the  accident, 
in  a  hand  more  legible,  records  the  expenditure  of  "24f.  10"  for 
buttons,  and  "4  f.  6"  for  gloves.  The  next  day  he  was  out  again, 
"sc.'iiiu;  the  king's  library,"  for  which  he  paid  three  francs. 

Tin-  wrist  being  weak  and  painful  five  months  after  the  accident, 
the  doctors  "filled  up  the  measure"  of  their  absurdity  by  advising 
him  to  try  the  waters  of  Aix  in  Provence.  He  tried  those  waters, 
and,  deriving  no  benefit  from  them,  resumed  his  journey,  and  en- 
j.iv.-d  an  instructive  and  delightful  four  months'  tour  of  France  and 
Italy;  visiting  especially  the  seaports,  rice-districts,  and  regions 
noted  for  the  culture  of  particular  products.  The  cities,  he  says,  he 
"made  a  job  of,  and  generally  gulped  it  all  down  in  a  day;"  but 
he  was  "  never  satiated  with  rambling  through  the  fields  and  farms, 


HIS   TBAVELS  IN  EUEOPE.  315 

examining  the  culture  and  cultivators  with  a  degree  of  curiosity 
which  make  some  take  me  to  be  a  fool,  and  others  to  be  much  wiser 
than  I  am."  But  he  did  not  always  find  the  towns  so  devoid  of 
interest.  It  was  upon  this  tour  that  he  saw  at  ISTismes  the  edifice 
which  he  had  taken  for  a  model  for  the  Capitol  at  Richmond,  "  Here 
I  am,  madam,"  he  wrote  to  one  of  his  friends,  "  gazing  whole  hours 
at  the  Maison  Quarree,*  like  a  lover  at  his  mistress.  The  stock 
ing-weavers  and  silk-spinners  around  it  consider  me  a  hypochondriac 
Englishman  about  to  write  with  a  pistol  the  last  chapter  of  his  his 
tory.  This  is  the  second  time  I  have  been  in  love  since  I  left  Paris. 
The  first  was  with  a  Diana  at  the  Chateau  de  Laye-Epinaye  in  Beau- 
jolois,  a  delicious  morsel  of  sculpture  by  M.  A.  Slodtz.  This,  you 
will  say,  was  in  rule,  —  to  fall  in  love  with  a  female  beauty  ;  but  with 
a  house  !  It  is  out  of  all  precedent.  No,  madam,  it  is  not  without 
precedent  in  my  own  history."  At  Vienna  he  owns  to /having  been 
in  a  rage  on  seeing  a  superb  Roman,  palace  "defaced"  and  "hewed 
down  "  into  a  hideous  utility. 

When  lie  saw  men  working  long  hours  and  hard  for  forty  cents  a 
week,  children  toiling  with  the  hoe,  women  carrying  heavy  loads, 
tending  locks,  striking  the  anvil,  and  holding  the  plough,  he  some 
times  made  rather  violent  entries  in  his  brief,  hurried  diary.  For 
example,  "Few  chateaux,  no  farmhouses,  all  the  people  being  gath 
ered  in  villages.  Are  they  thus  collected  by  that  dogma  of  their 
religion  which  makes  them  believe,  that,  to.  keep  the  Creator  in 
good-humor  with  his  own  works,  they  must  mumble  a  mass  every 
day  ?  " 

The  hopeless,  helpless  condition  of  the  peasantry  in  some  parts  of 
France  to  which  Nature  had  been  most  bountiful  struck  him  to  the 
heart  again  and  again.  It  was  his  custom,  as  he  wandered  among 
the  farms  and  vineyards,  to  enter  their  abodes  upon  some  pretext, 
and  converse  with  the  wives  of  the  absent  laborers.  He  would  con- 

*  This  edifice  still  enchants  every  intelligent  beholder.  In  the  life  of  Mr.  Thomas  Brassey, 
by  Sir  Arthur  Helps  (London,  1872),  is  the  following  passage  by  the  son  of  the  great  con 
tractor  :  — 

"  On  our  way  from  the  station  at  Nismes  to  the  hotel,  we  passed  the  Maison  Quarree,  so 
justly  celebrated  for  the  exquisite  symmetry  of  its  architectural  proportions.  I  do  not 
think  he  had  heard  much  about  this  building,  perhaps  he  might  never  have  heard  of  it  before ; 
but  he  immediately  appreciated  its  great  beauty,  and  remained  at  least  half  an  hour  upon 
the  spot,  i:i  order  that  he  might  thoroughly  examine  that. admirable  monument  of  ancient 
art  from  every  point  of  view.  The  excellent  judgment  in  architectural  art,  and  the  sincere 
and  unaffected  enjoyment  of  the  beautiful,  which  he  displayed  in  the  instance  to  which  I 
have  referred,  made  a  strong  impression  oil  my  youthful  mind." 


316  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

trive  to  sit  upon  the  bed,  instead  of  the  offered  stool,  in  order  to 
ascertain  of  what  material  it  was  made  ;  and  he  would  peep  on  the 
sly  into  the  boiling  pot  of  grease  and  greens  to  see  what  was  to  be 
the  family  dinner.  He  had  left  Lafayette  at  Paris,  deeply  absorbed 
in  the  early  movements  of  the  coming  revolution ;  and  he  begged 
him  to  come  into  the  southern  provinces,  and  see  for  himself  what 
occasion  there  was  for  discontent.  "  To  do  it  most  effectually," 
he  said,  "  you  must  be  absolutely  incognito ;  you  must  ferret  the 
people  out  of  their  hovels,  as  I  have  done;  look  into  their  kettles;  eat 
their  bread ;  loll  on  their  beds  on  pretence  of  resting  }'ourself,  but,  in 
fact,  to  find  if  they  are  soft.  You  will  feel  a  sublime  pleasure  in 
the  course  of  this  investigation,  and  a  sublimer  one  hereafter,  when 
you  shall  be  able  to  apply  j'our  knowledge  to  the  softening  of  their 
beds,  or  the  throwing  a  morsel  of  meat  into  their  kettle  of  vege 
tables." 

What  a  republican  such  scenes  as  these  made  of  him  !  How  he 
came  to  hate,  abhor,  despise,  and  loathe  the  hereditary  principle  ! 
And  all  the  more,  because  his  post  gave  him  the  means  of  knowing 
the  exact  calibre  of  the  hereditary  kings  and  nobles  who  took  from 
these  faithful  laborers  nearly  all  their  toil  produced,  and  left  them 
thistles  and  garbage  for  their  own  sustenance.  "  There  is  not  a 
crowned  head  in  Europe,"  he  wrote  to  General  Washington  in  1788, 
"  whose  talents  or  merits  would  entitle  him  to  be  elected  a  vestry 
man  by  the  people  of  America ;"  and  he  gave  it  to  the  general  as 
his  opinion,  that  there  was  scarcely  an  evil  known  in  Europe  which 
could  not  be  traced  to  the  monarch  as  its  source,  "  nor  a  good  which 
was  not  derived  from  the  small  fibres  of  republicanism  existing 
among  them." 

The  king  of  France  he  knew  was  a  fool ;  and  the  queen,  at  a 
moment  when  the  fate  of  the  monarchy  seemed  to  hang  upon  a  lew 
millions  more  or  less  in  the  treasury,  gratified  to  the  full  a  mania 
for  high  play.  The  kings  of  Spain  and  of  Naples  knew  but  one 
interest  in  life, — the  slaughter  of  birds,  deer,  and  pigs.  "They 
pa-.-M'd  their  lives  in  hunting,  and  despatched  two  couriers  a  week, 
one  thousand  miles,  to  let  each  other  know  what  game  they  had 
killed  the  preceding  days."  The  successor  to  the  great  Frederick 
was  '-a  mere  hog  in  body  and  mind."  George  III.  was  a  madman, 
and  his  son  an  animal  of  the  same  nature  as  the  king  of  Prussia. 
According  to  Jefferson,  England  was  as  happy  in  hor  Prince  of 


HIS  TRAVELS  IN  EUROPE.  317 

Wales  in  1789,  as  she  is  in  1874.  A  friend  (probably  the  Duke 
of  Dorset)  described  to  him  the  behavior  of  the"  prince  at  a  little 
dinner  of  four  persons  :  — 

"  He  ate  half  a  leg  of  mutton  ;  did  not  taste  the  small  dishes  be 
cause  small ;  drank  champagne  and  Burgundy  as  small  beer  during 
dinner,  and  Bordeaux  after  dinner,  as  the  rest  of  the  company. 
Upon  the  whole,  he  ate  as  much  as  the  other  three,  and  drank  about 
two  bottles  of  wine  without  seeming  to  feel  it.  ...  He  has  not  a 
single  element  of  mathematics,  of  natural  or  moral  philosophy,  or 
of  any  other  science  on  earth ;  nor  has  the  society  he  has  kept  been 
such  as  to  supply  the  void  of  education.  It  has  been  that  of  the 
lowest,  most  illiterate,  and  profligate  persons  in  the  kingdom.  .  .  . 
He  has  not  a  single  idea  of  justice,  morality,  religion,  or  of  the 
rights  of  men,  or  any  anxiety  for  the  opinion  of  the  world.  He 
carries  that  indifference  for  fame  so  far,  that  he  probably  would  not 
be  hurt  were  he  to  lose  his  throne,  provided  he  could  be  assured  of 
having  al \vays  meat,  drink,  horses,  and  women. " 

Compared  with  the  political  system  which  placed  such  animals  as 
these  upon  the  summit  of  things,  and  made  life  burdensome,  shame 
ful,  and  bitter  to  nearly  all  but  such,  Jefferson  thought  the  least 
good  of  the  American  governments  a  paragon  of  perfection.  The 
very  evils  of  democracy  he  learned  to  regard  with  a  kind  of  favor. 
A  little  rebellion  now  and  then,  like  that  in  Massachusetts  in  1786, 
he  thought,  might  be,  upon  the  whole,  beneficial.  "  It  is  true,"  he 
wrote,  that  "our  governments  want  energy;"  arid  this,  he  confessed 
was  "an  inconvenience."  But  "the  energy  which  absolute  govern 
ments  derive  from  an  armed  force,  which  is  the  effect  of  the  bayonet 
constantly  held  at  the  breast  of  every  citizen,  and  which  resembles 
very  much  the  stillness  of  the  grave,  must  be  admitted  also  to  have 
its  inconveniences."  The  outrageous  license  of  the  London  newspa 
pers  seemed  to  him  an  evil  not  greater  than  the  suppressions  and 
the  perversions  of  the  more  shackled  press  of  the  Continent.  He 
made  an  acute  observation  on  this  point  to  Thomas  Paine  in  1787, 
the  truth  of  which  every  inhabitant  of  New  York  who  has  glanced 
over  the  newspapers  during  the  last  few  years  can  attest :  — 

"  The  licentiousness  of  the  press  produces  the  same  effect  which 
the  restraint  of  the  press  was  intended  to  do.  If  the  restraint  pre 
vents  things  from  being  told,  the  licentiousness  of  the  press  prevents 
things  from  being  believed  ivhen  they  are  told" 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

JEFFERSON   AND    THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION. 

MAN  proposes,  woman  disposes.  Such  is  often  the  way  of  this 
world. 

In  the  summer  of  178ft  James  Madison,  who  was  the  man  of  all 
others  most  solicitous  for  the  success  of  the  new  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  wrote  to  Jefferson  asking  him  if  he  would  accept  an 
appointment  at  home  in  General  Washington's  administration. 
••  Vuii  In  low,"  Jefferson  replied,  "the  circumstances  which  led  me 
from  retirement,  step  by  step,  and  from  one  nomination  to  another 
up  to  the  present.  My  object  is  a  return  to  the  same  retirement ; 
win-never,  therefore,  I  quit  the  present,  it  will  not  be  to  engage  in 
any  other  office,  and  most  especially  any  one  which  would  require  a 
constant  residence  from  home."  A  few  months  after  these  words 
were  written,  he  was  in  New  York,  Secretary  of  State ;  and  it  was  a 
maiden  of  seventeen  that  brought  him  to  it. 

His  situation  in  Paris  had  become  too  interesting  to  leave,  too 
pleasant  to  last.  What  man  was  ever  more  happily  placed  ?  In 
the  most  delightful  city  of  the  earth,  he  held  a  post  which  put  all  its 
noblest  resources  at  his  command.  His  mind  was  occupied  with 
honorable  duties  which  practice  had  made  easy  to  him  ;  and  the  cir 
cle  of  his  friends  was  among  the  most  agreeable  the  world  has  known 
sin. -I-  human  beings  first  learned  to  converse  politely  with  one 
another.  In  the  houses  which  he  most  frequented,  —  that  of  the 
Lafayettes.  fur  example, — he  found  all  that  was  truly  elegant  and 
refined  in  the  ancient  manners,  joined  to  the  interest  in  knowledge 
and  in  the  welfare  of  man  that  distinguished  the  new  period.  High 
thinking  was,  as  it  W.TC.  in  vogue.  Eveiy  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  Paris,  Jeilerson  said,  had  become  a  politician  ;  so  that  wherever 
he  went  he  met  people  ardently  desirous  to  listen  to  him  as  a  master 

818 


JEFFERSON  AND  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  819 

in  the  science  of  human  rights.  Nobles  caught  something  of  the  new 
spirit,  and  rose  superior  to  their  rank.  Simplicity  and  sincerity  were 
recognized  as  the  true  elevation  of  manner.  Jefferson,  without  think 
ing  of  it,  was  quite  in  the  fashion  when  he  finished  a  letter  to  Lafa 
yette  by  sajang,  that,  in  America,  people  did  not  permit  themselves  to 
utter  even  truths  when  they  had  the  air  of  flattery;  and  therefore 
he  would  say,  once  for  all,  "  I  love  you,  your  wife,  and  children." 

He  was  on  happy  terms,  too,  with  the  diplomatic  corps.  Little  as 
he  had  cause  to  love  the  realm  of  Britain,  it  was,  nevertheless,  with 
the  British  ambassador,  the  Duke  of  Dorset,  that  he  was  most  inti 
mate  ;  and  his  daughter  struck  «p  a  girl's  friendship  with  the  duke's' 
daughter,  that  lasted  beyond  the  term  of  their  residence  in  Paris. 
The  officers  who  had  served  in- America  were  among  the  favorites  in 
Paris  society,  and  Jefferson's  house  was  their  natural  rendezvous. 
That  prince  of  gossips  and  story-tellers,  Baron  Grimm,  was  among 
his  familiar  acquaintances.  Madame  de  Stacl,  who  was  married 
during  Jefferson's  second  year  in  Paris,  he  knew  only  as  the  daugh 
ter  of  JSTecker  and  the  brilliant  young  wife  of  the  Swedish  ambassa 
dor.  Among  the  lions  who  flourished  in  Paris  at  the  time  was  De  la 
Tude,  who  had  been  confined  thirty-five  years  for  writing  an  epigram 
upon  Pompadour.  "  He  comes  sometimes/'  writes  Jefferson,  "  to 
take  a  family  soup  with  me,  and  entertains  me  with  anecdotes  of  his 
five  and  thirty  years'  imprisonment.  How  fertile  is  the  mind  of 
man,  which  can  make  the  Bastille  and  the  dungeon  ofVincenn-es 
yield  interesting  anecdotes  !  "  That  "family  soup  "  of  his  played  a 
great  part  in  his  social  life.  He  lived  in  the  easy,  liberal  style  of 
Virginia,  which  harmonized  as  well  with  the  humor  of  the  time  as 
with  his  own  character  and  habits.  Few  set  dinners,  but  a  well- 
spread  table  always  open  and  generally  filled  ;  no  grand  parties,  but 
an  evening  circle  that  lured  and  detained  the  people  fullest  of  the 
prevalent  spirit.  He  had  already  the  habit  of  mitigating  business 
with  dinner.  If  he  had  a  difficult  matter  to  conclude  or  discuss,  it 
•was  usual  with  him  to  invite  the  parties  interested  to  one  of  his 
light,  rational,  refreshing  "  family  dinners,"  and  afterwards,  under 
its  humanizing  influence,  introduce  the  troublesome  topic. 

There  were  plenty  of  Americans  in  Paris,  even  at  that  early  day ; 
that  is,  there  were,  perhaps,  as  many  individuals  as  there  are  thou 
sands  now.  "  I  endeavor  to  show  civilities,"  he  once  wrote,  "  to  all 
the  Americans  who  come  here ! "  There  might  have  been  three  or  four 


320  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

in  a  month.  Gouverneur  Morris  was  there  during  the  later  ferments, 
shaking  his  knowing  head  at  the  French  dream  of  a  millennium, 
and  arguing  with  JetFerson  by  the  hour  against  every  thing  that  the 
plenipotentiary  most  helieved  ;  full  of  talk,  self-confidence,  and  good- 
humor  ;  apt  to  be  right  in  his  predictions,  because  exempt  from  the 
longings  to  which  the  heavy-laden  and  anxious  portion  of  the  human 
race  are  subject.  Hence,  all  his  life,  as  often  as  the  millennium 
failc-d  to  come  to  time,  he  had  the  noble  satisfaction  of  saying,  "  I 
told  you  so."  Poor  Mazzei  was  much  in  Paris  at  this  time,  ruined 
by  his  endeavor  to  serve  Virginia  with  Tuscan  crowns  during  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  now  often  compelled  to  figure  in  Jefferson's 
memorandum-book  for  French  francs  borrowed  to  supply  his  own 
necessities.  Ledynrd,  the  born  traveller  of  Connecticut,  came  to  the 
legation,  poor  and  disappointed,  incapable  of  remaining  long  in  a 
place,  plagued  even  from  his  boyhood  with  a  mania  to  roam  over  the 
earth,  lie  had  sailed  with  Cook,  and  revealed  the  tactless  barbarity 
of  that  navigator;  had  seen  on  the  western  coast  of  North  America 
the  richest  of  all  fur-bearing  regions;  and  had  come  to  Paris  to  set 
on  foot  the  enterprise  which  Astor  attempted  twenty-five  j-ears  after, 
when  A.Moriii  was  founded.  "But  for  the  war  of  181*2,"  Astor  used 
to  say,  4i  1  should  have  been  the  richest  man  that  ever  lived  ;  "  thus 
confirming  Ledyard'a  view.  Failing  in  his  object,  he  was  helpless 
in  Paris  ;  and  Jefferson  chalked  out  a  bold  scheme  for  him,  worthy  of 
his  singular  genius  for  travelling. 

From  his  youth  up,  Jefferson  had  gazed  from  Monticello,  wonder 
ing  what  there  might  be  between  his  mountain-top  and  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  It  was  an  inherited  curiosity ;  for  his  own  father  had  felt 
it,  and,  indeed,  all  intelligent  Virginians,  from  the  time  when 
Captain  John  Smith  sailed  up  the  Chickahominy  in  quest  of  the 
South  Sea.  lie  now  proposed  to  Ledyard  to  make  his  way  through 
Russia  to  Kamtchatka ;  thence  by  some  chance  vessel  to  Nootka 
Sound;  and  so,  by  one  means  or  another,  to  what  we  now  call 
Oregon  ;  and  then  strike  into  the  wilderness,  explore  that  vast 
unknown  region,  and  endeavor  to  reach  the  western  settlements  of 
the  United  States. 

It  was  an  audacious  scheme,  only  fit  for  Ledyard,  only  possible  to 
just  such  a  man.  He  jumped  at  it.  Through  l>aroii  (himm,  who 
was  Own  Correspondent  in  Paris  to  the  Kmpivss  Catherine,  Jeffer 
son  tried  to  obtain  the  requisite  permission,  which  she,  knowing  tho 


JEFFERSON  AND   THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  321 

perils  of  the  route,  humanely  refused ;  and  Ledyard  started  without 
it.  Ragged,  penniless,  hungry,  gaunt,  undaunted,  he  kept  on, 
"kicked/"'  as  he  wrote  to  Jefferson,  "from  town  to  town,"  and  hop 
ing  "  to  be  kicked  round  the  world ;  "  until  he  was  within  two  hun 
dred  miles  of  Kamtchatka,  where  an  order  from  Catherine  arrested 
him.  He  was  brought  back,  and  turned  loose  in  Poland.  It  was 
reserved  for  President  Jeiferson  to  get  our  first  knowledge  of  the 
boundless  prairie  world,  through  the  explorations  of  his  neighbor, 
friend,  and  secretary,  Captain  Meriwether  Lewis. 

Mr.  Hawthorne  has  told  us,  in  his  sly,  humorous  way,  something 
of  the  odd  projects  and  eccentrie  characters  that  solicit  the  notice  of 
American  representatives  in  Europe.  Jeiferson  had  his  share  of 
both.  Pie  saw,  too,  while  living  in  Paris,  how  far-reaching  the 
influence  of  the  American  Revolution  was  likel}r  to  be.  He  was 
among  the  first  to  hear  of  the  agitation  in  the  Spanish  and  Portu 
guese  colonies  of  America,  that  has  since  led  to  their  deliverance 
from  all  their  oppressors,  except  those  twin  despots  of  the  tropical 
world,  Indolence  and  Appetite.  A  mysterious  note  reached  him  in 
October,  1786,  from  which  he  only  learned  that  the  writer  was  a 
foreigner,  who  had  "  a  matter  of  very  great  consequence  "  to  com 
municate,  and  wished  him  to  indicate  a  safe  channel.  The  plenipo 
tentiary  complied  with  the  request.  The  letter  arrived.  "  I  am  a 
native  of  Brazil,"  it  began.  "  You  are  not  ignorant  of  the  frightful 
slavery  under  which  my  country  groans.  This  continually  becomes 
more  insupportable  since  the  epoch  of  your  glorious  independence." 
The  Brazilians  meant  to  rise,  the  writer  continued,  and  they  looked 
to  the  United  States  for  support :  he  had  come  to  France  on  purpose 
to  say  so  to  the  plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States,  because  in 
America  he  could  not  act  in  the  matter  without  exciting  suspicion. 
If  Mr.  Jeiferson  desired  further  information,  the  writer  could  give  it 
him. 

Meet  me  at  Nismes,  Mr.  Jeiferson  replied  in  substance,  whither 
he  would  go  "  under  the  pretext  of  seeing  the  antiquities  of  thaf 
place."  They  met  and  conversed  long.  Jeiferson  reminded  the 
Brazilian  that  he  could  only  give  him  his  ideas  on  the  subject  as  an 
individual,  having  no  authority  to  utter  a  word  on  behalf  of  Con 
gress.  Those  ideas  were,  that  the  United  States  were  not  in  a  con 
dition  to  take  part  in  any  war,  and  that  they  particularly  wished  to 
cultivate  the  friendship  of  Portugal,  a  country  with  which  they  had 
21  • 


322  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

an  advantageous  commerce.  "  But,"  he  added,  "  a  successful  revo< 
lutioii  in  Brazil  could  not  be  uninteresting  to  us  ;"  and  "prospects 
D£  lucre  might  possibly  draw  numbers  of  individuals  to.  their  aid. 
and  purer  motives  our  officers;"  and  citizens  of  the  United  States 
were  free  to  leave  their  country  whenever  they  wished.  With  this 
3old  comfort  the  Brazilian  was  obliged  to  depart  from  Nismes,  and 
leave  Mr.  Jefferson  free  to  gaze  with  rapture  upon  the  Maison 
Quarrte. 

A  similar  series  of  mysterious  approaches  brought  him,  about  the 
same  time,  face  to  face  with  a  Mexican,  whose  country  was  also  pre 
paring  to  rise  against  its  oppressors.  In  dealing  with  this  gentle- 
111:111,  the  minister  showed  that  he  had  picked  up  in  Paris  or 
elsewhere  a  little  of  the  diplomatist's  craft.  "  I  was  more  cautious,'3 
he  reports,  "with  the  Mexican  than  with  the  Brazilian ;"  and  he 
threw  cold  water  on  his  hopes  by  saying  that  he  "feared  they  must 
begin  by  enlightening  and  emancipating  the  minds  of  their  people." 
N-i  revolutionist  likes  to  be  met  with  an  observation  of  that  nature. 
"I  was  led  into  this  caution,"  Jefferson  explains,  "by  <>l>s.Tvin;j 
that  this  gentleman  was  intimate  at  the  Spanish  ambassador's,"  and 
that  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  Spanish  government  at  the  very 
time  of  making  the  communication.  "  He  had  much  of  the  air  of 
candor,'1  adds  the  suddenly-formed  diplomatist;  "but  that  can  be 
borrowed,  so  that  I  was  not  able  to  decide  about  him  in  my  own 
mind." 

All  of  which  was  reported  at  great  length  to  Congress,  with  the 
additional  intelligence  that  Peru,  which  had  already  lost  two  hun 
dred  thousand  men  in  failure  to  eject  the  hated  Spaniards,  could 
easily  be  roused  to  rebellion  again.  In  one  wa}r,  if  in  no  other,  Mr. 
Jefferson  served  Congress  well :  he  provided  thorn  by  every  packet 
with  long  letters,  which  at  that  period,  when  journalism  was  hut  an 
infant  art,  must  have  been  more  interesting  than  we  can  now  con 
ceive,  close  packed  as  they  were  with  information,  curious,  impor 
tant,  and  nc\v. 

It  was  not  in  far-off  Peru,  Mexico,  or  Brazil,  that  ho  saw  the  most 
memorable  proofs  of  the  mighty  influence  of  the  "  glorious  Revolu 
tion"  of  which  he  had  been  a  part.  He  witnessed  the  "glorious" 
part  of  the  French  Revolution,  having  been  present  at  the  Assembly 
of  the  Notables  in  1787,  and  at  the  destruction  of  the  Bastille  in 
1780.  His  sympathy  with  that  supreme  effort  of  France  to  escape 


JEFFEKSON  AND   THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  323 

;he  oppression  of  outgrown  institutions  was  entire  and  profound,  but 
t  was  also  considerate  and  wise.  Living  in  the  most  familiar 
ntimacy  with  Lafayette  and  \  the  other  leaders  of  the  preliminary 
movements,  he  knew  every  thing  and  influenced  every  thing  they 
.id ;  for  at  first,  while  as  yet  the  king  and  the  nation  seemed  in 
larmony,  his  official  position  was  no  restraint  upon  him ;  and,  to  the 
ast,  his  constant  advice  was,  Save  the  monarchy ;  France  is  not  ripe 
or  a  republic ;  get  a  constitution  that  will  secure  substantial  liberty 
md  essential  rights,  and  wait  for  the  rest. 

I  suppose  a  good  many  of  Mr.  Carlyle'*  readers  were  a  little 
ffended  at  Buckle's  sweeping  assertion  that  no  history  of  the  French 
devolution  exists,  and  that  no  man  had  yet  appeared  who  possessed 
he  knowledge  requisite  for  writing  such  a  work.  Mr.  Carlyle's 
French  Revolution  seems  only  to  lack  the  form  and  cadence  of 
joetry  to  rank  with  the  great  poems  of  all  time,  the  Iliad,  the 
nferno,  Paradise  Lost,  and  Faust.  Dickens  might  well  call  it 

"  wonderful  work."  Its  brevity  and  pictorial  power  are  wonder 
ed  indeed;  and  a  young  reader  who  rises  from  its  perusal  pene- 
rated  and  awe-struck  may  be  pardoned  for  thinking,  that,  among 
lis  other  acquisitions,  he  has  gained  some  insight  into  the  French 
levolution.  He  has  gained  every  thing  but  insight.  Mr.  Carlyle 
loes  not  sacrifice  the  true  to  the  picturesque  :'he  gives  us  picture  in 
ieu  of  truth.  He  has  all  a  poet's  love  for  the  picturesque,  and  is 
more  guided  in  his  selection  of  events  for  relation  by  their  effective 
ness  than  by  their  importance.  Hence,  as  the  antidotal  Buckle 
remarks,  we  have  a  series  of  thrilling  pictures,  instead  of  that 
loblest  and  most  difficult  of  all  the  products  of  the  mind,  a  genuine 
listory. 

The  narrative  of  events  written  by  Jefferson  in  extreme  old  age, 
>rief,  cold,  and  colorless  as  it  is,  taken  in  connection  with  his  numer- 
ms  letters,  official  and  private,  written  at  the  time,  will  be  prized  by 
he  individual  who  will,  at  length,  evolve  the  French  Revolution 
"rom  the  chaos  of  material  in  which  it  is  now  involved.  Unfortu- 
lately,  Jefferson  went  too  far  in  extirpating  his  egotism.  He  was 
lot  vain  enough ;  he  was  curiously  reticent  concerning  his  o;vn  part 
n  important  events  ;  he  instinctively  veiled  and  hid  his  personality. 
3ut  for  this  he  might  have  found  time,  in  his  busy  retirement,  to 
jompose  a  history  of  the  Revolution  down  to  the  taking  of  the 
3astille;  which  would  have  been  of  imperishable  interest.  It  was 


324  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

not  merely  that  he  knew  the  men  and  witnessed  the  events ;  but  h< 
preserved  his  incredulity,  accepted  nothing  upon  mere  rumor,  am 
personally  investigated  occurrences.  If  a  rumor  reached  him  tha 
"three  thousand  people  had  fallen  in  the  streets,"  he  and  his  secre 
tary,  Mr.  Short,  would  go  to  the  spot,  and,  after  minute  inquiry 
reduce  the  number  to  "  three."  He  was  unwearied  in  sitting  ou 
the  interminable  sessions  of  the  various  assemblies,  and  though  1 
little  of  riding  to  Versailles  (:  to  satisfy  myself  what  has  passet 
there,  for  nothing  can  be  believed  but  what  one  sees  or  has  from  ar 
eye-witness." 

Occasionally  his  part  in  events  was  conspicuous,  usually  it  was 
unseen,  always  it  was  such  as  became  the  representative  of  the 
United  States.  On  the  gathering  of  the  Notables  in  1787,  hi* 
advice  to  Lafayette  was,  Not  to  attempt  too  much ;  to  aim  at  secur 
ing  a  recurrence  of  the  Assembly ;  to  vote  the  king  ample  supplies 
in  return  for  irreclaimable  concessions ;  to  make  the  English  consti 
tution  their  model,  not  as  the  best  conceivable,  but  the  best  attain 
able.  "If  every  advance,"  said  he,  "is  to  be  purchased  by  filling 
the  royal  coffers  with  gold,  it  will  be  gold  well  employed."  In  tlit 
interval  between  the  Assembly  of  the  Notables  of  1787,  and  the 
National  Assembly  of  1789,  he  was  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend 
to  the  liberal  leaders;  giving  them  numberless  dinners  and  sound 
instruction  in  constitutional  government;  furnishing  them  with 
American  precedents  and  English  law-books,  as  well  as  with  sum 
maries  and  elucidations  of  his  own.  One  darling  object  of  the  La 
fayette  party  was  to  introduce  trial  by  jury.  It  was  Jefferson  who 
supplied  them  with  a  list  of  works  on  the  subject,  and  added  a  brief 
discourse,  in  which  juries  were  justified  on  two  grounds:  1,  Because 
in  every  branch  of  government,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial, 
an  infusion  of  the  people  was  necessary  to  the  preservation  of 
purity;  2,  The  chance  of  getting  justice  from  a  biassed  judge  was 
not  as  good  as  from  a  cast  of  the  dice,  but  from  a  jury  the  chance 
was  something  better  than  from  a  cast  of  the  dice.  Hence,  trial  by 
jury  was  a  good  thing. 

The  frightful  winter  of  1788-89,  when  the  mercury  in  Paris  fell 
to  twenty  below  zero;  and  the  government  was  obliged  to  keep  vast 
fires  burning  in  the  streets  to  preserve  the  poor  from  freezing;  and 
every  family  that  had  any  thing  to  span-  was  called  upon  for  a 
weekly  contribution  for  the  purchase  of  food;  and  long  <iueues  of 


JEFFERSON   AND   THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  325 

unger-stricken  women  and  children  besieged  every  baker's  shop ; 
nd,  on  cards  of  invitation  to  dinner,  guests  were  requested  to  bring 
icir  own  bread  ;  and  the  king  himself  was  self-limited  to  his  proper 
umber  of  ounces, — this  fearful  season  Jefferson  was  so  happy  as 

be  the  means  of  mitigating  to  the  people  of  France.  In  the 
utumn  of  1787  it  became  known  to  the  government  that  the  supply 

food  was  insufficient;  and  M.  Keeker  asked  the  American  minister 

make  the  fact  known  in  the  United  States,  in  order  to  stimulate 

e  exportation  of  grain  to  France.  Jefferson  wrote  to  Mr.  Jay 
i  the  subject,  and  Mr.  Jay  caused  the  letter  to  be  inserted  in  the 
ewspapers.  The  result  was,  that  France  received  from  America 
any  -thousand  barrels  of  flour,  —  about  thirty-five  thousand,  as  it 
>pears,  —  enough  sensibly  to  lessen  the  distress,  because  the  bulk 

it  arrived  late,  when  the  scarcity  was  extreme. 

Wild  Mirabeau,  acting  upon  imperfect  information,  and  eager  to 
ake  a  point  against  the  ministry,  charged  M.  Necker,  in  one  of  his 
arangues,  with  having  refused  an  offer  of  American  flour  made  by 
ie  American  minister.  Jefferson  hastened  to  defend  the  govern- 
ent,  and  contrived  to  set  M.  Necker  right  with  the  public,  without 
ffending  Mirabeau.  The  orator  read  Jefferson's  exculpatory  letter 

the  Assembly,  and  apologized  for  the  error. 

We  have  seen  how  susceptible  Jefferson  was  to  the  spell  of  ora- 
ry,  from  the  time  when,  as  a  boy,  he  had  listened  in  rapture  to  the 
oonlight  oration  of  an  Indian  chief  in  the  Virginia  woods,  to  the 
eriod  when  the  eloquence  of  Patrick  Henry  charmed  and  amazed 
im  in  the  House  of  Burgesses.  And  now,  in  Paris,  he  owned  the 
'sistless  -power  of  Mirabeau,  of  whose  singular  fascination  he  re- 
lined  the  liveliest  recollection  as  long  as  he  lived.  William  Wirt 
nd  Henry  Clay  both  testified  to  having  heard  Mr.  Jefferson  speak 
'  the  sway  of  that  strange  being  over  the  minds  of  men  of  every 
ass.  "  He  spoke  of  him,"  says  Wirt,  "  as  uniting  two  distinct  and 
jrfect  characters  in  himself,  whenever  he  pleased :  the  mere  logi- 
an,  with  a  mind  apparently  as  sterile  and  desolate  as  the  sands  of 
Arabia,  but  reasoning  at  such  times  with  an  Herculean  force  which 
othing  could  resist ;  at  other  times,  bursting  out  with  a  flood  of 
oquence  more  sublime  than  Milton  ever  imputed  to  the  cherubim 
nd  seraphim,  and  bearing  all  before  him." 

At  the  supreme  moment  of  the  Revolution,  in  July,  1789,  the 
Tational  Assembly  paid  homage,  at  once  to  the  American  people 


326  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

and  to  their  representative.  They  appointed  a  committee  to  draugl: 
a  constitution,  the  chairman  being  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux 
and  this  committee  formally  invited  the  American  minister  to  assi: 
at  their  sessions,  and  favor  them  with  his  advice.  But,  as  it  was  1 
the  king  that  the  plenipotentiary  was  accredited,  he  was  obliged  t 
decline.  He  was  not,  however,  to  escape  so  easily.  When  the  cor 
stitution  was  under  discussion  in  the  Assembly,  article  by  articl 
differences  of  opinion  arose  which  debate  could  not  reconcile,  becaiu 
the  opinion  of  one  powerful  faction  was  prompted  and  supported  b 
interest.  Two  questions  rent  the  Assembly,  at  length,  into  hosti 
part  ies  :  1,  Shall  the  king  have  a  veto  ?  2,  Shall  there  be  hereditar 
legislators  in  France  ?  The  nobility  put  forth  all  their  energies,  an 
used  all  their  arts,  to  have  both  these  vital  questions  answered  affirn 
atively.  The  popular  party  were  not  united  on  either  question 
and  hence  there  was  wide-spread  fear  that  the  solid,  small  phalan 
of  the  aristocracy  would  wrest  the  constitution  to  the  perpetuatio 
of  their  power. 

In  the  midst  of  this  alarm,  Jefferson  received  a  note  from  Lafj 
yette,  informing  him  that  he  should,  the  next  day,  bring  a  party  o 
six  or  eight  friends  to  dine  with  him.  The  hospitable  Virginian  r 
plied  that  they  would  be  welcome ;  and,  at  the  time  named,  the  par: 
arrived,  —  just  eight  in  all,  including  Lafayette.  They  proved  tol 
leaders  on  the  popular  side,  devoted  to  the  cause,  but  unable  to  agrc 
on  the  two  dividing  questions  ;  and  Lafayette,  taking  a  hint  from  tl 
usual  tactics  of  Jefferson,  and  forgetting  his  official  character,  ha 
brought  them  together  in  this  way  for  a  friendly  conference.  Tl 
dinner  passed.  The  cloth  being  removed,  wine,  according  to  the  cu 
torn  of  old  Virginia,  was  for  the  first  time  placed  upon  the  tahl 
First  eat,  then  drink,  appears  to  have  been  the  Virginian  orde 
Lafayette  introduced  the  subjects  upon  which  an  interchange  o 
opinion  was  desired,  reminded  them  of  the  state  of  things  in  tl 
Assembly,  and  dwelt  upon  the  deadly  peril  of  the  new-born  libert 
of  France  so  long  as  the  enemies  of  liberty  were  united  and  i 
friends  divided.  "  I  have  my  opinion,"  said  he  ;  "  but  I  am  read 
to  sacrifice  it  to  that  of  my  brethren  in  the  same  cause."  Son: 
common  conclusion,  he  said,  they  must  reach,  and  stand  to,  or  tl: 
nobility  would  carry  all  before  them  ;  and,  whatever  they  might  no 
agree  upon,  he  pledged  himself  to  maintain  at  the  head  of  ti 
National  Guard. 


JEFFERSON  AND   THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION.  327 

It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  when  Lafayette  ceased  to 
speak,  and  it  was  ten  in  the  evening  when  the  conference  ended. 
During  those  six  hours,  Jefferson  says,  "  I  was  a  silent  witness  to  a 
coolness  and  candor  of  argument  unusual  in  the  conflicts  of  political 
opinion ;  to  a  logical  reasoning  and  chaste  eloquence,  disfigured  by 
no  gaudy  tinsel  of  rhetoric  or  declamation,  and  truly  worthy  of  being 
placed  in  parallel  with  the  finest  dialogues  of  antiquity."  The 
expedient  was  successful.  Under  tne  happy  influence  of  Jefferson's 
early,  rational  dinner,  not  wholly  vitiated  by  the  light  wines  which 
he  had  personally  sought  among  the  vineyards  of  France  and  Italy, 
and  with  minds  at  once  calmed  and  exalted  by  his  silent,  sympa 
thetic  presence,  the  deputies,  at  last,  discovered  ground  upon  which 
they  could  all  stand.  They  agreed  that  the  king  should  have  a  sus 
pensive  veto,  and  that  there  should  be  no  hereditary  legislators. 
France  should  be  governed,  thenceforth,  by  a  constitutional  king, 
and  by  one  legislative  body, — the  latter  elected  by  the  people. 
Rallying  upon  these  two  principles,  the  liberal  party  presented  a 
solid  front  to  the  aristocrats,  and  thus  controlled  the  Revolution  as 
long  as  it  was  controllable. 

During  this  conference,  the  plenipotentiary  had  sat  t{  silent "  at 
the  head  of  his  table ;  nor  had  he  had  any  part  in  causing  the 
meeting  to  be  held  in  his  house.  Nevertheless,  he  felt  that  the  eti 
quette  of  his  position  had  been  violated  ;  and,  consequently,  the 
next  morning  he  went  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  ex 
plained  the  circumstances.  The  information  was  superfluous.  The 
minister,  who,  as  Jefferson  intimates,  was  in  the  confidence  of  the 
patriots,  had  already  learned  what  had  passed,  and  had  approved  the 
conference  before  it  was  held.  He  said,  that,  so  far  from  taking 
umbrage  at  the  use  to  which  Jefferson's  house  had  been  put,  he 
earnestly  wished  that  he  would  habitually  attend  such  conferences, 
because  he  was  sure  he  would  moderate  the  warmer  spirits,  and  pro 
mote  attainable  reforms  only.  Jefferson  replied,  that  he  knew  too 
well  the  duties  he  owed  to  the  king,  to  France,  and  to  the  United 
States,  to  meddle  with  the  internal  affairs  of  the  country;  and  he 
should  preserve  carefully  the  attitude  of  a  neutral  and  passive  spec 
tator,  except  that  his  heart's  desire  would  ever  be  for  the  prevalence 
of  measures  most  beneficial  to  the  nation. 

During  these  intense  weeks,  Jefferson  had  a  foretaste  of  what  he 
was  to  experience  soon  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  He  discov- 


328  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

ered  that  a  man  might  he  an  American,  a  patriot,  and  a  person  of 
great  ability  and  worth,  and  yet  not  sympathize  at  all  with  this 
mighty  and  hopeful  movement.  Almost  every  day  or  two  Gouyer- 
neur  Morris  dropped  in  at  the  legation  for  a  dinner  and  a  chat  with 
the  minister;  differing  from  him  in  opinion,  in  sentiment,  in  sym 
pathy,  yet  glad  of  the  information  he  obtained  from  him,  and  well 
affected  towards  him  personally.  Mark  the  difference  between  the 
humane  and  the  tory  mind  :  jfrorris  instinctively  took  sides  with 
the  hated  aristocrats,  associated  chiefly  with  them,  lamented  their 
downfall,  sympathized  deeply  with  them  in  all  their  alarms  und  sor 
rows.  When  he  saw  the  queen  of  France  pass  unsaluted  by  a  sin 
gle  voice,  he  could  not  help  calling  upon  the  by-standers  to  give  her 
a  cheer ;  and  only  refrained  himself  from  raising  the  cry,  because  he 
remembered  in  time  that  he  was  not  a  Frenchman.  He  honestly 
bewailed  the  spectacle  of  the  "high  Austrian  spirit"  abased  to  the 
point  of  the  queen's  bowing  low  in  acknowledgment  of  one  faint 
cheer,  lie  exulted  when  the  king  showed  for  a  moment  the  fierte 
which  he  deemed  proper  to  "the  Bourbon  blood."  He  sent  a  letter 
of  advice  to  the  queen ;  and,  at  a  later  day,  pressed  upon  the  exiled 
Duke  of  Orleans  a  loan  of  fifteen  hundred  pounds.  Such  men  as 
he  are  so  constituted,  that  the  bsief  and  shallow  distress  of  a 
wealthy  and  picturesque  family  brings  tears  to  their  eyes,  while  they 
can  calmly  accept  as  inevitable  doom  the  desolation  and  hopeless 
anguish  of  whole  provinces  of  unornamental  people.  Their  sympa 
thies  are  genuine  and  acute,  but  limited.  Burke,  doubtless,  was 
sorry  that  France  was  unhappy ;  but  the  downfall  and  death  of  one 
picturesque  woman  tore  his  heart,  and  unsettled  his  mind. 

"  What  is  the  queen*  disposed  to  do  in  the  present  situation  of 
things  ?  "  Jefferson  supposes  some  one  to  ask  in  this  same  summer  of 
1780.  lie  answers  the  question  thus:  "Whatever  rage,  pride,  and 
fe,ar  can  dictate  in  a  breast  which  never  knew  the  presence  of  one 
moral  restraint."  Again  he  writes,  "The  queen  cries,  and  sins  on." 
That  is,  as  Madame  Cumpun  explains,  she  had  a  woman's  passion  for 
deep  play ;  and  there  was  no  one  in  France  who  could  stay  her  hand, 
no  one  who  could  keep  her  from  squandering  thousands  at  a  sitting. 
Ministers  lamented,  that,  at  Mich  a  crisis,  France  for  the  first  time 
in  ages  should  be  cursed  with  a  king  who  had  the  mania  to  live 
without  a  mistress,  —  a  thing  extremely  inconvenient  in  u  despotic 
court,  where  it  makes  the  queen  king.  A  virtuous  man  has  no  chance 


JEFFERSON   AND   THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  329 

whatever  with  such  a  wife  as  that.  Let  him  be  neglectful,  contempt 
uous,  dissolute  ;  let  him  put  upon  her  the  ignominy  of  an  avowed 
mistress ;  let  him  be  a  Louis  XV.  instead  of  a  Jjouis  XVI.,  —  and 
she  is  as  submissive  as  a  lamb.  "  This  angel,  as  gaudily  painted  in  the 
rhapsodies  of  Burke,"  wrote  Jefferson  forty  years  dl|kr,  "with  some 
smartness  of  fancy,  but  no  sound  sense,  was  proud,  disdainful  of 
restraint,  indignant  at  all  obstacles  to  her  will,  eager  in  the  pursuit 
of  pleasure,  and  firm  enough  to  hold  to  her  desires,  or  perish  in  their 
wreck.  Her  inordinate  gambling  and  dissipations,  with  those  of  the 
Count  d'Artois  and  others  of  her  clique,  had  been  a  sensible  item 
in  the  exhaustion  of  the  treasury,  which  called  into  action  the  re 
forming  hand  of  the  nation  ;  and  her  opposition  to  it,  her  inflexible 
perverseness  and  dauntless  spirit,  led  herself  to  the  guillotine,  drew 
the  king  on  with  her,  and  plunged  the  world  into  crimes  and  calam 
ities  which  will  forever  stain  the  pages  of  modern  history.  I  have 
ever  believed,  that,  hud  there  been  no  queen,  there  would  have  been 
no  revolution.  No  force  would  have  been  provoked  or  exercised." 
He  adds,  that  he  would  not  have  voted  for  the  execution  of  the  sover 
eign.  He  would  have  shut  the  queen  up  in  a  convent,  and  deprived 
the  king  only  of  irresponsible  and  arbitrary  power. 

Morris,  on  the  contrary,  throws  the  blame  of  the  subsequent  hor 
rors —  including  both  Robespierre  and  Bonaparte  —  upon  the  de 
struction  of  the  nobility;  and,  in  this  opinion,  he  lived  and  died.  He 
wrote  thus  in  his  diary,  after  getting  home  one  evening  from  Jeffer 
son's  house :  "  Mr.  Jefferson  and  I  differ  in  our  systems  of  politics. 
He,  with  all  the  leaders  of  liberty  here,  is  desirous  of  annihilating 
distinctions  of  order.  How  far.  such  views  may  be  right  respecting 
mankind  in  general  is,  I  think,  extremely  problematical.  But,  with 
respect  to  this  nation,  I  am  sure  it  is  wrong,  and  cannot  eventuate 
well."  On  the  Fourth  of  July,  Mr.  Jefferson  entertained  a  large 
party  of  Americans  at  dinner,  among  whom  and  of  whom  were  M. 
and  Madame  de  Lafayette.  Morris,  after  dinner,  urged  Lafayette  to 
preserve,  if  possible,  some  constitutional  power  to  the  body  of  the 
nobles,  "  as  the  only  means  of  preserving  any  liberty  to  the  peo 
ple."  Happy  the  Morris  who  records  in  his  diary  such  a  remark 
as  this,  on  the  eve  of  such  a  period  as  France  was  entering  in  the 
summer  of  1789. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

RETURNING   TO    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

PLACED  in  the  midst  of  all  this  stir  and  effervescence,  while  as 
yet  every  thing  wore  a  hopeful  aspect,  —  the  Bastille  in  ruins,  the 
people  easily  triumphant  everywhere,  and  the  aristocrats  acquiescent, 
submissive,  or  in  flight,  —  we  cannot  wonder  that  Jefferson  found 
his  situation,  as  he  said,  too  interesting,  to  abandon.  lie  had  no 
"  thought  of  abandoning  it.  Nevertheless,  an  evo»it  had  occurred  in 
his  hous.-hold  which  made  it  necessar}'  for  him  to  visit  Virginia  for 
a  short  time  ;  and  while  the  Bastille  was  tumbling,  he  was  impa 
tiently  wailing  for  the  arrival  of  a  six-months'  leave  of  absence  for 
which  he  had  applied.  And  there  was  a  member  of  his  family  who 
was  waiting  for  it,  perhaps,  more  impatiently  than  himself. 

AYhen  he  left  Virginia,  in  1784,  he  had  three  children,  —  Martha, 
twelve  years  of  age ;  Ma.ry,  six  ;  and  Lucy,  two.  The  eldest  he 
took  with  him  to  Paris,  where  he  placed  her  at  a  convent  school ; 
and  the  two  others  he  left  in  Virginia  under  the  care  of  their  aunt, 
Mrs.  Kppes.  A  few  weeks  after  fii.s  arrival  in  Paris,  the  intelligence 
reached  him  that  his  youngest  daughter,  Luc}',  a  strangely  interest 
ing  child,  had  died  of  whooping-cough,  after  a  week  of  acute  suffer 
ing.  After  this  cutting  stroke  he  began  to  long  for  the  coming  of 
her  sister.  \vh<>m  he  wished  to  have  educated  in  Paris.  But  she  was 
one  of  the  most  clingingly  affectionate  of  all  children  ;  resembling 
those  vinos  which  we  sometimes  find  in  the  woods,  which  cast 
adhesive  tendrils  round  .every  object  they  touch,  and  can  scarcely 
be  disengaged  without  breaking.  She  could  not  hear  of  leaving 
her  Virginia  home  without  sueh  distress  as  made  her  aunt  shudder 
at  the  thought  of  sending  her  away.  Her  father  tried  to  accus 
tom  her  mind  to  the  idea  of  leaving;  telling  her  that  he  and 
her  sister  Martha  could  not  live  without  her,  and  that  he  would 
830 


EETUENING  TO   THE  UNITED   STATES.  331 

soon  bring  her  back  to  her  uncle,  aunt,  and  cousins,  whom  she  was 
so  sorry  to  leave.  "  You  shall  be  taught  here,"  he  wrote,  "  to  play 
on  the  harpsichord,  to  draw,  to  dance,  to  read  and  talk  French,  and 
such  other  things  as  will  make  you  more  worthy  of  the  love  of  your 
friends."  To  this  he  added  a  temptation  more  alluring :  "  You  shall 
have  as  many  dolls  and  playthings  as  you  want  for  yourself,  or  to 
send  to  your  cousins."  He  concludes  with  all  the  good  advice  that 
tender  and  thoughtful  fathers  give,  with  some  items  less  usual : 
" Never,  beg  for  any  thing,"  and,  "remember,  too,  as  a  constant 
charge,  not  to  go  out  without  your  bonnet,  because  it  will  make  you 
very  ugly,  and  then  we  shall  not  love  you  so  much." 

The  little  girl  could  not  be  tempted.  She  scrawled  a  brief  reply, 
in  which  she  said  that  she  longed  to  see  her  father  and  her  sister, 
but,  "  I  am  sorry  you  have  sent  for  me.  I  don't  want  to  go  to  France  : 
I  had  rather  stay  with  Aunt  Eppes.".  In  two  postscripts  she 
strove  to  impress  the  same  lesson  upon  her  father's  mind:  "  I  want 
to  see  you  and  Sister  Patsy ;  but  you  must  come  to  Uncle  Eppes's 
house."  The  father,  however,  insisted,  because,  as  he  said,  his 
reason  told  him  that  the  dangers  were  not  great,  and  the  advantages 
to  the  child  would  be  considerable.  But  she  must  not  sail  till  just 
the  right  vessel  offered,  —  a  good  ship,  not  too  new  and  not  too 
old,  —  nor  until  the  right  person  was  found  to  take  charge  of  her. 
li  A  careful  negro  woman,  as  Isabel  for  instance,  if  she  has  had  the 
small-pox,  would  suffice  under  the  patronage  of  a  gentleman." 
When  he  had  mentioned  every  precaution  that  the  most  anxious 
fondness  could  suggest,  he  was  still  tormented  with  visions  of  new 
dangers.  His  long  and  fruitless  negotiations  with  the  Algerines 
called  up  the  most  horrible  of  all  his  apprehensions.  Suppose  she 
were  taken  into  captivity  by  those  pirates,  who  had  already  driven 
the  American  flag  from  the  Mediterranean,  and  menaced  American 
commerce  in  every  part  of  the  ocean !  The  thought  preyed  upon 
his  mind  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  wrote  one  letter  to  Mr.  Eppes  for 
no  other  purpose  than  to  beg  him  once  more  not  to  confide  the  child 
to  an  American  ship,  but  "  to  a  French  or  English  vessel  having  a 
Mediterranean  pass."  The  possible  peril  of  his  daughter  was  a 
stimulant  to  his  diplomatic  exertions ;  and  he  told  Mr.  Eppes,  that,  if 
a  peace  were  concluded  with  the  Algerines,  lie  should  be  among  the 
first  to  hear  it.  "I  pray  you,"  he  added,  "to. believe  it  from 
nobody  else." 


332  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

These  precautions  were  not  needless;  for  while  the  child  was 
upon  the  ocean,  in  the  spring  of  1787,  a  Virginia  ship  going  to 
Spain  was  attacked  by  a  corsair.  After  an  action  of  an  hour  and  a 
quarter,  the  Virginians  boarded  and  took  her,  bound  the  pirates 
with  the  shackles  themselves  would  have  worn  if  the  battle  had 
gone  the  other  way,  and  so  carried  them  to  Virginia.  Well  might 
the  father  say,  when  he  knew  that  she  had  sailed,  "  I  shall  try  not 
to  think  of  Polly  till  I  hear  that  she  has  landed." 

lie  did  think  of  her,  however,  constantly;  and  he -endeavored  to 
prepare  his  elder  daughter  for  the  duties  which  the  coming  of  so 
young  a  sister  would  devolve  upon  her.  "  She  will  become,"  he 
wrote  to  her,  "a  precious  charge  upon  your  hands.  The  difference 
of  your  age,  and  your  common  loss  of  a  mother,  will  put  that  office 
upon  you.  Teach  her,  above  all  things,  to  be  good,  because  without 
that  we  can  neither  be  valued  by  others,  nor  set  any  value  on  our 
selves."  In  his  advice  to  his  children  and  nephews,  this  truth  is 
often  iv]>"ated  :  "If  ever  you  find  yourself  in  any  difficulty,  and 
doubt  how  to  extricate  yourself,  do  what  is  right,  and  you  will  find 
it  the  easiest  way  of  getting  out  of  the  difficulty."  And,  again,  to 
his  nephew,  Peter  Carr:  "Give  up  money,  give  up  fame,  give  up 
science,  give  the  earth  itself,  and  all  it  contains,  rather  than  do 
an  immoral  act.  And  never  suppose,  that,  in  any  possible  situation 
or  a:iy  circumstances,  it  is  best  for  you  to  do  a  dishonorable  tiling." 

She  was  really  coining  at  length,  though  to  the  last  moment  she 
clung  with  all  her  little  heart  to  her  home.  No  promises,  no  strata 
gems,  availed  to  reconcile  her  to  going  away.  The  ship  lay  at 
anchor  in  the  river.  Her  cousins  all  went  on  board  with  her,  and 
remained  a  day  or  two,  playing  about  the  deck  and  cabins,  and 
making  the  ship  seem  like  another  home.  Then  using  the  device 
"by  which  Pocahontas  hud  been  taken  prisoner  in  the  same  waters  a 
hundred  and  seventy  years  before,  they  all  left  the  ship  one  day 
while  she  was  asleep;  and  she  awoke  to  find  the  sails 'spread,  the 
familiar  shore  vanished,  her  cousins  gone,  and  only  her  negro  maid 
left  of  the  circle  of  her  home.  Her  affections  then  gathered  about 
the  captain  of  the  vessel,  to  whom  she  became  SO  attached,  that  part 
ing  with  him,  too,  was  agony.  Mrs.  Adams  received  her  in  London, 
where  she  ivmained  two  weeks,  and  won  the  heart  of  that  estimable 
lady.  "  A  finer  child  of  her  age  I  never  saw,"  wrote  Mrs.  Adams. 
"  So  mature  an  understanding,  so  womanly  a  behavior,  and  so 


RETURNING  TO  THE  UNITED   STATES.  333 

• 

much  sensibility  united,  are  rarely  to  be  met  with.  I  grew  so  fond 
of  her,  and  she  was  so  much  attached  to  me,  that,  when  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  sent  for  her,  they  were  obliged  to  force  the  little  creature 
away." 

It  was  a  strange  meeting  in  Paris  between  father  and  child,  and 
between  sister  and  sister.  Martha,  then  a  tall  and  elegant  girl  of 
fifteen,  had  a  week's  holiday  from  the  convent  to  meet  her  sister. 
The  little  girl  did  not  know  either  of  them,  nor  would  they  have 
known  her.  But  they  were  both  enchanted  with  her.  Besides 
being  a  girl  of  singular  and  bewitching  beauty  both  of  form  and 
face,  she  was  one  of  the  most  artless,  unselfish,  and  loving  creatures 
that  ever  blessed  and  charmed  a  home.  Her  father  was  abundantly 
satisfied  with  "her  reading,  her  writing,  and  her  manners  in  gene 
ral  ; "  and  he  poured  forth  eloquent  gratitude  to  Mrs.  Eppes  for  the 
patient  goodness  which  had  borne  such  fruit  in  the  character  and 
mind  of  his  child.  During  the  week's  holiday,  Martha  took  her 
sister  occasionally  to  the  convent,  showed  her  its  pleasant  gardens 
and  inviting  apartments,  familiarized  her  with  the  place,  which,  as 
they  all  thought,  was  to  be  her  abode  for  some  years.  At  the  end 
of  the  week  the  new-comer  went  to  the  convent  to  reside,  where  as 
"  Mademoiselle  Polie  "  she  soon  became  a  universal  favorite. 

Both  sisters  learned  to  speak  French  almost  immediately,  and 
soon  spoke  it  as  easily  as  they  did  English ;  while  the  three  adult 
members  of  the  family,  Humphries,  Short,  and  Jefferson,  when  they 
had  been  two  years  in  Paris,  got  on  in  speaking  French  not  much 
better  than  when  they  landed.  So,  at  least,  Jefferson  says  in  one 
of  his  letters.  It  does  require  about  two  years  to  begin  to  be  at 
home  in  a  foreign  language ;  but,  when  you  have  reached  a  certain 
point,  familiarity  seems  to  come  all  at  once. 

The  parent  who  keeps  a  daughter  at  a  good  specimen  of  a  con 
vent  school  for  more  than  two  years  may  count  upon  her  having  a 
fit  of  desire  to  become  a  nun;  unless,  indeed,  the  girl  has  much 
more  or  much  less  understanding  than  the  average.  These  daugh 
ters  of  Mr.  Jefferson  were  conscientious,  affectionate,  and  sympa 
thetic,  lovers  of  tranquillity,  of  strong  local  attachments ;  but  they 
were  not  exceptionally  endowed  with  intellect.  One  day  in  the 
spring  of  1789,  he  received  a  letter  from  Martha,  in  which  she 
informed  him  of  her  wish  to  pass  her  days  in  the  convent  in  the  ser 
vice  of  religion.  At  any  time  this  would  have  been  a  startling 


334  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

• 

announcement  to  such  a  father ;  but  particular  circumstances  greatly 
increased  its  effect  upon  him. 

Among  the  young  Americans  who  had  been  studying  in  European 
universities  during  Jefferson's  residence  in  Paris,  was  a  cousin  of 
his  own,.  Thomas  Mann  Randolph,  known  to  the  public  in  later 
years  as  member  of  Congress  and  governor  of  Virginia.  In  1788  he 
left  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and,  before  returning  to  Virginia, 
made  the  usual  tour  of  Europe,  lingering  several  wreeks  at  the  lega 
tion  in  Paris,  where  he  renewed  his  acquaintance  with  Martha  Jeffer 
son.  The  little  playmate  of  his  boyhood  had  grown  to  be  a  beautiful 
girl  of  sixteen  ;  and  she,  on  her  part,  saw  tlte  black-haired  boy  of  her 
early  recollections  transformed  into  a  tall,  alert  young  man,  fluent 
in  conversation,  and  of  distinguished  bearing.  From  slight  indica 
tions  in  Jefferson's  letters  of  this  year,  I  infer  that  the  youth  pro 
posed  to  the  father  for  the  hand  of  the  daughter;  and  that  Jefferson, 
while  approving  the  match  and  consenting  to  it,  had  not  disturbed 
the  school-girl's  mind  by  making  the  offer  known  to  her.  Young 
Randolph  sailed  for  Virginia  in  the  fall  of  1788;  and  the  plenipoten 
tiary,  a  few  weeks  after,  applied  for  leave  of  absence,  for  the  purpose 
of  taking  his  daughters  home.  But  at  home  the  old  government 
was  going  out,  and  a  new  government  was  coming  in ;  and  this  was 
the  reason  \\l\y  the  leave  asked  for  in  November,  17NS,  did  not 
reach  Paris  till  late  in  the  summer  of  1789.  During  this  interval  it 
was  that  Mr.  Jefferson  received  the  letter  from  his  daughter  which 
notified  him  of  her  desire  to  espouse  the  Church. 

lie  managed  this  difficult  case  with  prompt  and  successful  tact. 
He  allowed  a  day  or  two  to  pass  without  noticing  the  letter.  He 
drove  to  the  convent  on  the  third  morning,  and,  after  explaining  and 
arranging  the  matter  with  the  abbess,  asked  for  his'  daughters. 
He  received  them  with  somewhat  more  warmth  and  tenderness  than 
usual.  Without  uttering  a  word  of  explanation,  he  simply  told 
them  that  he  had  come  to  take  them  away  from  school.  As  soon  as 
they  w«  re  ready,  they  entered  the  carriage,  and  were  driven  home, 
where  they  continued  their  education  under  masters;  and  neither 
then  nor  ever  did  a  word  pass  between  father  and  daughter  on  the 
subject  of  her  letter.  The  dream  of  romantic  and  picturesque  self- 
annihilation  was  soon  dissipated  in  the  healthy  air  and  honest  light 
of  her  lather's  house.  She  accepted  her  destiny  with  the  joyous 
blindness  of  youth ;  and  instead  of  the  self-abnegation  of  the  con- 


RETURNING  TO  THE  UNITED   STATES.  335 

vent,  so  easy  and  so  flattering,  she  led  a  life  of  self-denial  which 
was  not  romantic  nor  picturesque,  but  homely  and  most  real. 

Late  in  August,  1789,  the  tardy  leave  of  absence  arrived,  and  the 
family  hastened  to  conclude  their  preparations  for  the  voyage. 
There  was  not  much  to  do.  Every  thing  at  the  legation  was  to  be 
left  unchanged,  in  the  care  of  Mr.  Short,  who  was  to  be  the  official 
charge  till  Mr.  Jefferson  returned.  To  the  last  hour  of  his  stay, 
this  most  zealous,  faithful,  and  vigilant  of  ministers  continued  to 
render  timety  and  fortunate  services  to  his  country's  commerce  with 
France,  which  had  grown  under  his  fostering  touch  from  next  to 
nothing  to  something  considerable.  It  had  been  happy  for  him, 
perhaps,  if  he  had  not  gone  to  America  then.  In  Paris  he  was  in 
harmony  with  the  prevailing  tone.  In  Paris  his  fitness  for  his 
place  was  curiously  complete.  In  Paris  he  was  sole  of  his  kind, — 
admired,  believed  in,  trusted,  liked,  beloved.  In  Paris,  with  an 
ocean  between  him  and  New  York,  he  might  have  said  No  to  the 
invitation  the  acceptance  of  which  changed  the  current  of  his  .life. 
But  it  was  in  his  destiny  to  go,  and  go  he  must. 

His  five  years'  life  in  Paris  had  done  much  for  his  general  culture, 
and  more  for  his  particular  training  as  a  public  man.  He  had 
become  a  swift,  cool,  adroit,  thoroughly  trained,  and  perfectly  accom 
plished  minister;  and  this  without  ceasing  to  be  a  man  and  a 
citizen,  without  hardening  and  narrowing  into  the  professional 
diplomatist,  without  losing  his  interest  or  his  faith  in  mankind. 
We  have  seen  how  deeply  he  was  moved,  on  his  arrival  in  Europe, 
by  the  condition  of  the  people;  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  whole 
population,  as  he  rashly  computed,  being  more  wretched  and  more 
hopeless  than  the  most  miserable  being  who  could  be  found  in  all 
the  length  and  breadth  of  America.  These  first  impressions  were 
never  effaced.  When  he  had  spent  years  in  Europe,  his  disap 
proval  of  its  political  system  —  hereditary  rank  and  irresponsible 
power  —  remained  passionate  and  unspeakable.  Whenever,  in  his 
letters  or  other  writings  of  the  time,  he  touches  that  theme,  his 
style  rises,  intensifies,  warms ;  his  words  become  short  and  simple, 
his  similes  homely  and  familiar;  every  phrase  betrays  heartfelt 
conviction. 

In  his  numerous  contributions  of  material  for  the  Encyclopedia 
and  similar  works,  he  had  evidently  tried  to  get  into  them  as  much 
of  the  genuine  republican  essence  as  the  censor  could  be  expected 


336  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

to  admit.  It  had  been  his  delight  to  explain  the  state  of  things  in 
America,  where,  as  he  said,  no  distinction  between  man  ami  man 
had  ever  been  known,  except  that  conferred  by  office;  where  "  the 
poorest  laborer  stood  on  equal  ground  with  the  wealthiest  million- 
naire.  and  generally  on  a  favored  one  whenever  their  rights  seemed 
to  jar;"  where  "a  shoemaker  or  other  artisan,  removed  by  the 
voice  of  his  country  into  a  chair  of  office,  instantly  commanded  all 
the  respect  and  obedience  which  the  laws  ascribe  to  his  office;" 
where,  "  of  distinction  by  birth  or  badge,  the  people  had  no  more 
idea  than  they  had  of  the  mode  of  existence  in  the  moon  or 
planets;"  having  merely  heard  there  were  such,  and  knowing  they 
must  be  wrong.  Hence,  he  said,  that  due  horror  of  the  evils 
flowing  from  that  barbaric  system  could  only  be  excited  in  Europe, 
where  "the  dignity  of  man  is  lost  in  arbitrary  distinctions,  where 
the  human  species  is  classed  into  several  stages  of  degradation, 
where  the  many  are  crushed  under  the  weight  of  the  few,  and  where 
the  order  established  can  present  no  other  picture  than  that  of  God 
Almighty  and  his  angels  trampling  under  foot  the  host  of  the 
damned." 

Such  utterances  as  these  —  and  they  abound  in  his  Paris  letters 
—  were  penned  before  Buncombe  County  in  North  Carolina  had 
been  "  laid  off."  They  grew  from  the  native  elevation  of  his  mind. 
They  attest  his  high-breeding,  as  well  as  his  humanity  and  good 
sense.  The  gentleman  speaks  in  them,  as  well  as  the  citizen;  for 
to  be  an  American  citizen,  and  not  feel  so,  is  to  be  of  the  Vulgar. 

But,  in  those  days,  no  American  could  boast  of  his  country's 
freedom,  without  laying  himself  open  to  a  taunt.  Did  Jefferson 
forget  that  the  laborers  of  his  own  State  were  slaves,  when  he 
vaunted  the  equality  of  its  people?  Not  always.  He  confessed 
tin- shame  of  it;  he  foretold  the  ruin  enclosed  within  it.  "  Wliat 
an  incomprehensible  machine  is  man!"  he  exclaims,  "who  ran 
endure  toil, -famine,  stripes,  imprisonment,  and  death  itself,  in  vin 
dication  of  his  own  liberty,  and,  the  next  moment,  be  deaf  to  all 
those  motives  whose  power  supported  him  through  his  trial,  and 
inflict  on  his  fellow-men  a  bondage  one  hour  of  which  is  fraught 
with  more  misery  than  a;j;es  of  that  which  he  rose  in  rebellion  to 
oppose!"  But,  then,  he  threw  the  burden  of  delivering  the  slaves 
of  Virginia  upon  that  convenient  resource  of  self-indulgent  mortals, 
"Providence."  An  "overruling  Providence,"  he  thought,  would  at 


RETURNING  TO   THE  UNITED   STATES.  337 

length  effect  what  the  masters  of  Virginia  ought  at  once  to  do. 
When  the  measure  of  the  slaves'  tears  should  be  full,  then  "  a  God 
of  justice  will  awaken  to  their  distress,  and  by  diffusing  light  and 
liberality  among  their  oppressors,  or,  at  length,  by  his  exterminat 
ing  thunder,  manifest  his  attention  to  the  things  of  this  world,  and 
that  they  are  not  left  to  the  guidance  of  a  blind  fatality." 

To  the  moment  of  his  departure  from  Europe,  we  find  him  still  a 
warm  lover  of  France,  and  devoted  to  the  alliance  between  the  two 
countries.  The  last  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Madison  in  Paris  con 
tains  a  passage  on  the  alliance,  which,  coming  from  the  placid 
Jefferson,  we  may  almost  call  fiery :  — 

"  When,  of  two  nations,  the  one  has  engaged  herself  in  a  ruinous 
war  for  us,  has  spent  her  blood  and  money  to  save  us,  has  opened 
her  bosom  to  us  in  peace,  and  received  us  almost  on  the  footing  of 
her  own  citizens;  while  the  other  has  moved  heaven,  earth,  and  hell 
to  exterminate  us  in  war,  has  insulted  us  in  all  her  councils  in 
peace,  shut  her  doors  to  us  in  every  port  where  her  interests  would 
admit  it,  libelled  us  in  foreign  nations,  endeavored  to  poison  them 
against  the  reception  of  our  most  precious  commodities, — to  place 
these  two  nations  on  a  footing  is  to  give  a  great  deal  more  to  one 
than  to  the  other,  if  the  maxim  be  true,  that  to  make  unequal  quan 
tities  equal,  you  must  add  more  to  one  than  to  the  other.  To  say, 
in  excuse,  that  gratitude  is  never  to  enter  into  the  motives  of 
national  conduct,  is  to  revive  a  principle  which  has  been  buried  foi 
centuries  with  the  kindred  principles  of  the  lawfulness  of  assassina 
tion,  poison,  and  perjury.  ...  I  know  but  one  code  of  morality 
for  men,  whether  acting  singly  or  collectively." 

Such  was  his  feeling  with  regard  to  France  and  England  in  1789 
before  there  were  "  Gallicans  "  or  "Anglicans,"  still  less  "  Galloma 
niacs  "  or  "  Ariglomaniacs,"  among  his  countrymen. 

And,  since  I  am  endeavoring  to  show  what  manner  of  mind 
Thomas  Jefferson  brought  back  with  him  to  his  native  land  in  1789, 
I  must  allude  to  another  matter.  He  carried  his  view  of  the  rights 
of  the  individual  mind  to  an  extreme,  which,  in  that  age,  had  few 
supporters  in  his  own  country.  His  moral  system  was  strict ;  his 
"  doxy  "  was  startlingly  lax.  The  advice  he  gave  his  nephews  on 
these  points,  when  they  were  college  students,  might  be  summed  up 
22 


838  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSOK. 

in  words  like  these  :  Perfect  freedom  of  thinking,  but  no  other  free 
dom  !  To  do  right  and  feel  humanely,  we  are  bmnul :  it  is  an  honor 
able  bondage,  and  lie  is  noblest  who  is  most  submissive  to  it;  but,  in 
matters  of  opinion,  it  is  infamy  not  to  be  free.  These  sentences, 
among  others,  he  addressed  to  Peter  Carr  in  college  in  1787  :  — 

"Religion.  In  the  first  place,  divest  yourself  of  all  bias  in  favor 
of  novelty  and  singularity  of  opinion.  Indulge  them  on  any  other 
subject  rather  than  that  of  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  shake  off 
all  flie  fears  and  servile  prejudices  under  which  weak  minds  are 
servilely  crouched.  Fix  Reason  firmly  in  her  seat,  and  call  to  her 
tribunal  every  fact,  every  opinion.  Question  with  boldness  even 
the  existence  of  a  God ;  because,  if  there  be  one,  he  must  more 
approve  of  the  homage  of  reason  than  of  blindfolded  fear.  You 
will  naturally  examine,  first,  the  religion  of  your  own  country. 
Head  the  liible,  then,  as  you  would  Livy  or  Tacitus.  For  example, 
in  the  Book  of  Joshua  we  are  told  the  sun  stood  still  for  several' 
hours.  Were  we  to  read  that  fact  in  Livy  or  Tacitus,  we  should 
class  it  with  their  showers  of  blood,  speaking  of  statues,  beasts,  etc. 
But  it  is  said  that  the  writer  of  that  book  was  inspired.  Examine, 
therefore,  candidly,  what  evidence  there  is  of  his  having  been  in 
spired.  The  pretension  is  entitled  to  your  inquiry,  because  millions 
believe  it.  On  the  other  hand,  you  are  astronomer  enough  to  know 
how  contrary  it  is  to  the  law  of  nature.  You  will  next  read  the 
New  Testament.  It  is  the  history  of  a  personage  called  Jesus.  Keep 
in  your  eye  the  opposite  pretensions  :  1,  Of  those  who  say  he  was 
begotten  by  God,  born  of  a  virgin,  suspended  and  reversed  the  laws 
of  nature  at  will,  and  ascended  bodily  into  heaven  ;  and,  2,  Of  those 
who  say  he  was  a  man  of  illegitimate  birth,  of  a  benevolent  heart, 
enthusiastic  mind,  who  set  out  with  pretensions  to  divinity,  ended 
iu  believing  them,  and  was  punished  capitally  for  sedition,  by  being 
gibbeted,  according  to  the  Roman  law,  which  punished  the  first 
commission  of  that  offence  by  whipping,  and  the  second  bv  exile,  or 
death  in  f urea.  See  this  law  in  Digest,  lib.  48,  tit.  19,  If  28,  3,  and 
Lip.-ius.  lil>.  "2,  de  cniee,  cap.  2.  Do  not  be  frightened  from  this 
inquiry  by  any  fear  of  its  consequences.  If  it  ends  in  a  belief  that 
there  is  no  God,  you  will  find  incitements  to  virtue  in  the  comfort 
and  pleasantness  you  will  feel  in  its  exercise,  and  the  love  of  others 
which  it  will  procure  you.  If  you  find  reason  to  believe  there  is  a 


BETURNING  TO   THE  UNITED   STATES.  339 

.  God,  a  consciousness  that  you  are  acting  under  his  eye,  and  that  he 
approves  you,  will  be  a  vast  additional  incitement :  if  that  Jesus 
was  also  a  God,  you  will  be  comforted  by  a  belief  of  his  aid  and  love. 
Your  own  reason  is  the  only  oracle  given  you  by  Heaven  ;  and  you  are 
answerable,  not  for  the  Tightness,  but  uprightness,  of  the  decision." 

Such  sentiments  as  these,  which  he  cherished  as  long  as  he  lived, 
were  familiar  enough  then  to  the  educated  class  of  the  United 
States,  as  of  Christendom  generally  ;  but  they  were  seldom  stated 
with  such  uncompromising  bluntness  as  in  the  passage  from  which 
these  sentences  are  selected.  He  disposed  of  subtler  questions  in 
the  same  letter  with  equal  abruptness :  "  Conscience  is  as  much  a 
part  of  a  man  as  his  leg  or  arm.  It  is  given  to  all  human  beings 
in  a  stronger  or  weaker  degree,  as  force  of  members  is  given  them 
in  a  greater  or  less  degree.  It  may  be  strengthened  by  exercise,  as 
may  any  particular  limb  of  the  body." 

His  long  residence  in  a  metropolis  had  not  freed  his  mind  from 
some  provincial  prejudices.  He  shared  the  common  opinion  of  that 
age,  that  virtue  was  a  product  of  the  country,  rather  than  the  town, 
and  that  farmers  were  better  citizens  than  mechanics  or  merchants. 
He  spoke  occasionally  of  mechanics  as  a  class  disposed  to  turbu 
lence,  as  if  he  had  derived  his  knowledge  of  them  from  Shak- 
speare's  Julius  Caesar,  rather  than  from  the  workshops  of  his  own 
time.  He  hoped  the  period  was  remote  when  many  of  his  country 
men  would  be  employed  in  manufactures;  which  he  evidently 
regarded,  with  Franklin,  as  a  kind  of  necessary  evil,  or  last  resource 
of  an  over-populated  country.  "  But  his  special  aversion  was  mer 
chants.  "  Merchants,"  he  wrote,  "  are  the  least  virtuous  citizens, 
and  possess  the  least  amor  patrice"  The  reason  why  Rhode  Island 
was  so  difficult,  and  Connecticut  so  easy,  to  be  brought  to  consent 
to  reasonable  measures,  he  thought,  was  this:  In  Connecticut  there 
was  scarcely  a  man  who  was  not  a  farmer,  and  in  Rhode  Island 
almost  every  one  was  a  merchant.  All  this,  which  savors  of  the 
country  gentleman,  seems  to  us  of  the  present  day  crude  and  erro 
neous.  Khode  Island  might  well  pause,  in  1787,  before  surrendering 
control  of  the  business  to  which  she  owed  her  whole  subsistence.  Ob 
serve  a  one-eyed  man,  when  splinters  are  flying,  with  what  anxious 
vigilance  he  guards  the  organ  which  alone  saves  him  from  a  life 
time's  darkness.  Rhode  Island's  commerce  was  like  that  last  charge 


340  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

in  David  Crocket's  rifle,  when  he  and  the  bear  were  eying  one 
another  across  the  brook. 

Such  a  man  was  Thomas  Jefferson  on  his  departure  from  France. 
He  had  his  limits,  of  course;  lie  had  his  foibles;  he  had  his  faults. 
But  the  sum  of  his  worth  as  a  human  being  was  very  great ;  and  he 
had  more  in  him  of  that  which  makes  the  glory  and  hope  of  Amer 
ica  than  any  other  living  creature  known  to  us.  American  prin 
ciples  he  more  than  believed  in  :  lie  loved  them,  and  he  deemed 
their  prevalence  essential  to  the  welfare  of  man. 

AYhat  a  plague  it  was  to  get  across  the  sea  eighty  years  ago  ! 
With  trunks  packed  (and  their  trunks,  as  Jefferson  intimates,  were 
of  American  number  and  magnitude),  the  little  family  sat  a£  home 
waiting  a  whole  month  for  a  ship;  and,  after  all,  they  could  do  no 
better  than  charter  one  in  London  to  take  them  in  at  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  It  was  a  month  of  alarm  in  Paris.  The  harvest  had  not 
relieved  the  scarcity  of  food  ;  long  queues  of  hungry  people  streamed 
still  from  every  baker's  shop  ;  and  the  government  itself,  perishing 
of  inanition,  was  obliged  to  spare  a  million  a  week  to  keep  down  the 
price  of  bread  in  Paris.  Even  in  that  dire  extremity,  the  Protective 
System  shut  the  ports  of  France  against  the  food  for  want  of  whie,h 
Frenchmen  were  dying;  and  Jefferson  spent  his  last  days,  and  even 
his  last  hours,. in  Paris,  in  trying  to  persuade  the  Ministry  to  permit 
the  importation  of  salted  provisions  from  the  United  States!  Salt 
beef,  objected  the  Count  de  Montmorin,  will  give  people  the  scurvy. 
No,  replied  Jefferson  :  we  eat  it  in  America,  and  don't  have  the 
scurvy.  The  salt-tax  will  fall  off,  said  the  minister.  Jefferson 
could  not  deny  that  it  might  a  little ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
would  relieve  the  government  from  the  necessity  of  keeping  the 
price  of  bread  below  its  value.  But,  resumed  the  Count,  the  people 
of  France  will  not  buy  salt  meat.  Then,  replied  Jefferson,  the 
merchants  won't  import  it,  and  no  harm  will  be  done.  And  you 
cannot  make  a  good  soup  of  it,  urged  the  Count.  True,  said  Jeffer 
son,  but  it  gives  a  delightful  flavor  to  vegetables.  Besides,  it  will 
cost  only  half  the  price  of  fresh  meat.  He  convinced  the  Count  de 
Montmorin,  who  requested  him  to  propose  the  measure  to  .M. 
Necker.  But,  as  he  was  summoned  to  join  the  ship,  he  could  only 
argue  it  briefly  in  a  letter  to  M.  Necker,  which  he  left  for  Mr.  Short 
to  deliver  and  enforce.  Au^u-t  !'<'•« h,  the  day  on  which  this  letter 
was  written,  he  and  his  daughters  left  Paris  for  Havre. 


RETURNING-  TO  THE  UNITED   STATES.  341 

He  might  as  well  have  waited  a  while  longer.  They  were  de 
tained  at  Havre  ten  days,  during  which  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
effect  another  practicable  breach  in  the  Protective  System.  Ameri 
can  ships  bringing  cargoes  to  Havre,  found  nothing  to  take  from 
Havre,  sometimes,  except  -salt ;  but  salt  could  only  be  bought  "  at 
a  mercantile  price,"  at  places  on  the  Loire  and  Garonne,  away 
round  on  the  Biscay  side  of  France,  involving  six  or  eight  hun 
dred  miles  of  difficult  and  perilous  coasting.  He  now  obtained 
from  the  farmers-general  a  concession,  by  which  American  ships 
could  load  with  salt  at  Honfleur,  opposite  Havre,  paying  only  mer 
cantile  rates.  It  made  a  nice  finish  to  his  diplomatic  career,  —  this 
valuable  service  to  the  merchants  and  mariners  of  his  country. 

Ten  days  further  detention  at  Cowes  gave  the  young  ladies  an 
opportunity  to  ride  about  the  Isle  of  Wight,  to  peep  into  the  deep 
well  at  Carisbrooke  Castle,  and  stare  at  the  window  in  the  ruins 
out  of  which  Charles  I.  looked  when  he  was  a  prisoner  there,  per 
haps  with  comments  on  the  character  of  the  decapitated  from  their 
father.  Mr.  Pitt,  it  appears,  had  the  politeness  to  send  an  order  to 
Cowes,  exempting  the  baggage  of  the  voyagers  from  search,  an 
attention  which  Miss  Jefferson  remembered  with  gratitude,  she 
being  the  member  of  the  party  who  was  most  obliged. 


CHAPTER     XXXIX. 

HIS    WELCOME    HOME. 

TWENTY-THREE  days  of  swift  sailing  and  perfect  autumn  weather 
brought  the  ship  into  a  dense  fog  off  the  coast  of  Virginia.  For 
three  days  the  thick  November  mist  clung  to  the  shore,  preventing 
the  captain  from  getting  a  glimpse  of  either  cape.  At  length, 
trusting  only  to  his  calculations,  in  which,  doubtless,  a  mathemat 
ical  plenipotentiary  had  taken  part,  he  stood  in  boldly,  and  escaped 
into  Chesapeake  Bay,  with  only  a  graze  and  a  scare,  just  in  time  to 
avoid  ;i  storm  that  kept  some  companion  vessels  a  month  longer  at 
sea.  This,  however,  was  but  the  beginning  of  mishaps.  In 
beating  up  to  Norfolk  against  the  rising  gale,  they  were  run  into 
by  a  vessel  rushing  seaward  before  the  wind,  and  lost  part  of  their 
rigging-  At  Norfolk,  two  hours  after  the  passengers  had  landed, 
and  before  any  of  their  effects  had  been  taken  ashore,  the  ship 
caught  fire.  The  flames  gained  such  headway,  that  4he  captain 
was  on  the  point  of  scuttling  the  vessel.  But  at  last,  through  the 
exertions  of  every  sailor  in  port,  the  fire  was  got  under,  without 
damage  to  the  papers  of  the  minister  or  the  daintier  effects  of 
his  daughters.  Nothing  saved  them  but  the  thickness  of  the  trunks ; 
for  the  heat  was  so  great  in  the  state-rooms,  that  the  powder  in  a 
musket  standing  in  one  of  them  was  silently  consumed. 

Norfolk,  which  had  been  burned  to  the  last  house  during  the  war, 
was  little  more  than  a  village  of  shanties  when  Jefferson  and  his 
daughters  landed  tin-re,  November  18,  1789.  They  would  have  been 
puzzled  to  find  shelter,  as  the  only  inn  in  the  town  was  full,  but 
for  the  generosity  of  its  inmates,  who  insisted  on  giving  up  their 
rooms  to  them.  On  the  very  day  of  his  landing,  Jefferson  read  in  a 
newspaper  that  President  Washington  had  appointed  him  secretary 
of  state.  "  I  made  light  of  it;"  he  wrote  soon  after  to  a  lady  in 
342 


HIS   WELCOME   HOME.  343 

Paris,  "  supposing  I  had  only  to  say  No,  and  there  would  be  an  end 
of  it." 

In  all  Virginia  there  was  scarcely  such  a  thing,  at  that  time,  as 
a  public  conveyance.  Friends,  however,  lent  the  party  horses;  and 
they  journeyed  homeward  in  the  delightfully  slow,  easy,  social  man 
ner  of  the  time,  stopping  at  every  friend's  house  on  and  near  their 
road.  They  were  ten  days  or  more  in  getting  as  far  as  Richmond. 
The  legislature  was  in  session,  many  of  Jefferson's  old  colleagues 
being  present.  They  could  not  let  him  pass  through  the  capital  of 
his  native  State  without  some  mark  of  their  regard.  On  the  7th 
of  December,  1789,  the  House  of  Delegates  appointed  a  committee 
of  thirteen  members,  —  sacred  number  !  —  with  Patrick  Henry  for 
chairman,  to  congratulate  him  on  his  return,  and  to  assure  him  of 
their  esteem  for  "his  character  and  public  services."  The  com 
mittee  waited  upon  him,  and  communicated  the  resolution  of  the 
House.  His  reply  was  in  the  taste  of  the  period  :  — 

"I  receive  with  humble  gratitude,  gentlemen,  the  congratulations 
of  the  Honorable  the  House  of  Delegates  on  my  return ;  and  I  beg 
leave,  through  you,  to  present  them  my  thanks  and  dutiful  respects. 
Could  any  circumstance  heighten  my  affection  to  my  native  coun 
try,  it  would  be  the  indulgence  with  which  they  view  my  feeble 
efforts  to  serve  it,  and  the  esteem  with  which  they  are  pleased  to 
honor  me.  I  shall  hope  to  merit  a  continuance  of  their  goodness, 
by  obeying  the  impulse  of  a  zeal  of  which  public  good  is  the  first 
object,  and  public  esteem  the  highest  reward.  Permit  me,  gen 
tlemen,  for  a  moment,  to  separate  from  my  general  thanks  the 
special  ones  I  owe  to  you,  the  organs  of  so  flattering  a  communica 
tion." 

• 

Resuming  their  journey,  they  arrived,  early  in  December,  at  the 
mansion  of  'Uncle  Eppes  in  Chesterfield  County,  the  happy  home 
of  Mary  Jefferson's  childhood.  Here  they  halted  for  many  days. 
It  was  at  this  place  that  Jefferson  received  the  official  announce 
ment  of  his  appointment  as  secretary  of  state.  A  gentleman  from 
New  York  overtook  him  at  Eppington,  bearing  his  commission 
signed  by  the  president :  also  a  letter  from  the  president,  cordially 
inviting  him  to  accept  the  place,  yet  giving  him  his  choice  to  return 
to  Paris  if  he  preferred  to  do  so.  It  was  evident  that  General 


344  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Washington  expected  him  to  accept.  Mr.  Jefferson's  reply  was 
such  as  became  the  citizen  of  a  republic.  He  told  the  president 
that  he  preferred  to  remain  in  the  office  he  then  held,  the  duties  of 
which  he  knew  and  felt  equal  to,  rather  than  undertake  a  place,  the 
duties  of  which  were  more  difficult  and  much  more  extensive. 
"  But,"  he  added,  "  it  ia  not  for  an  individual  to  choose  his  post. 
You  are  to  marshal  us  as  may  be  best  for  the  public  good."  There 
fore,  if  the  president,  after  learning  his  decided  preference  to  return 
to  France,  still  thought  it  best  to  transfer  him  to  New  York,  "  my 
inclination  must  be  no  obstacle." 

They  were  six  weeks  in  reaching  home.  Two  days  before  Christ 
mas, —  a  joyful  time  of  year  everywhere,  but  nowhere,  perhaps, 
quite  so  hilarious  as  in  the  Virginia  of  that  generation,  —  all  was 
expectation  at  Monticello.  The  house  had  been  made  ready.  The 
negroes,  to  whom  a  holiday  had  been  given,  all  came  in  from  the 
various  farms  of  the  estate,  dressed  in  their  cleanest  attire,  and 
the  women  wearing  their  brightest  turbans,  and  gathered,  earl}7  in  the 
day,  about  the  house.  Their  first  thought  was  to  meet  the  return 
ing  family  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain;  and  thither  they  moved  in 
a  body,  —  men,  women,  and  children, — long  before  there  was  any 
reason  to  expect  them.  As  the  tedious  hours  passed,  the  more 
eager  of  the  crowd  walked  on  ;  and  these  being  followed  by  the 
rest,  there  was  a  straggling  line  of  them  a  mile  or  two  in  length. 
Late  in  the  afternoon,  the  most  advanced  descried  a  carriage  at 
Shadwell,  drawn  by  four  horses,  with  postilions,  in  the  fashion  of 
the  time.  The  exulting  shout  was  raised.  All  ran  forward ;  and 
soon  the  whole  crowd  huddled  round  the  vehicle,  pulling,  pushing, 
crying,  cheering,  until  it  reached  the  steep  ascent  of  the  mountain, 
where  the  slackened  pace  gave  them  the  opportunity  they  desired. 
In  spite  of  the  master's  entreaties  and  commands,  they  took  off  the 
horses,  and  drew  the  carriage  at  a  run  up  the  mountain,  and  round 
the  lawn  to  the  door  of  the  house. 

It  was  no  easy  matter  to  alight.  Mr.  Jefferson  swam  in  a  tumul 
tuous  sea  of  black  arms  and  faces,  from  the  carriage  to  the  ste*ps  of 
the  portico.  Some  kissed  his  hands,  others  his  feet;  some  cried, 
others  laughed;  all  tried  at  least  to  touch  him.  Not  a  word  could 
be  heard  above  the  din.  ]>ut  when  the  young  ladies  appeared ;  when 
Martha,  whom  they  had  last  seen  a  child  of  eleven, .stepped  forth  a 
woman  grown,  in  all  the  glorious  lustre  of  youth,  beauty,  and  joy; 


HIS   WELCOME  HOME.  345 

and  when  Mary  followed,  a  sylph  in  form,  face,  and  step,  they  all 
fell  apart,  and  made  a  lane  for  them  to  pass,  holding  up  their  chil 
dren  to  see  them,  and  uttering  many  a  cry  of  rapturous  approval. 
The  father  and  daughters  entered  the  house  at  length;  the  carriage 
rolled  away ;  the  negroes  went  off  chattering  to  their  quarters ;  and 
there  was  quiet  again  at  Monticello.  "  Such  a  scene,"  wrote  Martha 
Jefferson  long  after,  "I  never  witnessed  in  my  life."  As  late  as 
1851,  Mr.  Randall  heard  a  vivid  description  of  it  at  Monticello,  from 
an  aged  negro  who  was  one  of  the  hoys  of  the  joyful  crowd. 

The  merry  Christmas  passed.  One  of  the  first  visitors  from 
heyoiid  the  immediate  neighborhood  was  James  Madison,  who  was 
about  starting  for  New  York  to  attend  Congress.  General  Wash 
ington,  it  seems,  had  requested  him  to  call,  at  Monticello,  and  ascer 
tain  more  exactly  the  state  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  mind  with  regard  to 
the  appointment.  "  I  was  sorry,"  Madison  wrote  to  the  president, 
January  4, 1790,  "to  find  him  so  little  biassed  in  favor  of  the  domes 
tic  service  allotted  him,  but  was  glad  that  his  difficulties  seemed  to 
result  chiefly  from  what  I  take  to  be  an  erroneous  view  of  the  kind 
and  quantity  of  business."  To  the  foreign  department  alone  he  felt 
equal,  but  he  dreaded  the  new  and  unknown  duties  which  had  been 
annexed  to  that.  Upon  receiving  this  information,  the  president 
wrote  again  to  Jefferson.  The  new  business,  he  thought,  would  not 
be  arduous  ;  and,  if  it  should  prove  so,  doubtless  Congress  would  apply 
a  remedy.  The  office,  in  the  president's  opinion,  was  very  impor 
tant,  on  many  accounts  ;  and  he  knew  of  no  one  who  could  better 
execute  it.  He  added  a  remark  sure  to  have  great  weight  with  Jef 
ferson,  as,  indeed,  it  ought :  "  In  order  that  you  may  be  better  pre 
pared  to  make  your  ultimate  decision  on  good  grounds,  I  think  it 
necessary  to  add  ome  fact,  which  is  this,  that  your  late  appointment 
has  given  very  extensive  and  very  great  satisfaction  to  the  public." 
Still  the  president  would  not  urge  acceptance.  He  merely  said, 
with  regard  to  his  own  feelings,  "  My  original  opinion  and  wish 
may  be  collected  from  my  nomination."  Jefferson  yielded  without 
further  parley.  "I  no  longer  hesitate,"  he  wrote  February  11,  "to 
undertake  the  office  to  which  you  are  pleased  to  call  me."  So  Mr. 
Short  had  to  break  up  the  establishment  at  Paris,  and  send  home 
the  accumulated  treasures  of  five  years'  haunting  of  Paris  bookstalls 
and  curiosity-shops. 

The  day  after  accepting  office,  a  committee  of  his  old  constituents 


346  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

of  Albemarle  arrived  at  Monticello,  and  presented  an  address  of 
congratulation  and  commendation.  It  was  unusually  cordial  and 
interesting.  They  sketched  his  whole  public  career  with  approval ; 
and  felicitated  themselves  upon  the  fact,  that  it  was  they  who  had 
introduced  him  to  public  life.  Above  all  his  other  services,  thoy 
extolled  "the  strong  attachment  he  had  always  shown  to  the  rights 
of  mankind,  and  to  those  institutions  that  were  best  calculated  to 
preserve  them."  Much  as  they  should  like  to  enjoy  his  services 
again,  they  assured  him  that  they  were  too  much  attached  to  the  com 
mon  interests  of  their  country,  and  too  sensible  of  his  merit,  not  to 
unite  with  the  general  voice  that  called  him  "  to  continue  in  her 
councils."  In  his  reply,  he  again  seized  the  opportunity  to  recall 
attention  to  first  principles.  The  favor  of  his  neighbors,  he  .said, 
was,  indeed,  "  the  door  through  which  he  had  been  ushered  on  the 
stage  of  public  life  ; "  and,  after  becoming  reference  to  that  circum 
stance,  he  added  these  words,  which  contain  the  chief  article  of  his 
political  creed :  — 

"We  have  been  fellow-laborers  and  fellow-sufferers  ;  and  Heaven 
has  rewarded  us  with  a  happy  issue  from  our  struggles.  It  rests  now 
with  ourselves  alone  to  enjoy  in  peace  and  concord  the  blessings  of 
self-government,  so  long  denied  to  mankind :  to  show  by  example 
the  sufficiency  of  human  reason  for  the  care  of  human  affairs ;  and 
that  the  will  of  the  majority — the  natural  law  of  every  society  — 
is  the  only  sure  guardian  of  the  rights  of  man.  Perhaps  even  this 
may  sometimes  err ;  but  its  errors  are  honest,  solitary,  and  short 
lived.  Let  us  then,  my  dear  friends,  forever  bow  down  to  the 
general  reason  of  the  society.  We  are  safe  with  that,  even  in  its 
deviations,  for  it  soon  returns  again  to  the  right  way." 

« 

The  lovers,  meanwhile,  were  improving  their  time.  February  23, 
17'H',  the  wedding  occurred  at  Monticello.  The  clergyman  who 
performed  the  ceremony  was^Mr,  Maury,  son  of 'Jefferson's  school 
master.  Young  Randolph  was  heir  to  large  estates  ;  and  the  pair, 
after  living  a  while  at  Monticello,  settled  on  land  in  the  neighbor 
hood.  Fur  a  single  week  Jefferson  witnessed  and  shared  the  happi 
ness  of  his  children  ;  and  then,  in  obedience  to  General  Washing 
ton's  urgent  desire,  he  set  out  for  New  York.  The  pre.-idi-nt  had 
already  kept  the  office  six  months  for  him ;  business  was  accumu- 


HIS   WELCOME  HOME.  34T 

ating;  he  might  well  tie  a  little  impatient  to  see  his  secretary  of 
tate. 

What  a  journey  Jefferson  had  of  it  in  the  wet  and  stormy  March 
•f  1790  !  Twenty-one  days  of  hard  travel,  including  brief  rests  at 
Richmond,  Alexandria,  Baltimore,  and  Philadelphia !  Delightful 
.a  old-fashioned  travel  may  have  been  to  a  home-returning  plenipo- 
entiary,  leisure  being  abundant,  and  the  season  propitious,  it  was 
aisery  to  a  secretary  of  state  overdue,  in  chill  and  oozy  March,  at 
,  point  four  hundred  miles  distant.  He  sent  his  carriage  round  to 
Alexandria  in  advance,  intending  to  go  in  it  the  rest  of  the  way. 
Vt  that  ancient  and  flourishing  port,  where  he  paused  one  day,  he 
eceived  an  address  from  the  mayor  and  citizens;  from  which  we 
earn  that  his  labors  in  behalf  of  commerce  had  become  known  to 
»arties  interested.  The  Alexandrians,  besides  approving  his  exer- 
ions  in  "  the  sacred  cause  of  freedom,"  had  a  word  of  thanks  for 
1  the  indulgences  which  his  enlightened  representations  to  the  court 
>f  France  had  secured  to  their  trade  ; "  adding  these  words  :  "  You 
lave  freed  commerce  from  its  shackles,  and  destroyed  the  first  essay 
nade  in  this  country  towards  establishing  a  monopoly."  The  last 
emark  was  aimed,  probably,  at  British  merchants  and  their  resident 
.gents,  who  still  had  a  tight  grip  upon  Virginia  estates,  and  did  not 
vant  any  Virginia  ships  to  go  to  Havre.  Jefferson  waived  this  com- 
>liment  with  his  usual  excess  of  modesty,  but  did  not  refrain  from 
i  sentence  or  two  upon  general  politics :  — 

"  Convinced  that  the  republican  is  the  only  form  of  government 
vhich  is  not  eternally  at  open  or  secret  war  with  the  rights  of  man 
kind,  my  prayers  and  efforts  shall  be  cordially  contributed  to  the 
;upport  of  that  we  have  so  happily  established.  ...  It  is,  indeed, 
in  animating  thought,  that,  while  we  are  securing  the  rights  of  our- 
;elves  and  our  posterity,  we  are  pointing  out  the  way  to  struggling 
lations,  who  wish,  like  us,  to  emerge  from  their  tyrannies  also. 
ELeaven  help  their  struggles,  and  lead  them,  as  it  has  done  us;  tri- 
imphantly  through  them  !  " 

All  this  was  cordial  to  the  people  of  that  day,  who  had  scarcely 
leard,  as  yet,  that  there  were  Americans  who  felt  otherwise.  No 
me  could  say,  in  March,  1790,  that  it  was  the  partisan  who  spoke 
such  words. 


348  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

During  the  night  of  his  stay  at  Alexandria,  a  late  winter  storm 
covered  the  ground  with  snow  to  the  depth  of  eighteen  inches.  He 
therefore  left  his  carriage  to  be  sent  round  by  sea,  and  took  a  place 
in  the  stage,  his  horses  being  left,  and  ridden  after  him  by  his  ser 
vants.  So  bad  were  the  roads,  that  the  lumbering  vehicle,  as  he 
wrote  back  to  his  son-in-law,  "could  never  go  more  than  three  miles 
an  hour,  sometimes  not  more  than  two,  and  in  the  night  but  one." 
During  the  few  hours  of  his  stay  at  Philadelphia,  he  had  his  last 
interview  with  Dr.  Franklin,  who  was  then  on  the  bed  from  which 
he  was  to  be  borne,  a  month  after,  to  his  coffin.  The  old  manj 
whose  mental  faculties  seemed  to  remain  undiminished  to  the  last; 
listened  with  flushed  face  to  Jefferson's  narrative  of  all  that  had 
occurred  lately  in  France.  He  asked  eagerly  what  part  his  friends 
there  had  taken,  what  had  been  their  course  amid  the  torrent  of 
events,  and  what  their  fate.  Jefferson  had  volumes  to  impart  to 
him,  and  Franklin  was  almost  exhausted  by  the  intensity  of  his 
interest  in  what  he  heard. 

Sunday,  March  21,  1790,  "  after  as  laborious  a  journey  as  I  ever 
went  through,"  Jefferson  reached  New  York.  A  paragraph  of  a 
line  and  a  half  in  the  principal  newspaper  of  the  town  announced 
his  arrival ;  but,  as  he  attacked  immediately  the  accumulated  busi 
ness  of  his  office,  his  name  soon  begins  to  appear  at  the  end  of  pub 
lic  documents,  below  that  of  "  G.  Washington."  The  amount  of 
work  in  prospect  was  a  little  alarming.  Finding  no  suitable  house 
vacant  in  "  the  Broadway,"  he  hired  a  small  one,  No.  57  Maiden 
Lane,  while  he  could  look  about  him  ;  for  it  was  his  habit  and  inten 
tion  to  keep  house  in  comfortable  style.  .  The  salary  of  his  office 
then  was  three  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  a  year,  five  hundred 
more  than  the  salaries  of  his  colleagues  in  the  cabinet.  Hamilton 
lived  in  Tine  Street,  where  so  many  lawyers  still  labor,  but  not  live ; 
and  Colonel  Aaron  Burr  was  plodding  at  the  law  in  Xu.-suu  Street, 
near  Wall,  where  he  had  a  large  garden  and  grapery.  Jefferson 
appears  to  have  startled  mankind  by  continuing  at  first  to  wear  his 
Trench  clothes,  even  red  breeches  and  red  waistcoat,  the  fashion  in 
Paris. 


CHAPTER    XL. 

ALEXANDER    HAMILTON. 

WITH  whatever  reluctance  and  dread  Jefferson  may  have  ac 
cepted  the  office  of  secretary  of  state,  his  forebodings  were  realized. 
After  five  years'  residence  in  Paris  at  the  most  interesting  period  of 
its  history;  after  a  kind  of  triumphal  progress  through  Virginia, 
where  delegations  of  grateful  and  admiring  citizens  had  saluted  him 
with  addresses  of  congratulation  ;  after  some  peerless  weeks  at  Mon- 
ticello,  crowded  with  old  friends  and  relatives  gathered  to  attend  his 
daughter's  wedding,  — he  found  himself,  in  the  early  spring  of  1790, 
just  when  his  gardens  at  home  were  fullest  of  allurement,  closeted 
with  four  clerks  (the  whole  force  of  his  department),  face  to  face 
with  a  Monticello  of  despatches^  documents,  applications,  many  of 
which  were  bulky  and  important  papers,  requiring  close  attention 
and  hard  work.  It  was  like  going  to  school  after  a  particularly 
joyous  vacation,  —  inky  grammar  and  damp  dictionary,  instead  of 
gun  and  picnic ;  keen  contests  with  uncomplimentary  equals  and 
rivals,  instead  of  the  easily  won  applause  of  partial  friends  and 
affectionate  sisters.  He  had  enjoyed  much  and  done  much  during 
the  past  few  years  :  he  was  now  to  be  tried  and  tested.  The  sum 
mer  of  his  growth  was  suspended ;  the  wintry  blast  was  to  blow 
upon  him  a  while,  pruning  and  hardening  him.  A  tree  does  not 
look  so  pretty  during  this  season,  but  the  timber  ought  to  improve. 

He  had  a  cordial  welcome  in  New  York.  General  Washington 
was  relieved  to  find  his  cabinet  complete  after  the  new  government 
had  existed  nearly  a  year,  and  glad  to  have  near  him  a  Virginian 
whom  he  knew,  from  of  old,  to  be  in  singular  accord  with  the 
American  people.  The  leading  citizens  threw-  open  their  doors  to 
him.  Among  members  of  Congress,  whom  should  he  find  but  that 
genial  comrade  of  his  youth,  John  Page  ?  Oddly  enough,  one  of 

"349 


350  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

the  first  parties  lie  attended,  in  the  very  first  week  of  his  residence, 
was  the  wedding  of  that  confidant  of  his  o\vn  early  loves  to  a 
daughter  of  New  York.  Madison,  too,  was  in  Congress,  with  other 
allies  and  old  colleagues.  But  it  is  plain,  from  his  letters,  that  his 
heart  was  in  Virginia;  that  he  pined  for  his  children,  and  took  un 
kindly  to  the  yoke  of  his  office.  He  told  his  daughters,  that,  after 
having  had  them  with  him  so  long  to  cheer  him  in  the  intervals  of 
business,  he  felt  acutely  the  separation  from  them  ;  but  that  his  own 
happiness  had  become  a  secondary  consideration  with  him,  and  he 
was  only  happy  in  their  happiness.  He  was  homesick  during  the 
whole  period  of  his  holding  this  office,  except  when  he  was  at  home. 

Even  his  health  failed  at  first.  He  attacked  his  arrears  of  busi 
ness  with  such  vigor  and  persistence  as  to  bring  on  a  three  weeks' 
headache,  which  for  several  days  even  kept  him  from  his  office. 
And  while  the  gloom  of  this  malady  still  hung  over  him,  the  infant 
government  was  menaced  with  a  stroke  that  appalled  the  group  of 
persons  nearest  him,  whose  dearest  hopes  for  themselves  and  for 
their  country  were  bound  up  with  it.  The  president,  who  had  been 
drooping  for  some  time,  became  alarmingly  sick.  Washington,  too, 
found  the  desk  a  bad  exchange  from  the  saddle.  It  was  his  custom 
to  read  with  the  utmost  care,  pen  in  hand,  all  important  despatches 
and  papers,  and  to  make  abstracts  of  the  most  important.  During 
the  year  that  had  elapse^^mce  his  inauguration,  he  had  been  going 
through,  in  the  same J|B^^^attentive  manner,  the  mass  of  papers 
which  had  been  accu^H  H;  U^the  offices  of  government  since  the 
peace  of  1  TS.'J.  l^den^HHBHt  was  the  ruling  instinct,  the  first 
necessity,  in  the  nature  Q^^^ff*0^  nearly  perfect  head  of  a  com 
monwealth  that  ever  hvea~^or  several  days  in  May,  1790,  the 
inner  circle  of  official  persons  in  New  York  were  anxious  about  him. 
He  grew  worse  and  worse.  At  one  time  the  inmates  of  his  house 
lost  all  hope,  for  he  seemed  to  be  dying.  He  rallied,  however,  and 
began  >L>wly  to  improve.  "  He  continues  mending  to-day,"  Jeffer 
son  wrote  to  his  daughter,  "and  from  total  despair  we  are  now  in 
good  hopes  of  him." 

In  a  strange,  unexpected  way,  Jefferson  found  himself  in  ill-accord 
with  the  tone  of  society  in  Xew  York.  He  had  come  from  Paris 
more  a  republican  than  ever,  all  glowing  with  the  new  hopes  for 
mankind  which  the  Revolution  there  had  kindled.  The  patriots  of 
France  had  drawn  inspiration  from  America,  and  tried  all  their 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON.  851 

measures  by  American  standards.  "  Our  proceedings,"  Jefferson 
wrote  to  Madison  from  Paris,  in  August,  1789,  "  have  been  viewed 
as  a  model  for  them  on  every  occasion  ;  and  though,  in  the  heat  of 
debate,  men  are  generally  disposed  to  contradict  every  authority 
urged  by  their  opponents,  ours  has  been  treated  like  that  of  the 
Bible,  open  to  explanation,  but  not  to  question."  He  was  now  in 
that  America  whose  conquest  of  freedom  and  peaceful  establishment 
of  a  republican  government  intelligent  men  in  other  lands  had 
owned  among  the  noblest  achievements  of  civilization.  The  faith 
ful  believer  was  now  at  Mecca.  But  he  did  not  find  the  magnates 
of  the  temple  so  enthusiastic  for  the  Prophet  and  the  Koran  as 
more  distant  worshippers. 

While  France  for  sixty  years  —  ever  since  the  publication  of  Vol 
taire's  "English  Letters,"  in  1730 — had  been  growing  to  a  sense 
of  the  evils  of  excessive  power  in  the  government,  America  for  ten 
years  had  had  painful  experience  of  the  evils  of  an  insufficient 
central  authority. 

A  favorite  toast  in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  as  General  Knox 
records,  was  this,  "  A  HOOP  TO  THE  BARREL."  Some  officers  pre 
ferred  a  plainer  form  of  words,  and  gave  the  same  sentiment  thus, 
"Cement  to  the  Union.''  .  The  army,  he  says,  abhorred  the  idea  of 
being  "  thirteen  armies."  We  can  all  imagine  how  much  feelings 
of  this  nature  would  be  increased  when  the  troops  co-operated  with 
French  soldiers,  who  served  a  single  power,  carried  one  flag,  obeyed 
one  general,  received  the  same  pay  at  regularly  recurring  periods,  in 
a  kind  of  money  that  did  not  waste  and  spend  itself,  even  when  it 
lay  untouched  in  the  pocket,  —  money  to-day,  paper  to-morrow. 
We  cannot  wonder  that  officers  should  have  longed  for  an  efficient 
power  at  the  centre,  when  we  hear  General  Washington  averring 
that  to  the  want  of  it  he  attributed  "  more  than  half"  of  his  own 
perplexities,  and  "  almost  the  whole  of  the  difficulties  and  distress 
of  the  army."  Civilians  came,  at  length,  to  share  in  this  feeling, 
and  no  man  more  than  Jefferson.  When  in  Paris,  in  1786,  he  was 
choking  down'  the  humiliation  of  bribing  the  Algerines  to  peace, 
instead  of  blowing  the  pirates  out  of  water  with  honest  guns  under 
his  country's  flag,  he  desired  nothing  so  much  as  that  Congress 
should  seize  the  happy  occasion  to  found  a  navy.  "  It  will  be  said," 
he  wrote  to  Monroe,  "  there  is  no  money  in  the  treasury.  There 
never  will  be  money  in  the  treasury  till  the  Confederacy  shows  its 


352  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

teeth.  The  States  must  see  the  rod :  perhaps  it  must  be  felt  by  one 
of  them.  I  am  persuaded  all  of  them  would  rejoice  to  see  every 
one  obliged  to  furnish  its  contributions." 

Everything  had  been  pulling  this  way  in  America  for  ten  years 
when  Jefferson  reached  New  York.  He  came  from  Paris  when  it 
v.  ;i>  negatively  charged,  with  electricity,  to  New  York  positively 
charged.  The  whole  soul  of  France  was  intent  upon  limiting  the 
central  power,  but  America's  dearest  wish  had  long  been  to  create 
one. 

There  is  a  fashion  in  thinking,  as  well  as  in  watch-chains  and 
dog-carts.  In  the  new,  untried  republic,  which  had  had  no  expe~ 
rienee  of  tyranny  except  to  combat  and  defeat  it,  various  influences 
had  been  drawing  .the  minds  of  the  educated  class  away  from  repub 
lican  ideas.  It  was  the  mode  to  extol  strong  and  imposing  govern 
ments,,  to  regret  that  the  people  were  so  attached  to  the  town- 
meeting  methods  of  conducting  public  business, 'and  to  anticipate 
the  day  when  America  would  be  ripe  for  a  government  "not  essen 
tially  different  from  that  which  they  hud  recently  discarded."  No 
where  was  this  tone  so  prevalent  as  in  New  York,  — the  chief  seat  of 
the  royal  authority  for  seven  years  of  the  war;  the  refuge  of  Tories ; 
the  abode,  after  the  peace,  of  that  ardent,  positive,  captivating  spirit, 
Alexander  Hamilton. 

How  difficult  to  extract  the  real  Hamilton  from  the  wilderness  of 
contradictory  words  in  which  he  is  lost !  Every  thing  we  have  about 
him  partakes  of  the  violence  of  his  time.  If  we  question  his  oppo 
nents,  JeiTerson  informs  us  that  Hamilton  was  "the  evil  genius  of 
America;"  and  George  Mason  declares  that  he  did  the  country 
more  harm  than  "Great  Britain  with  all  her  fleets  and  armies."  If 
we  consult  his  partisans,  we  are  assured,  that,  after  having  created 
tin-  ^.ivcnnnent,  ho,  and  he  alone,  kept  it  in  prosperous  motion  for 
twelve  years.  Every  one  has  in  his  memory  some  fag-end  of  Daniel 
Wrl.-trr's  magnificent  sentence,  in  which  he  represents  Hamilton 
as  touching  the  corpse  of  the  Public  Credit,  and  causing  it  to  spring 
to  its  feet.  And  have  we  not  a  lumbering  pamphlet,  in  seven 
volumes  octavo,  designed  to  sh»w  that  George  Washington  was 
Punch,  and  Alexander  Hamilton  the  man  behind  the  green  curtain, 
pulling  the  wires  and  making  him  talk?  We  have.  It  weighs  many 
pounds  avoirdupois.  JUit  we  must  rule  out  extreme  and  frenzied 
utterances,  and  endeavor  to  estimate  this  gifted  and  interesting 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON.  353 

man  as  though  he  had  had  no  worshippers,  no  rivals,  and  no 
sons. 

It  is  not  so  very  easy  to  see  why  he  had  any  public  career  at  all. 
When  we  have  turned  over  the  ton  of  printed  matter  to  which  he 
gave  rise,  and  looked  at  all  his  busts  and  portraits,  we  are  still  at 
some  loss  to  understand  the  victorious  dash  he  made  at  America.  A 
little  fellow  of  about  five  feet  seven,  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land, 
without  an  influential  friend  on  earth,  the  child  of  a  broken-down 
merchant  in  the  West  Indies,  subsisting  in  New  Jersey  upon 
invoices  of  West  India  produce,  we  find  him,  from  the  start,  having 
the  best  of  every  tiling,  distinguished  at  school,  at  college,  in.  the 
army,  taking  an  influential  part  in  every  striking  scene  of  the  war, 
and  every  crisis  after  the  peace, — a  public  tnan,  as  it  were,  by 
nature.  Nor  was  it  a  dash  only.  He  held  his  own  ;  and,  rapid  as 
his  rise  was,  it  was  always  the  high  place  that  sought  him,  never  he 
the  high  place;  unless,  indeed,  when  he  asked  General  Washington 
the  favor  of  letting  him  head  an  attack  on  the  enemy's  works. 
Nor  was  it  merely  place  and  distinction  that  he  won.  The  daughter 
of  one  of  America's  most  noted  and  wealthy  families  became  the 
proud  and  happy  wife  of  this  stranger  when  he  was  a  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  twenty-three,  without  a  dollar  or  an  acre  to  fall  back  upon 
at  the  peace. 

We  do  not  get  at  the  secret  of  all  this  from  print  or  picture  ;  so 
difficult  is  it  to  put  upon  paper  or  canvas  that  which  gives  a  man 
ascendency  over  others.  It  is  hard  to  define  the  Spirit  of  Command. 
Kent  recognized  it  in  Lear  when  he  met  .the  fiery  old  king  in  the 
wilderness,  and  told  him  he  had  that  in  his  mien  and  bearing  which 
he  would  fain  call  master.  I  once  asked  a  Tennesseean  what'  kind 
of  man  General  Jackson  was.  "  He  was  this  kind  of  man,"  said 
he  :  "  if  Andrew  Jackson  had  joined  a  party  of  strangers  travelling 
in  the  woods,  and,  half  an  hour  after,  they  should  be  attacked  by 
Indians,  he  would  instantly  take  command,  and  all  the  rest  would 
obey  him."  Nothing  that  has  ever  been  put  upon  paper  about 
Jackson  so  explains  him  as  this  chance  saying  of  an  unlettered 
man. 

Of  this  commanding,  self-sufficient  spirit  Hamilton  had  an  ample 
share.  His  confidence  in  himself  is  among  the  curiosities  of  char 
acter  ;  it  was  absolute  and  entire :  and,  hence,  neither  events  nor 
men  could  teach  him ;  and  he  died  cherishing  the  delusions  of  his 


354  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

youth.  If  to  this  remark  his  life  furnishes  one  exception,  it  was 
when  as  a  lad  of  sixteen  he  allowed  himself  to  be  converted  from  a 
supporter  of  the  king  to  a  defender  of  the  colonies.  But,  it  seems, 
even  this  conversion  was  only  partial;  for,  when  it  came  to  a  ques 
tion  of  severance  from  the  king,  he  wrote  a  pamphlet  against 
T'aine's  ••Common  Sense."  He  appears  to  have  had  nothing  that 
could  be  called  youth.  In  the  earliest  of  his  effusions,  whatever  we 
may  think  of  the  sentiments,  we  perceive  that  the  writer  had  no 
sense  whatever  of  the  deference  due  from  youth  to  maturity.  Noth 
ing  is  more  evident  in  his  aide-de-camp  letters  than  that  he 
condescended  to  serve  General  Washington.  He  was  but  twenty- 
four  when  he  wrote,  after  refusing  to  resume  his  place  in  the 
general's  family,  that  he  had  remained  in  it  as  long  as  he  had,  not 
from  regard  to  General  Washington,  nor  because  he  thought  it  an 
honor  or  a  privilege  to  assist  him,  but  because  the  popularity  of  the 
general  was  essential  to  the  safety  of  America,  and  he  "thought  it 
necessary  he  should  be  supported."  It  was  also  his  opinion  that 
the  breach  between  them  ought  to  be  concealed,  since  it  would  have 
"an  ill-effect"  if  it  were  known.  In  the  records  of  youthful  arro 
gance,  there  are  few  instances  so  amusing  as  this. 

]>ut,  then,  those  who  knew  him  best  appear  to  have  accepted  him 
at  his  own  valuation.  Some  unworthy*opponents  have  dishonored 
themselves  by  sneering  at  his  poverty  and  at  the  alleged  insignifi 
cance  of  his  family  in  the  West  Indies ;  but  he  brought  with  him 
from  St.  Croix  a  better  title  of  nobility  than  any  herald  could  have 
given  him,  —  the  admiring  love  of  his  friends  there,  who  hailed  his 
early  honors  in  the  United  States  with  enthusiasm.  His  brother 
aids  in  General  Washington's  busy  family  loved  him  most  warmly. 
In  his  early  letters  we  catch  gleams  of  the  good  fellow  amid  the 
formalities  of  the  general-in-chief s  official  scribe.  "Mind  your 
•  •ye  to-nitfht,  my  boy,"  he  writes  to  a  young  friend  on  picket ;  and 
Mrade.  his  colleague,  writes  to  him  as  a  lover  to  a  mistress.  "If 
you  have  not  already  writ  to  me,"  says  Meade,  "let  me  entreat  you, 
when  you  go  about  it,  to  fill  a  sheet  in  close  hand."  At  the  same 
time,  when  governors,  generals,  members  of  Congress,  and  j-r«->i- 
dnits  of  Comention  wrote  to  him,  they  addressed  him  as  a  man  of 
their  own  weight  and  standing,  as  a  p.-r.-onage  and  an  equal..  The 
general-in-chief,  too,  oven  allied  the  aceomplishments  he  did  not 
himself  possess,  —  the  fluent  tongue,  the  ready  pen,  dexterity  at 
figures. 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON.  355 

Hamilton  was  singularly  incapable  of  Americanization.  Besides 
having  arrived  here  a  few  years  too  late,  his  mind  was  invincibly 
averse  to  what  we  may  call  the  town-meeting  spirit,  —  the  true- 
public  spirit,  generated  by  the  habit  of  acting  in  a  body  for  the 
good  of  the  whole,  putting  questions  to  the  vote,  and  accepting  the 
will  of  the  majority  as  law.  His  instincts  were  soldierly.  How  he 
delighted  in  all  military  things  !  How  he  loved  the  recollection  of 
his  seven  years'  service  in  the  army!  In  later  years,  though  under 
a  political  necessity  to  detest  Bonaparte,  he  found  it  impossible  to 
do  so  with  any  heartiness,  so  bewitched  was  he  with  the  mere  skill 
with  which  that  marauder  of  genius  devastated  the  heritage  of  the' 
people  of  Europe.  He  delighted  to  read  of  battles.  It  pleased  him 
to  have  a  tent  upon  his  lawn,  because  it  reminded  him  of  the  days- 
when  he  and  Lafayette  and  Meade  and  the  young  French  officers 
were  merry  together ;  and  he  always  retained  in  his  gait  something- 
that  betrayed  the  early  drill.  But  it  is  questionable  if  he  could 
ever  have  been  greatly  successful  as  a  general,  because,  unlike' 
Bonaparte,  he  thought  officers  were  every  thing,  and  soldiers  noth 
ing.  When  he  was  a  bronzed  veteran  of  twenty-two,  he  wrote  a* 
letter  of  ludicrous  gravity  to  the  president  of  Congress,  urging  the 
enrolment  of  negro  slaves  ;  in  which  he  says  that  their  stupidity 
and  ignorance  would  be  an  advantage.  It  was  a  maxim,  he 
observed,  with  some  great  military  judges,  —  the  king  of  Prussia, 
being  one,  — that,  "with  sensible  officers,  soldiers  can  hardly  be  too- 
stupid."  Hence  "it  was  thought"  that  the  Russians  would  be  the 
best  soldiers  in  the  world  if  they  were  commanded  by  officers  of  a* 
more  advanced  country.  The  conclusion  reached  by  this  great 
military  authority  was  this:  "  Let  officers  be  men  of  sense  and  sert- 
timent;  and  the  nearer  the  soldiers  approach  to  machines,  perhaps 
the  better." 

As  the  utterance  of  a  very  young  military  dandy,  airing  his  lav 
ender  kids  in  St.  James's  Park  after  an  early  breakfast  at  one,  P.M., 
this  would  be  merely  funny  :  we  should  smile,  and  hope  he  would 
rhow  to  better  advantage  when  the  time  came  for  action.  And, 
indeed,  Hamilton  was  a  brave,  vigilant,  energetic  officer,  on  fire  to 
distinguish  himself  by  being  foremost  where  the  danger  was  great 
est.  But  this  contempt  for  the  undistinguished  part  of  mankind 
(i.e.  for  mankind)  he  never  outgrew.  The  ruling  maxim  of  his 
public  life,  the  source  of  its  weakness,  its  errors,  and  its  failure,  was 
this,  "  Men  in  general  are  vicious." 


356  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

This  lamentable  misreading  of  human  nature,  so  worthy  of  a 
Fouchc  or  a  Talleyrand,  he  repeats  in  many  forms,  always  assuming 
it  to  be  a  self-evident  truth.  It  was  certainly  an  im  fortunate  l>asis 
for  a  statesman  who  was  to  be  the  servant  of  a  system  founded  on  a 
conviction  that  men  in  general  are  well  disposed.  He  could  not  be 
an  American.  Richly  endowed  as  he  was,  he  could  not  rise  to  that 
height.  He  knew  it  himself  at  last;  for  twenty  years  later,  when 
he  had  outlived  his  success,  and  lost  the  control  even  of  his  own  wing 
of  the  Federalists,  we  hear  him  saying,  with  his  usual  unconscious 
arrogance,  "Every  day  proves  to  me,  more  and  more,  that  this 
American  world  was  not  made  for  me."  It  certainly  was  not,  nor 
was  he  made  for  this  American  world.  It  never,  we  may  be  sure, 
once  crossed  his  mind,  during  his  whole  life,  that  possibly  this 
American  world  might  be  right,  and  Colonel  Hamilton  wrong. 

Kvrry  thing  that  happens  to  these  self-suffi'jient  persons  seems  to 
confirm  them  in  their  errors  and  strengthen  their  strong  propensi 
ties.  This  American  world,  which  Hamilton  thought  so  much 
beneath  him,  had  been  too  easy  a  conquest:  he  would  have  re 
spected  it  more,  perh nps,  if  it  hud  given  him  a  few  hard  knocks  at 
an  age  when  hard  knocks  are  salutary.  |  ]>ut  when  he  began  to 
write  his  first  essays  in  the  newspapers,  literary  ability  was  so  rare 
in  the  world,  —  rarest  of  all  in  these  colonies,  —  that  his  friends 
were  agape  with  wonder.  Every  one  flattered  him.  Then  he.  early 
exhibited  another  imposing  talent,  that  of  oratory.  He  was  ha 
ranguing  meetings  in  Xe\v  York  when  he  was  the  merest  boy  both 
in  years  and  appearance,  and  acquitting  himself  to  admiration.  He 
was  but  nineteen,  and  young-looking  even  for  that  age.  when  he 
thundered  across  Jersey,  captain  of  a  company  of  artillery,  in  Gen 
eral  Washington's  retreating  army.  Soon  after,  in  his  character  of 
,//',/, -,/.-,-,,..,/,.  h<>  was  truly  an  important  person,  a  power,  as  any 
efficient  aid  must  ever  be  to  a  busy  commander,  as  any  competent 
secretary  must  ever  be  to  the  greatest  minister..  If  he  oven-ti- 
mated  his  importance,  it  was  but  natural  and  most  pardonaMe. 
Few  young  fellows  of  twenty,  who  write  despatches  or  editorials  fur 
a  chief,  can  believe  that  the  chief  may  be  the  true  author  of  im 
portant  despatches  or  thundering  leaders  which,  perhaps,  he  never 
so  much  as  looks  over.  The  chief  has  created  the  situation  which 
the  writer  but  expresses.  A  secretary,  while  using  his  own  hand, 
often  employs  his  chief's  mind. 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON.  357 

When  the  young  French  officers  came  over,  and  head-quarters 
were  gay  with  young  nobles,  all  enthusiasm  for  this  novel  service  in 
a  new  world,  Colonel  Hamilton  was  a  brilliant  personage  indeed,  — 
so  young,  so  handsome,  so  high  in  the  confidence  of  the  general 
and  the  army,  and  such  a  master  of  the  French  language !  He 
must,  I  think,  have  spoken  French  in  his  boyhood,  to  have  written 
it  so  well  at  twenty-three  as  we  see  he  did.  Who  was  now  so  much 
in  request  as  our  cher  Hamilton? 

But,  if  he  caught  his  loose  military  morals  from  the  Gauls,  it  was 
from  the  British  that  this  Briton  learned  his  politics.  Before  the 
war  was  over,  he  tells  us,  he  "  was  struck  with  disgust "  at  the  rise 
of  a  party  actuated  by  "  an  undue  complaisance  "  to  France,  —  a 
power  which,  in  helping  us,  had  only  been  pursuing,  "he  thought, 
her  own  interest.  "  I  resolved  at  once,"  he  continues,  "  to  resist 
this  bias  in  our  affairs.'7  He  was  British,  as  was  natural.  He  had 
a  British  mind  and  a  British  heart.  While  in  the  immediate  pres 
ence  of  the  fact,  that  the  English  governmental  system  had  split 
asunder  the  British  Empire,  he  cherished  the  conviction  that  it 
was  the  best  system  possible.  It  was  the  hereditary  Dunderhead 
with  whom  Great  Britain  was  saddled,  who  began,  continued,  and 
ended,  the  business  of  severing  America  from  the  empire ;  and  yet 
the  very  corruption  of  parliament,  which  had  enabled  an  obstinate 
and  unteachable  king  to  carry  his  measures,  Hamilton  extolled  as 
essential  to  its  perfection.  The  grand  aim  of  his  public  life  was 
to  make  the  government  of  the  United  States  as  little  unlike  that 
of  Great  Britain  as  the  people  would  bear  it.  Nor  did  he  reach 
these  convictions  by  any  process  of  reasoning.  He  was  a  Briton; 
and  it  was  then  part  of  a  Briton's  birthright  to  enjoy  a  complete 
assurance  of  his  country's  vast  superiority  to  all  others  in  all  things. 
I  honor  him  for  the  disinterested  spirit  in  which  he  pursued  his 
system,  and  the  splendid  contempt  of  all  considerations  of  policy 
with  which  he  avowed  opinions  the  most  unpopular.  In  spite  of 
his  errors  and  his  faults,  this  alone  would  give  him  some  title  to  our 
regard. 

With  all  his  other  qualities,  he  had  one  which  would  have  carried 
him  to  great  heights  in  a  more  congenial  scene.  He  had  a  wonderful 
power  of  sustained  exertion.  His  mind  was  energetic  and  pertina 
cious.  He  thought  little  of  sitting  over  a  paper  till  the  dawn 
dimmed  his  candles.  His  favorite  ideas  and  schemes  were  never 


358  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

inert  within  him  :  lie  dinned  tliern  into  every  ear ;  and  his  inces 
sant  and  interminable  discourses  upon  the  charms  of  monarchy 
rendered  him,  at  last,  a  bore  to  his  best  friends. 

He  began  at  an  early  period  of  the  war  to  take  a  laborious  part 
in  political  discussion.  While  the  army  lay  at  Morristown  in  1779, 
having  less  to  do  than  usual  at  head-quarters,  and  having  arrived 
at  the  mature  age  of  twent}T-three,  he  wrote  to  Robert  Morris  an 
anonymous  letter,  that  must  have  filled  a  dozen  sheets  of  large 
paper,  upon  the  troubled  finances  of  the  country,  recommending 
the  establishment  of  a  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The  scheme 
was  wrought  out  in  great  detail,  with  infinite  labor  and  uncommon 
ability  for  so  young  a  financier.  The  scheme  was  founded  upon 
Law's  idea  of  utilizing  the  depreciated  paper  with  which  Louis 
Xl|?s  profusion  had  deluged  France.  By  receiving  hundreds  of 
millions  of  this  paper  at  its  market  value,  in  payment  for  shares 
in  his  various  enterprises,  Law  soon  raised  the  price  of  paper  above 
that  of  gold,  and  thus  aH'u-.led  the  strange  spectacle  of  people 
selling  their  family  plate  in  order  to  buj7  a  dead  king's  promises  to 
pay.  Hamilton,  of  course,  intended  to  stop  short  of  Law's  fatal 
ex< esses.  He  was  as  honorable  a  person,  in  all  matters  pecuniary, 
as  ever  drew  the  breath  of  life  ;  and,  consequently,  his  bank  was  to 
have  a  sound  basis  of  two  millions  of  pounds  sterling  of  borrowed 
money:  to  which  should  be  added  a  subscription  of  two  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  in  the  depreciated  paper  of  Congress.  At  once, 
he  thought,  the  paper  would  rise  in  value,  and  become  an  instru 
ment  of  good.  The  existence  of  the  bank,  he  thought,  "would 
make  it  the  immediate  interest  of  the  moneyed  men  to  co-operate 
with  the  government  in  its  support."  This  was  the  key  to  his 
financial  system  ;  for  he  never  advanced  beyond  the  ideas  of  this 
production.  It  was  ever  his  conviction,  that  a  government  could 
not  stand  which  it  was  not  the  interest  of  capitalists  to  uphold  ;  and 
by  capitalists  he  meant  the  class  who  control  money,  who  live  in 
cities,  and  can  speculate  in  paper.  He  meant  Wall  Steeet ;  though, 
as  yet,  the  actual  street  of  that  name  was  only  a  pleasant  lane  of 
modest.  Dutch-looking  residences. 

This  port enfous  epistle  was  accompanied  with  notes,  in  one  of 
which  the  youthful  sage  favors  an  honorable  Congress  with  a  few 
hints.  "  Congress,"  he  observes,  with  the  modesty  so  becoming  his 
years,  "have  too  long  neglected  to  organize  a  good  scheme  of 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON.  359 

administration,  and  throw  public  business  into  proper  executive 
departments.  For  commerce,  I  prefer  a  board;  but,  for  most  other 
things,  single  men.  We  want  a  minister  of  war,  a  minister  of 
foreign  affairs,  a  minister  of  finance,  and  a  minister  of  marine ; " 
and  having  these,  he  thought,  "  we  should  blend  the  advantages 
of  a  monarchy  and  a  republic  in  a  happy  and  a  beneficial  union." 

What  liobert  Morris  thought  of  this  production  no  one  has  told 
us.  The  author  of  it  was  evidently  in  earnest.  He  did  not  write 
the  essay  to  amuse  his  leisure,  nor  merely  to  display  his  talents : 
he  meant  bank.  He  clearly  saw  the  institution  he  recommended, 
believed  in  its  feasibility,  and,  I  am  sure,  felt  himself  competent  to 
assist  in  establishing  it,  though  he  intended  Mr.  Morris  to  take 
the  leading  part.  He  concluded  his  long  letter  by  saying  that  he 
had  reasons  which  made  him  unwilling  to  be  known  ;  but  a  letter 
addressed  to  James  Montague,  Esq.,  lodged  in  the  post-office  at  Mor- 
ristown,  would  reach  him ;  and  even  an  interview  might  be  had 
with  the  author,  should  it  be  thought  material. 

From  this  time  the  ingenious,  intense,  Scotch  intellect  of  Alex 
ander  Hamilton  was  a  power  in  the  United  States.  Before  the 
war  was  quite  over  he  was  in  Congress ;  and  one  of  the  members 
said  to  him,  "If  you  were  but  ten  years  older  and  twenty  thousand 
pounds  richer,  Congress  would  give  you  the  highest  place  they  have 
to  bestow."  In  New  York,  jroung  as  he  was,  without  fortune,  just 
admitted  to  the  bar,  we  find  him  always  discussing  the  great  topics; 
always  the  peer  of  the  most  important  men;  always  exerting  his 
influence  for  one  overruling  object,  —  the  founding  of  a  "strong," 
a  "high-toned"  government;  which  should  attract  to  it  the  trinity 
he  believed  in,  —  "character,  talents,  and  property, — and  raise  the 
thirteen  States  to  national  rank.  In  the  State  of  New  York  he 
became,  not  the  most  powerful,  but  by  far  the  most  shining,  con 
spicuous,  active  personage. 

Behold  him,  at  length,  in  the  Convention  of  1787 ;  which  met 
at  Philadelphia  to  make  a  constitution,  —  Washington  its  president, 
Franklin  a  member.  It  was  this  young  lawyer,  thirty  years  of 
age,  who  brought  with  him  a  plan  of  government,  so  completely 
wrought  out,  that,  Madison  says,  it  could  have  gone  into  operation 
at  once,  without  alteration  or  addition.  He  had  thought  of  every 
thing,  and  provided  for  every  thing.  There  it  was,  in  Hamilton's 
pocket,  a  GOVERNMENT,  complete  to  the  last  detail.  In  making  it, 


860  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

too,  he  had  exercised  self-control :  he  had  put  far  away  from  him 
his  own  dearest  preferences  ;  he  had  fixed  his  thoughts  upon  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  allowed  for  their  prejudices,  their 
ignorance  of  Greek  and  Homan  history,  their  infatuation  in  sup 
posing  they  knew  what  was  good  for  them.  In  a  most  able, ingen 
ious,  candid  speech  of  five  or  six  hours'  duration,  he  told  the 
Convention  what  he  knew  about  government,  and  prepared  the  way 
for  the  reading  of  his  plan.  lie  said  he  did  not  offer  it  as  the  best 
conceivable,  but  only  the  best  attainable.  The  British  Constitu 
tion,  he  said,  was  "  the  best  form."  It  was  only  a  king  who  was, 
necessarily,  "above  corruption,"  who  '"must  always  intend,  in 
respect  to  foreign  nations,  the  true  interest  and  glory  of  the  peo 
ple."  Republicanism  was  a  dream,  —  an  amiable  dream  it  was  true, 
but  still  a  dream.  No  matter:  the  people  would  have  their  govern 
ment  republican ;  and  therefore,  as  long  as  there  was  any  chance 
of  .its  success,  he  would  do  his  very  utmost  to  afford  it  a  chance. 
This  he  proposed  to  do  by  making  the  American  republic  as  much 
like  the  Uriti>li  monarchy  as  possible. 

His  plan  was  such  as  might  have  been  expected  from  a  person  so 
ingenious,  so  self-sufficient,  so  inexperienced,  and  so  young.  Noth 
ing  more  unsuitable  or  more  impracticable  can  be  imagined  than 
this  government  evolved  from  the  depths  of  Hamilton's  conscious 
ness  ;  for,  even  if  the  principles  upon  which  it  was  founded  had  been 
admissible,  it  was  far  too  complicated  a  machine  for  the  wear  and  tear 
of  use.  Most  of  Hamilton's  measures  had  the  great  fault  of  being 
too  complex  and  refined.  His  enemies,  indeed,  accused  him  of  pur 
posely  mystifying  the  people ;  but,  in  truth,  he  had  so  mathematical 
an  intellect,  that  a  statement  might  be  as  clear  as  the  light  to  him, 
which  was  a  mere  conundrum  to  people  in  general.  His  scheme  of 
government  included,  first  of  all,  a  popular  assembly,  or  House  of 
Commons,  to  consist  of  not  less  than  a  hundred  members,  elected  by 
universal  suffrage,  which  should  have  the  control  of  the  public  purse, 
and  the  exclusive  power  to  impeach.  So  far,  so  good.  J>ut  assum 
ing  that  men  in  general  are  ill-disposed,  and  stand  ready  to  embrace 
the  first  opportunity  of  voting  themselves  u  farm,  his  chief  care  was 
to  keep  this  body  in  check  !  That  was  a  point  respecting  which  he 
was  deeply  solicitous.  Here  was  a  democratic  assembly,  to  be 
checki'.il  by  an  elected  senate,  and  both  of  them  by  an  elected  chief 
magistrate.  His  senate,  accordingly,  which  was  to  consist  of  not 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON.  361 

less  than  forty  members,  was  to  be  a  permanent  body,  elected  by 
men  of  property.  The  senators,  chosen  by  electors  who  had  an 
estate  in  land  for  life,  or  for  an  unexpired  term  of  fourteen  years, 
were  to  hold  their  seats  until  removed  by  death  or  impeachment. 
It  was  the  senate  that  was  to  declare  war,  ratify  treaties,  and  con 
trol  appointments. 

The  president  of  the  republic  was  to  be  a  tremendous  personage 
indeed,  more  powerful  far  than  any  monarch  of  a  country  enjoying 
any  semblance  of  liberty.  No  man  could  have  any  part  even  in 
electing  him,  who  had  not  an  inherited  estate  wholly  his  own,  or  for 
three  lives,  or  "  a  clear  personal  estate  of  the  value  of  a  thousand 
Spanish  dollars."  Nor  were  these  favored  mortals  to  vote  directly 
for  the  president :  they  were  only  to  elect  electors  ;  and  these  elect 
ors  were  to  vote  for  the  president,  each  man  handing  in  a  sealed 
ballot.  That  done,  the  electors  of  each  State  were  to  elect  two 
"  second  electors/7  who  were  to  carry  the  sealed  ballots  to  some 
designated  place,  where,  in  the  presence  of  the  chief  justice,  they 
were  to  open  the  ballots,  and  declare  that  man  president  who  had 
a  majority  of  the  whole  number.  In  case  no  one  had  a  majority, 
then  these  second  electors  were  to  try  their  hand  at  electing,  though 
they  could  only  vote  for  the  three  candidates  who  had  received  the 
highest  number  of  votes.  If  the  second  electors  could  not  give  a 
clear  majority  for  any  candidate,  then  the  man  who  had  received 
the  highest  number  of  votes  of  the  first  electors  was  to  be  declared 
elected. 

Happily,  when  once  a  president  had  been  evolved  by  this  ingen 
ious  complication,  the  country  could  hope  to  enjoy  a  long  period  of 
rest ;  for  he  was  to  hold  his  office  for  life,  unless  removed  by  im 
peachment.  Besides  exercising  all  the  authority  which  our  present 
Constitution  confers  on  the  president,  Hamilton's  president  was  to 
have  the  power  to  appoint  the  governors  of  States,  and  to  convene 
and  prorogue  Congress.  The  President  of  the  Senate  was  to  be  the 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States;  and  the  Supreme  Court  was 
to  be  about  such  a  tribunal  as  we  see  it  now. 

When  Dr.  Channing  was  the  ruling  influence  of  Boston,  forty 
years  ago,  the  orthodox  clergy  used  to  describe  his  system  of  the 
ology  as  "  Calvinism  with  the  bones  taken  out."  The  Convention 
of  1787  listened  to  Hamilton  with  attentive  admiration,  and  then 
performed  upon  his  plan  of  government  an  operation  similar  to  that 


3G2  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

winch  Dr.  Charming  was  supposed  to  have  done  upon  the  ancient 
creed  of  New  England.  Nothing  which  he  regarded  as  bone  was 
left  in  it.  The  Constitution  of  1787,  though  he  admitted  it  to  be  an 
improvement  upon  the  Confederation,  he  thought  a  "  shilly-shally 
tiling,"  which  might  tide  the  country  over  the  crisis,  and  begin  the 
construction  of  a  nation,  but  could  not  endure.  What  he  chiefly 
hoped  from  it  was  this,  That  it  would  sicken  the  people  of  republic 
anism,  and  reconcile  it  to  the  acceptance  of  his  panacea  of  King, 
Lords,  and  Commons.  For  every  reason,  however,  he  deemed  it 
necessary  to  give  the  new  Constitution  a  trial;  and,  accordingly,  it 
was  Hamilton,  the  man  who  believed  in  it  least,  that  did  most  to 
recommend  it  to  the  people.  Gliding  down  the  tranquil  Hudson, 
in  October,  1787,  in  one  of  the  commodious  packet-sloops  of  the 
time,  he  wrote  in  the  cabin  the  first  number  of  the  series  of  news 
paper  essays  now  called  "The  Federalist."  Absorbed  as  he  then 
was  in  his  young  family  and  his  profession,  he  found  time,  in  the 
course  of  the  winter,  to  write  sixty-five  of  the  eighty-five  pieces  of 
which  the  series  consists;  writing  several  of  them,  it  appears,  amid 
the  bustle  of  his  law-office,  with  the  priivter's  boy  waiting  for  the 
copy. 

These  essays  by  Hamilton,  Madison,  and  Jay,  Jefferson  read  in 
Paris  with  great  satisfaction.  He  had  lamented  the  absence,  in  the 
new  Constitution,  of  a  formal  bill  of  rights,  which  should  secure 
"the  freedom  of  religion,  freedom  of  the  press,  freedom  from  stand 
ing  armies,  trial  by  jury,  arid  a  constant  habeas  corpus  act ; "  and 
he  regarded  a  few  of  its  provisions  with  some  apprehension.  The 
re-eligibility  of  the  president,  he  thought,  would  result  in  the  presi 
dent  usually  holding  the  office  as  long  as  he  lived  ;  the  tendency  to 
re-elect  being  so  powerful.  He  would  have  preferred  a  single  term 
of  seven  years,  which  was  often  proposed,  and  once  carried  in  the 
Convention.  But  the  Federalist,  he  owns,  "  rectified  him  on  several 
points,"  dissipated  hi.A  apprehensions,  and  rendered  him  more  than 
willing  to  accept  the  Constitution,  and  trust  to  the  future  for  the 
needful  amendments. 

Thus  we  find  persons  of  opposite  political  sympathies  heartily 
commanding  a  constitution  which  neither  of  them  wholly  approved: 
Hamilton,  because  it  was,  as  he  lmpe.1,  a  step  toward  the  only  kind 
of  government  lie  believed  in,  —  a  limited  monarchy;  Jefferson, 
because  he  thought  it  would  issue  in  a  plain,  republican  government, 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON.  363 

simple,  inexpensive,  just  sufficient  to  enable  the  thirteen  States  to 
deal  with  foreign  nations  as  one  power,  and  secure  the  prompt  pay 
ment  of  the  Revolutionary  debt.  When  Hamilton  commended  the 
Constitution,  he  had  in  his  mind  his  "favorite  morsels,"  those  fea 
tures  which  gave  the  government  some  resemblance  to  a  monarchy, 
which  made  it  more  imposing,  and  less  dependent  upon  the  people, 
than  the  Confederation  which  it  displaced.  Coming  events,  he  felt 
sure,  would  quickly  convince  all  thinking  men  that  a  democratic  as 
sembly  could  not  be  effectually  "  checked  "  by  a  democratic  senate, 
nor  either  of  them  by  a  democratic  chief  magistrate  ;  and  then  the 
whole  of  the  character,  talents,  and  property  of  America  would 
demand  the  stiffening  of  the  loose  contrivance,  by  the  insertion  of  the 
rivet,  bolt,  and  screw,  of  an  hereditary  king  and  house  of  lords. 
Jefferson,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  upon  the- new  government  as  an 
engine  already  more  potent  than  the  case  required;  cumbered  with 
several  superfluous  appendages,  easily  capable  of  becoming  oppress 
ive  ;  but  he  trusted  to  time  and  the  republican  habits  of  the  people 
to  lop  its  redundancies,  and  keep  its  dangerous  possibilities  in  check. 
What  Jefferson  loved  in  the  Constitution,  Hamilton  despised ;  and 
the  changes  in  it  which  Hamilton  hoped  for,  Jefferson  dreaded. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

TONE    OF    NEW-YORK    SOCIETY    IN    1790. 

IN  the  city  of  New  York  in  1790,  when  it  contained  a  population 
of  about  thirty-five  thousand  people,  "society"  consisted  of  so  few 
families,  that,  when  one  of  them  gave  a  grand  party,  the  whole  body 
of  society  would  be  present.  In  this  small  circle  Hamilton  was 
incomparably  the  most  shining  and  captivating  individual,  and  he 
found  it  well  disposed  toward  his  ideas.  What  is  society?  It  prop 
erly  consists  of  the  victorious  class,  the  leading  persons  in  each  of 
the  honorable  pursuits :  the  great  mechanics,  merchants,  lawyers, 
doctors,  preachers,  teachers,  actors,  artists,  authors,  capitalists,  far 
mers,  engineers ;  the  men  and  women  who  have  conquered  a  safe 
and  pleasant  place  for  themselves  in  the  world  by  serving  the  com 
munity  with  signal  skill  and  effect.  These  are  the  aristocrats  to 
whom  we  all  render  a  proud  and  willing  homage.  We  are  even 
disposed  to  honor  them  too  much,  and  undervalue  the  prodigious  mul 
titude  of  those  who  are  equally  worthy  perhaps,  though  less  gifted  or 
less  fortunate.  But,  in  Hamilton's  day,  society  chiefly  consisted  of 
families  who  had  inherited  estates,  —  people  descended  from  victors. 
It  is  human  in  a  conqueror  to  wish  to  throw  around  his  conquest 
every  possible  safeguard.  It  is  natural  to  a  man  who  possesses  a 
fine  estate  to  lend  a  favoring  mind  to  ideas,  laws,  usages,  which  tend 
to  exempt  that  estate  from  the  usual  risks  of  waste  and  accident, 
and  to  reserve  for  the  holders  of  inherited  property  the  most  coveted 
honors  of  the  state.  In  New  York,  therefore,  the  young  and  elo 
quent  propagandist  carried  all  before  him,  and  assisted  to  prepare 
for  his  coining  colleague  a  painful  surprise. 

"I  had  left  France,"  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  long  after,  "'in  the  first 
year  of  her  Revolution,  in  the  fervor  of  natural  rights,  and  zeal  for 
reformation.  My  conscientious  devotion  to  those  rights  could  not 
364 


TONE  OF  NEW-YORK  SOCIETY  IN   1790.  365 

be  heightened,  but  it  had  been  aroused  and  excited  by  daily  exer 
cise.  The  president  received  me  cordially,  and  my  colleagues  and 
the  circle  of  principal  citizens  apparently  with  welcome.  The  cour 
tesies  of  dinner-parties  given  me,  as  a  stranger  newly  arrived  among 
them,  placed  me  at  once  in  their  familiar  society.  But  I  cannot 
describe  the  wonder  and  mortification  with  which  the  table  conver 
sations  filled  me.  Politics  were  the  chief  topic,  and  a  preference  of 
kingly  over  republican  government  was  evidently  the  favorite  senti 
ment.  An  apostate  I  could  not  be,  nor  yet  a  hypocrite;  and  I 
found  myself,  for  the  most  part,  the  only  advocate  on  the  republican 
side  of  the  question,  unless  among  the  guests  there  chanced  to  be 
some  member  of  that  party  from  the  legislative  houses." 

No  one  can  glance  over  the  memorials  of  the  time  without  meet 
ing  on  every  side  confirmation  of  this  passage.  The  Hamiltonians, 
we  perceive,  were  having  it  all  their  own  way  in  New  York ;  their 
immediate  object  being  to  surround  the  president  with  imposing 
ceremonial  and  court-like  etiquette.  Hamilton,  strangely  ignorant 
of  human  nature  and  of  the  people  lie  aspired  to  serve,  was  infat 
uated  with  the  idea  of  gradually  reconciling  them  to  the  ludicrous 
pomp  of  a  European  court.  When  General  Washington  asked  his 
opinion  as  to  the  etiquette  of  the  president's  house,  he  replied,  that, 
though  the  notions  of  equality  were  yet  too  general  and  too  strong 
to  admit  of  "  a  proper  distance "  being  maintained  by  the  chief 
magistrate,  still  he  must  go  as  far  in  that  direction  as  the  people 
would  endure,  even  to  the  point  of  incurring  the  risk  of  partial  and 
mpmentary  dissatisfaction.  He  recommended  the  adoption  of  the 
usual  etiquette  of  the  courts  of  Europe ;  except,  that  to  "  remove  the 
idea  of  too  immense  an  inequality,"  which,  he  feared,  would  excite 
dissatisfaction  and  cabal,  the  president  might  invite  a  few  high 
officials  to  dinner  now  and  then;  though,  on  such  occasions,  "the 
president  should  never  remain  long  at  the  table;"  that  is,  as  I  sup 
pose,  not  sit  and  booze  after  the  ladies  had  retired.  The  president 
was  to  be  so  august  and  inaccessible  a  personage,  that  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  should  have  no  right  to  an  interview 
with  him,  even  on  public  business,  nor  any  foreigner  of  lower  rank 
than  ambassador.  Senators,  Hamilton  thought,  should  be  entitled 
to  an  interview,  as  the  peers  of  France  and  England  might  demand 
to  speak  to  their  sovereign  face  to  face ;  and,  besides,  the  people 
would  be  glad  to  know  there  was  one  body  of  men  whose  right  to 


366  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

approach  the  president  would  be  "  a  safeguard  against  secret  combi 
nations  to  deceive  him." 

All  the  writings  of  the  time  that  most  readily  catch  the  eye  are 
in  this  tone.  The  vice-president,  John  Adams,  seized  every  occa 
sion  to  dwell  upon  the  necessity  of  decorating  the  head  of  the  state 
with  the  most  gorgeous  properties.  This  son  of  New  England,  who 
had  had  a  life-time's  experience  of  the  unquestioning  obedience  paid 
to  the  plainest  citizen  clad  in  the  imperial  purple  of  fair  election  or 
legal  appointment,  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  "neither  dignity  nor 
authority  can  be  supported  in  human  minds,  collected  into  nations 
or  any  great  numbers,  without  a  splendor  and  majesty  in  some 
degree  proportioned  to  them."  He  opposed  the  practice  of  styling 
the  president  His  Excellency,  for  precisely  the  reason  which  made 
it  a  rule  of  the  old  French  court  to  give  every  one  some  title  of 
honor  excepting  alone  the  king.  To  style  the  president  His 
Excellency,  Mr.  Adams  thought,  was  to  "  put  him  on  a  level  with 
a  governor  of  Bermuda,  or  one  of  his  own  ambassadors,  or  a  gover 
nor  of  any  one  of  our  States." 

One  would  think,  from  reading  the  letters  and  newspapers  of  1789 
and  17(.)0,  that  pickpockets  and  cut-throats  could  be  driven,  awe 
struck,  from  their  evil  courses,  by  the  magnificence  of  the  presi 
dent's  house  and  the  splendor  of  his  chariot.  Jefferson  reached 
New  York  on  Sunday,  March  21,  1790.  In  all  probability,  some 
one  was  polite  enough  to  hand  him  the  newspaper  of  the  day  before, 
the  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  the  organ  of  the  administration,  full 
charged  with  the  Hamiltonian  spirit.  If  so,  he  may  have  espied  this 
little  essay,  —  milk  for  babes,  not  yet  fit  for  stronger  food,  —  which 
harmonized  perfectly  with  the  prevalent  way  of  thinking:  — 

"There  must  be  some  adventitious  properties  infused  into  the 
government  to  give  it  energy  and  spirit,  or  the  selfish,  turbulent 
passions  of  men  can  never  be  controlled.  This  has  occasioned  that 
artificial  splendor  and  dignity  that  are  to  be  found  in  the  courts  of 
so  many  nations.  Some  admiration  and  respect  must  be  excited 
towards  public  officers,  by  their  holding  a  real  or  supposed  superior 
ity  over  the  mass  of  the  people.  The  sanctions  and  penalties  of  law 
are  likewise  requisite  to  aid  in  restraining  individuals  from  tram 
pling  uj>on  and  deinoli.-hing  the  government.  It  is  confessed,  that,  in 
some  situations  a  small  degree  of  parade  and  solemnity,  co-operating 


TONE  OF  NEW-YORK  SOCIETY   IN  1790.  367 

with  other  causes,  may  be  sufficient  to  secure  obedience  to  the  laws. 
In  an  early  state  of  society,  when  the  desires  of  men  are  few  and 
easily  satisfied,  the  temptations  to  trespass  upon  good  order  and 
justice  are  neither  pressing  nor  numerous.  Avarice  and  ambition 
increase  with  population ;  and  in  a  large,  opulent  community  the 
dazzling  appendages  and  pompous  formalities  of  courts  are  intro 
duced  to  form  a  balance  to  the  increasing  ardor  of  the  selfish 
passions,  and  to  check  that  ascendency  which  aspiring  individuals 
would  otherwise  gain  over  the  public  peace  and  authority/"' 

In  a  file  of  the  same  paper,  the  new  secretary  of  state  could  see 
many  indications  that  some  progress  had  been  made  toward  invest 
ing  the  president  with  royal  trappings.  He  could  read  announce 
ments  respecting  the  supply  of  the  president's  family,  signed 
Steward  of  the  Household."  Poems  upon  the  president  frequently 
appeared,  which  were  as  absurdly  adulatory  as  the  effusions  by 
which  the  British  poet-laureate  earned  his  pipe  of  sack.  A  system 
atic  attempt  was  made  to  give  queenly  pre-eminence  to  the  presi 
dent's  excellent  wife.  The  movements  of  that  industrious  little  lady 
were  chronicled  very  much  in  the  style  of  the  London  Court  news 
man  when  he  essays  to  inform  the  world  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
queen  has  managed  to  kill  another  day.  Every  week  the  Gazette 
contained  a  full  budget  of  court  news,  not  unfrequently  giving  half 
a  column  of  such  announcements  as  these  :  — 

"  The  most  Honorable  Robert  Morris  and  Lady  attended  the 
theatre  last  evening." 

"  Monday  last  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  with  the  Vice- 
President  at  their  head,  went  in  a  body,  in  carriages,  to  the  house 
of  the  President,  and  presented  him  with  an  address." 

"  We  are  informed  that  THE  PRESIDENT,  His  Excellency  the 
Vice-President,  His  Excellency  the  Governor  of  this  State,  and 
many  other  personages  of  the  greatest  distinction,  will  be  present 
at  the  theatre  this  evening." 

The  following  is  the  Gazette's  account  of  the  arrival  in  New 
York  of  Mrs.  Washington,  May  30,  1789  :  — 

"  Wednesday,  arrived  h\  this  city  from  Mount  Vernon,  Mrs. 
WASHINGTON,  the  amiable  consort  of  THE  PRESIDENT  of  the 
United  States.  Mrs.  Washington  from  Philadelphia  was  accom 
panied  by  the  Lady  of  Mr.  Robert  Morris.  At  ElizabethtowD 


8G8  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Point  she  was  met  by  the  PRESIDENT,  Mr.  Morris,  and  several  other 
gojitlemen  of  distinction,  who  had  gone  there  for  that  purpose. 
She  was  conducted  over  the  hay  in  the  President's  barge,  rowed  by 
thirteen  eminent  pilots,  in  a  handsome  white  dress;  on  passing  the 
Battery  a  salute  was  fired;  and  on  her  landing  she  was  welcomed 
by  crowds  of  citizens,  who  had  assembled  to  testify  their  joy  on  this 
happy  occasion.  The  principal  ladies  of  the  city  have,  with  the 
earliest  attention  and  respect,  paid  their  devoirs  to  the  amiable  con 
sort  of  our  beloved  President,  namely,  the  Lady  of  His  Excellency 
the  Governor,  Lady  Sterling,  Lady  Mary  Watts,  Lady  Kitty  Duer, 
La  Marchioness  de  Brehan,  tbe  ladies  of  the  Most  Honorable  Mr. 
Langdon,  and  the  Most  Honorable  Mr.  Dalton,  the  Mayoress,  Mrs. 
Livingston  of  Clermont,  Mrs.  Chancellor  Livingston,  the  Miss 
Livingstons.  Lady  Temple,  Madame  de  la  Forest,  Mrs.  Montgomery, 
.Mrs.  IviK'X,  Mrs.  Thompson,  Mrs.  Gerry.  .Mrs.  Edgar,  Mrs.  M'Comb, 
Mrs.  Lynch,  Mrs.  Houston,  Mrs.  Griffin,  Mrs.  Provost,  the  Miss 
Ba}Tards,  and  a  great  number  of  other  respectable  characters.  Al 
though  the  President  makes  no  formal  invitations,  yet  the  day  after 
the  arrival  of  Mrs.  Washington,  the  following  distinguished  pi-rson- 
a •_:'••*  dined  at  his  house,  en  famille  :  Their  Excellencies  the  Vice- 
lent,  the  Governor  of  this  State,  the  Ministers  of  France  and 
Spain,  and  the  Governor  of  the  Western  Territory,  the  Honorable 
Secretary  of  the  United  States  for  Foreign  Affairs,  the  Most  Honor 
able  Mr.  Langdon,  .Mr.  Win  gate,  Mr.  Izard,  Mr.  Few,  and  Mr. 
Muhlenberg,  Speaker  of  the  Honorable  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States.  The  President's  levee  yesterday  was  attended 
by  a  very  numerous  and  most  respectable  company.  The  circum 
stance  of  the  President's  entering  the  drawing-room  at  three  o'clock, 
not  being  universally  known,  occasioned  some  inaccuracies  as  to  the 
time  i.f  attendance." 

The  president,  though  he  was  the  farthest  possible  from  relishing 
parade,  had  a  particular  aversion  to  familiar  manners,  and  was  half 
persuaded  of  the  necessity  of  a  certain  state  and  ceremony  in  the 
intercourse  between  the  head  of  a  state  and  its  citizens.  Mr.  Van 
Jinreii  has  p.-eserved.  in  his  work  on  om  Political  Parties,  an  anec 
dote  of  Washington,  that  throws  light  on  his  willingness  to  submit 
to  the  court  etiquette  advised  by  Hamilton.  The  story  was  related 
by  Hamilton  to  Mr.  John  Fine  of  Ogdensburgh,  who  gave  it  to  Mr. 
Van  Buren.  Mr.  Fine  recorded  it  thus  :  — 


.TONE  OF  NEW-YORK  SOCIETY  IN    1790.  369 

"  When  the  Convention  to  form  a  Constitution  was  sitting  in 
Philadelphia  in  1787,  of  which  General  Washington  was  president, 
he  had  stated  evenings  to  receive  the  calls  of  his  friends.  At  an 
interview  between  Hamilton,  the  Morrises,  and  others,  the  former 
remarked  that  Washington  was  reserved  and  aristocratic  even  to 
his  intimate  friends,  and  allowed  no  one  to  be  familiar  with  him. 
Gouverneur  Morris  said  that  was  a  mere  fancy,  and  he  could  be  as 
familiar  with  Washington  as  with  any  of  his  other  friends.  Hamil 
ton  replied,  "  If  you  will,  at  the  next  reception  evening,  gently  slap 
him  on  the  shoulder,  and  say,  '  My  dear  General,  how  happy  I  am 
to  see  you  look  so  well  ! '  a  supper  and  wine  shall  be  provided  for 
you  and  a  dozen  of  your  friends/'  The  challenge  was  accepted. 
On  the  evening  appointed,  a  large  number  attended  ;  and  at  an  early 
hour  Gouverneur  Morris  entered,  bowed,  shook  hands,  laid  his  left 
hand  on  Washington's  shoulder,  and  said,  "My  dear  General,  I 
am  very  happy  to  see  you  look  so  well ! "  Washington  withdrew  his 
hand,  stepped  suddenly  back,  fixed  his  eye  on  Morris  for  several 
minutes  with  an  angry  frown,  until  the  latter  retreated  abashed,  and 
sought  refuge  in  the  crowd.  The  company  looked  on  in  silence. 
At  the  supper,  which  was  provided  by  Hamilton,  Morris  said,  "  I 
have  won  the  bet,  but  paid  dearly  for  it,  and  nothing  could  induce 
me  to  repeat  it." 

It  was  not  difficult  to  bring  a  gentleman  of  this  reserved  cast  of 
character,  who  shrank  from  familiarities,  to  consent  to  being  hedged 
about  with  etiquette.  And  there  really  seemed  to  prevail  a  mania 
to  extol,  exalt,  and  royalize  the  president.  Indeed,  Mr.  Jefferson 
calls  it,  somewhere,  "  a  frenzy."  If  the  president  attended  a  ball, 
the  managers  must  needs  cause  a  platform  to  be  erected  at  one  end 
of  the  ball-room,  several  steps  high,  with  a  sofa  upon  it,  and  conduct 
thither  the  president  anc^his  "consort."  An  attempt  was  made  to 
have  the  president's  head  engraved  upon  the  coinage  about  to  be 
issued  by  the  new  government.  The  levees  were  arranged  and  con 
ducted  exactly  as  at  tjie  palace  of  St.  James  ;  and,  when  the  president 
rode  abroad  on  any  official  errand,  he  used  what  was  called  the  state 
carriage,  —  a  cream-colored  chariot  drawn  by  six  horses,  and 
attended  by  white  servants,  in  liveries  of  white  cloth  trimmed  with 
scarlet. 

All  of  which,  we  can  now  see,  proves  the  innocence  of  the  Hamil- 

24 


370  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

tonians  of  any  design  to  spring  a  king  upon  the  country  ;  for  surely, 
people  of  their  ability,  who  had  formed  a  scheme  to  subvert  republi 
can  government,  would  have  most  carefully  avoided  such  a  plain 
showing,  of  their  hand.  They  would  at  once  have  courted  and 
deceived  the  multitude  of  republicans  by  casting  aside  the  worn-out 
trumpery  of  kings,  and  weaving  round  the  president  the  magic  spell 
of  utter  simplicity. 

This  was  Bonaparte's  method.  We  find  him,  first,  an  extreme 
republican,  using  all  the  forms  of  that  sect  with  rigor  long  after  he 
was  the  ruling  mind  of  France  ;  next,  an  austere  first  consul,  still 
dating  his  letters  in  the  manner  decreed  by  the  republic,  and  calling 
his  officers  citizen-general ;  last,  when  his  genius  had  dazzled  and 
overwhelmed  his  intellect,  and  he  was  expanding  to  his  ruin,  he 
stooped  to  the  imperial  crown,  and  condescended  to  inquire  how 
things  hud  been  done  in  the  court  of  that  gorgeous  delusion,  Louis 
XIV. 

Nothing  could  be  more  artless  and  open  than  the  manner  in  which 
our  imposing-government  men  sought  to  commend  their  opinions  to 
the  public.  Colonel  Hamilton,  indeed,  censured  the  vice-president 
for  going  too  far  and  too  fast  in  that  direction;  disturbing  people's 
minds  prematurely,  and  not  giving  the  new  government  that  "fair 
chance  "  he  was  determined  it  should  have.  It  was  in  this  spring 
of  1790,  when  Jefferson  and  his  four  clerks  were  working  their  way 
down  through  the  accumulated  business  of  the"  state  department, 
that  Mr.  Adams  broke  out  in  the  Gazette  with  his  weekly  "Dis 
courses  on  Davila,"  a  chaos  of  passages  from,  and  comments  upon,  a 
History  of  the  Civil  Wars  of  France  by  the  Italian  Davila,  inter 
spersed  with  long  extracts  from  Pope,  Young,  Adum  Smith,  and  any 
other  author  whom  .Mr.  Adams  might  happen  to  think  of  in  the  fury 
of  composition.  The  great  object  of  the  series  was  to  show  that 
there  is  a  necessity,  fixed  in  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind,  for 
such  orders  in  the  state  as  kings  and  nobles.  The  basis  of  Mr. 
Adams's  political  system,  which  he  drew  from  his  own  heart,  was 
this  :  Man's  controlling  motive  is  the  passion  for  distinction.  If 
any  one  should  doubt  this,  he  advises  that  benighti-d  person  to  go 
and  attentively  observe  the  journeymen  and  apprentices  in  the  first 
workshop,  or  the  oarsmen  in  a  cockboat,  the  members  of  a  family,  a 
neighborhood,  the  inhabitants  of  a  house,  the  crew  of  a  ship,  a  school, 
a  college,  a  city,  a  village,  the  bar,  the  church,  the  exchange,  a  camp, 


TONE   OF   NEW-YORK   SOCIETY  IN    1790.  871 

a  court,  wherever,  indeed,  men,  women,  or  children  are  to  be  found, 
whether  old  or  young,  rich  or  poor,  wise  or  foolish,  ignorant  or  learned, 
and  he  will  find  every  individual  "  strongly  actuated  by  a  desire 
to  be  seen,  heard,  talked  of,  approved,  and  respected  by  the  people 
about  him  and  within  his  knowledge."  And,  of  all  known  distinc 
tions,  none  is  so  universally  bewitching  as  "  an  illustrious  descent." 
One  drop  of 'royal  blood,  thought  Mr.  Adams,  though  illegitimately 
scattered,  will  make  any  man  proud  or  vain  ;  and  why  ?  Because 
it  attracts  the  attention  of  mankind.  Hence  the  wisdom  and  virtue 
of  all  nations  have  endeavored  to  utilize  this  passion,  by  regulating 
and  legitimating  it,  by  giving  it  objects  to  pursue,  such  as  orders  in 
the  magistracy,  titles  of  honor,  insignia  of  office,  —  ribbons,  stars, 
garters,  golden  keys,  marshals'  batons,  white  sticks,  rings,  the  ivory 
chair,  the  official  robe,  the  coronet.  And  this  has  been  done  most  of 
all  in  republics,  where  there  is  no  monarch  to  overtop  and  over 
shadow  every  one.  Mr.  Adams  was  most  decided  in  his  advocacy  of 
the  hereditary  principle.  "Nations,"  he  remarked,  "perceiving 
that  the  still  small  voice  of  merit  was  drowned  in  the  insolent  roar 
of  the  dupes  of  impudence  and  knavery  in  national  elections,  without 
a  possibility  of  remedy,  have  sought  for  something  more  permanent 
than  the  popular  voice  to  designate  honor."  Some  of  the  nations,  he 
continued,  had  annexed  honor  to  the  possession  of  land;  others  to 
office ;  others  to  birth  ;  but  the  policy  of  Europe  had  been  to 
unite  these,  and  bestow  the  highest  honors  of  the  state  upon  men 
who  had  land,  office,  and  ancestors.  To  the  landed  and  privileged 
aristocracy  of  birth,  Europe,  according  to  the  vice-president,  owed 
"  her  superiority  in  war  and  peace,  in  legislation  and  commerce,  in 
agriculture,  navigation,  arts,  sciences,  and  manufactures."  In  this 
strain  Mr.  Adams  continued  to  discourse,  week  after  week,  until  he 
had  published  thirty-one  numbers  ;  .when  the  public  indignation 
alarmed  the  printer,  and  gave  pause  even  to  the  impetuous  author. 
Or,  to  use  Mr.  Adams's  own  language,  written  twenty-three  years 
after  :  "  The  rage  and  fury  of  the  Jacobinical  journals  against  these 
discourses  increased  as  they  proceeded,  intimidated  the  printer,  John 
Fenno,  and  convinced  me  that  to  proceed  would  do  more  hurt  than 
good." 

For  we  must  ever  bear  in  mind,  in  reading  of  this  period,  that 
every  utterance  of  a  political  nature  by  a  person  of  note  was  read  in 
the  lurid  and  distorting  light  cast  over  the  nations  by  the  French 


372  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Revolution.  From  the  fall  of  the  Bastille  in  1789,  to  the  seizure  of 
tlu-  supreme  power  by  Bonaparte  1799,  civilized  man  was  mad. 
Tin-  news  from  France  was  read  in  the  more  advanced  nations  with 
a  trenzied  interest ;  for,  besides  being  in  itself  most  strange  and  tragic, 
it  either  flattered  or  rebuked  every  man's  party  feelings,  helped  or 
hindered  every  man's  party  dream  or  scheme.  Each  ship's  budget 
was  fuel  to  party  fires,  —  both  parties ;  for  the  news  which  flat 
tered  one  enraged  the  other. 

Mr.  Adams  had  made  up  his  mind  respecting  the  French  Revolu 
tion  nt  once.  He  knew  it  to  be  wholly  diabolical.  No  good  could 
come  of  it.  In  these  very  Discourses,  all  written,  as  he  says,  to 
counteract  the  new  French  ideas,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  denounce 
the  niM.vt  vaunted  proceedings  of  the  popular  party.  In  his  old  age, 
when  Bonaparte's  coarse  and  heavy  hand  made  life  more  burden 
some  to  nearly  every  virtuous  family  in  Christendom,  he  was  proud 
indeed  to  point,  in  the  seventeenth  of  his  Davila  papers,  to  this  sen 
tence:  ••  If  the  wild  idea  of  annihilating  the  nobility  should  spread 
far  mid  be  IOHL:  per.-i-ted  in,  the  men  of  letters  and  the  national 
a.-seniMy,  as  democrat  ical  as  they  may  think  themselves,  will  find 
no  barrier  against  despotism."  This  in  1790,  when  Bonaparte  was 
a  yellow,  thin  little  lieutenant  of  artillery  twenty-two  years  old. 
He  wrote  the  sentence,  a-  lie  himself  records,  in  the  historic  mansion 
upon  Richmond  Hill,  near  New  York,  at  a  moment  when  the  view 
from  hid  windows  afforded  him  another  proof  of  man's  inherent  love 
of  distinctions.  A  deputation  of  Creek  Indians  were  encamped 
within  sijjit  and  hearing;  and  even  among  them  there  were  "  gran- 
(!<•<>.  warriors,  and  sachems." 

irlier  this  honest  Adams  nor  the  more  adroit  Hamilton  —  both 
public-spirited  and  patriotic.  —  seem  to  have  had  any  glimmering  of 
the  truth,  so  familiar  to  us.  t  hat  institutions,  like  all  things  else,  having 
served  their  turn,  grow  old,  get  past  service,  become  obstructive,  and 
die.  Their  discourses  upon  government  read  like  the  remarks  that 
might  be  made  by  a  young  lobster  of  ability  and  spirit  against  the 
custom  which  has  long  prevailed  in  the  lobster  tribe  of  changing 
their  shells.  The  ardent  representative  of  young  lobsterdom  might 
point  to  the  undeniable  laet.that  the  old  shells  had  an>\\ered  an 
excellent  purpose,  had  proved  sufficient,  had  protected  them  in  storm, 
and  adorned  them  in  calm.  He  might  further  descant  upon  the 
known  inconveniences  of  change ;  the  languor,  the  sickness,  the 


TONE  OF   NEW-YOKE   SOCIETY  IN    1790.  873 

emaciation,  the  feverish  struggle  out  of  the  time-honored  incase- 
ment,  and  the  long  insecurity  while  the  new  armor  was  getting  hard 
ness  and  temper.  Every  word  true.  The  only  answer  is  :  The  time 
of  year  has  come  for  a  change ;  we  must  get  other  shells,  or  stop 
growing.  As  long  as  people  generally  are  childlike  enough  to  be 
lieve  in  the  fictions  upon  which  kingly  authority  rests,  so  long  the 
institution  of  monarchy  assists  and  blesses  them,  as  the  daily  mass 
solaced  and  exalted  Columbus,  Isabella,  the  great  Prince  Henry  of 
Portugal,  and  all  the  noblest  and  most  gifted  of  that  age ;  but 
when  faith  declines,  and  knowledge  is  1n  the  ascendent,  kings 
become  ridiculous,  and  the  most  touching  ceremonials  of  the  past 
are  an  empty  show. 

Mr.  Adams  protested  he  could  see  no  difference  between  the  rich 
families  of  Boston  and  the  great  houses  of  a  European  city.  "You 
and  I,"  he  wrote  to  his  kinsman,  Samuel  Adams,  in  October,  1790, 
"have  seen  four  noble  families  rise  up  in  Boston,  —  the  CRAFTS, 
GORES,  DA  WES,  and  AUSTINS.  These  are  as  really  a  nobility  in 
our  town  as  the  Howards,  Somersets,  Berties,  in  England."  And 
when  Samuel  Adams  remarked  that  "  the  love  of  liberty  is  inter 
woven  in  the  soul  of  man,"  John  Adams,  vice-president  of  the 
United  States,  replied,  "  So  it  is,  according  to  La  Fontaine,  in  that 
of  a  wolf." 

In  1790  Jefferson  could  scarcely  have  found  in  New  York  three 
drawing-rooms  in  which  such  sentiments  as  these  were  uncongenial 
with  the  prevailing  temper.  Mr.  Jay,  generally  in  accord  with 
Hamilton,  had  suggested,  in  1787,  a  governor-general  of  great 
powers,  and  senators  appointed  for  life.  General  Knox,  secretary 
of  war,  a  soldier  and  nothing  but  a  soldier,  would  have  swept  away 
at  a  stroke  all  the  State  governments,  and  established  a  standing 
army.  With  regard  to  the  sentiment  of  equality  which  was  assert 
ing  itself  in  France  with  so  much  emphasis,  it  was  all  but  unknown 
in  the  United  States.  What  Miss  Sedgwick  records  in  her  auto 
biography  of  her  father,  an  important  public  man  of  this  period,  was 
true  then  of  nearly  every  person  in  liberal  circumstances  in  town  or 
country  :  "  He  was  born  too  soon  to  relish  the  freedoms  of  democracy ; 
and  I  have  seen  his  brow  lower  when  a  free-and-easy  mechanic  came 
to  tlie  front  door;  and,  upon  one  occasioft,  I  remember  his  turning  off 
the  east  steps  (I  am  sure  not  kicking,  but  the  demonstration  was 
unequivocal),  a  grown-up  lad  who  kept  his  hat  on  after  being  told  to 


374  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

take  it  off."  Gentlemen  of  tlie  period  found  no  difficulty  in  yielding 
aoi'iit  to  the  doctrine  of  human  equality  when  they  heard  it  melo 
diously  read  on  the  Fourth  of  July  from  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  ;  hut  how  hard  to  miss  the  universal  homage  once  paid  them 
as  "  gentlemen  "  !  Many  of  them  spoke  with  a  curious  mixture  of 
wonder,  scorn,  and  derision  of  what  they  seemed  to  think  was  a  new 
French  notion,  "  the  contagion  of  levelism  "  as  Chauncey  Goodrich 
styled  it.  "What  folly  is  it,"  asked  this  son  of  Connecticut,  "that 
has  set  the  world  agog  to  be  all  equal  to  French  barbers  ?  It  must 
have  its  run."  • 

Wluit  a  change  for  Jefferson  was  the  New  York  of  1790,  from 
such  a  city  as  Paris  was  in  1789 !  His  dearest  and  deepest  convic 
tions  openly  and  everywhere  abhorred  or  despised  !  The  worn-out, 
obstructive  institutions  of  the  past,  the  accursed  fruits  of  which  had 
ex«ted  in  him  a  constant  and  vast  commiseration  for  five  years, 
extolled  on  every  side  as  the  indispensable  conditions  of  human  wel 
fare  ! 

Hamilton  and  Jefferson  met,  —  the  man  of  action  and  the  man  of 
feeling.  Jefferson  had  brought  with  him,  so  far  as  appears,  no  preju 
dice  against  his,  colleague.  In  Paris  he  had  recommended  an 
English  suitor,  who  had  claims  in  America,  "  to  apply  to  Colonel 
Hamilton  (who  was  aid^to  General  Washington),  and  is  now  very 
eminent  at  the  bar,  and  much  to  be  relied  on."  Nor  is  Hamilton 
known  to  have  had  any  dislike  to  Jefferson.  Naturally  the  man  of 
executive  force  and  the  man  of  high  qualities  of  mind  regard  one 
another  with  even  an  exaggerated  respect.  The  mutual  homage  of 
Sir 'Walter  Scott,  poet  and  man  of  letters,  and  James  Watt,  the 
sublime  mechanic,  was  not  less  natural  than  pleasing.  In  the  pres 
ence  of  the  genius  who  had  cheered  and  charmed  his  life,  and 
enriched  his  country's  fame,  making  mountainous  and  unfertile 
Scotland  dear  to  half  the  world,  Watt  looked  upon  his  steam-engine 
as  something  small,  commonplace,  material ;  and,  at  the  same  instant, 
Scott  was  saying  to  himself,  How  petty  a"Ve  my  light  scribbl ings  com 
pared  with  the  solid  good  this  great  man  has  done  the  world  !  This 
is  the  natural  feeling  between  men  of  opposite  excellences  and  noble 
character,  who  meet,  as  a  sultan  of  the  East  might  meet  a  monarch 
of  the  West,  equals,  without  being  rivals.  It  was  otherwise  with 
these  two  men,  Jefferson  and  Hamilton.  In  their  case,  there  were 
so  many  causes  of  antipathy,  noble  and  ignoble,  external  and  inter- 


TONE  OF  NEW-YORK  SOCIETY  IN   1790.  375 

nal,  that  nothing  short  of  thorough  breeding  in  both  could  have  kept 
them  well  with  one  another. 

There  is  no  contest  so  little  harmful  as  an  open  one.  The  English 
people  have  originated  no  governmental  device  hetter  than  the 
arrangement  of  their  parliament,  by  which  the  administration  mem 
bers  sit  facing  the  opposition,  and  the  leaders  of  the  two  bodies  fight 
it  out  openly  in  the  hearing  of  mankind.  These  two  men  should 
have  been  avowed  opponents,  not  colleagues,  and  debated  publicly 
the  high  concerns  respecting  which  they  were  bound  to  differ  ;  so  as 
to  correct  while  exasperating  one  another  ;  so  as  to  inform,  at  once, 
and  stimulate  the  public  mind.  Hamilton's  fluency  and  self-confi 
dence  would  have  given  him  the  advantage  for  a  while  ;  but  Jeffer 
son  would  have  had  the  American  people  behind  him,  since  it  was 
his  part  to  marshal  them  the  way  they  were  to  go. 


' 


CHAPTER    XLII. 

THE    CABINET    OF    PRESIDENT   WASHINGTON. 

"  WE  are  in  a  wilderness,  without  a  single  footstep  to  guide  us." 
Thus  wrote  Madison  to  Jefferson,  in  June,  1789,  from  his  seat  in 
Congress,  when  President  Washington,  not  yet  three  months  in 
office,  and  without  a  cabinet,  was  surveying  the  thousand  difficulties 
of  his  position :  "  the  whole  scene,"  as  the  gloomy  mind  of  Fisher 
Ames  conceived  it,  "  a  deep,  dark,  and  dreary  chaos." 

The  government  of  the  United  States  at  that  moment  consisted 
of  General  Washington,  Congress,  and  a  roll  of  parchment :  the 
last  named  being  the  Constitution,  the  sole  guide  out  of  the  "wil 
derness"  of  which  Mr.  Madison  wrote.  Footstep  there  was  none. 
No  nation  had  travelled  that  way  before  ;  though  all  nations  may 
be  destined  to  follow  the  path  which  the  United  States  have  since 
"blazed  "  and  half  beaten.  Every  thing  was  to  be  done,  and  there 
seemed  nothing  to  do  it  with,  not  even  money  to  pay  the  govern 
ment's  board ;  there  being  as  yet  no  treasury,  no  treasurer,  and  no 
treasure.  And  worse ;  this  outline,  this  sketch,  this  shadowy 
promise  of  a  government,  was  confronted  witli  what  seemed  to  the 
simple  souls  of  the  time  a  giant  debt,  —  a  thousand-armed  Briareus, 
—  debt  in  all  forms,  paper  of  every  kind  known  to  impecunious 
man.  The  total  approached  fifty-four  millions  of  dollars,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  debts  of  the  several  States,  amounting  to  twnny-one 
millions  more.  Worst  of  all,  fifteen  millions  of  the  general  debt 
was  arrears  of  interest !  Hence,  the  credit  of  the  government  was 
low;  not  so  low  as  that  of  the  late  Congress,  whose  Promise  to 
Pay  Bearer  one  dollar  had  passed,  as  money,  in  1787,  for  eight 
cents;  but  so  low  that  the  money  lent  it  to  subsist  upon  for  the 
first  few  months  was  lent  cniefly  as  a  mark  of  confidence  in  the 
men  who  solicited  it. 
876 


THE  CABINET   OF  PRESIDENT  WASHINGTON.  877 

There  was  not  much  real  money  in  the  country.  No  one,  not 
even  the  richest  man,  could  raise  a  large  sum  of  unquestionable 
cash.  The  estate  of  General  Washington  was  extensive,  and  not 
so  unproductive  as  many ;  but,  during  the  first  year  and  a  half  of 
his  presidency,  he  was  often  embarrassed,  and  was  once  obliged  to 
raise  money  on  his  own  note  to  Tobias  Lear,  at  two  per  cent  a 
month,  in  order  to  enable  "  The  Steward  of  the  Household  "  to  pay 
off  the  butcher  and  the  grocer  before  leaving  for  Mount  Vernon. 
Years  later  we  find  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  taken  to  task  in 
Congress  for  presuming  to  advance  the  president  a  quarter's  salary. 
The  first  Congress  was  paid,  in  part,  by  anticipating  the  duties  at 
the  custom-houses,  each  member  receiving  a  certificate  of  indebted 
ness,  which  the  collectors  were  required  to  receive  for  duties.  The 
personal  credit  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  (when  at  last  there 
was  one)  helped  members  to  many  a  liberal  shave,  and  lured  from 
the  Bank  of  New  York  several  timely  loans,  which  kept  the  life  in 
a  starving  government. 

"What  are  we  to  do  with  this  heavy  debt?"  the  new  president 
asked  of  Robert  Morris,  who  had  so  long  superintended  the  finances 
of  the  Confederacy,  both  in  war  and  in  peace.  The  answer  was, 
"  There  is  but  one  man  in  the  United  States  who  can  tell  you : 
that  is  Alexander  Hamilton."  Colonel  Hamilton  agreed  with 
Robert  Morris  in  this  opinion.  He  had  had  an  eye  upon  the  office 
of  secretary  of  flie  treasury  :  not  from  any  common-place  ambition ; 
but  because,  feeling  equal  to  the  post,  he  believed  he  could  be  of 
more  service  in  it  than  in  any  other.  "  I  can  restore  the  public 
credit,"  said  he  to  Gouverneur  Morris.  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of 
that  cool,  consummate  disciple  of  Epicurus  to  sympathize  with  the 
spirit  of  martyrdom ;  and  hence  he  endeavored  to  dissuade  his 
young  friend  from  encountering  the  obloquy  and  distrust  which 
then  so  often  assailed  ministers  of  finance.  Hamilton's  reply  was, 
that  he  expected  calumny  and  persecution.  "  But,"  said  he,  "  I  am 
convinced  it  is  the  situation  in  which  I  can  do  most  good."  Wash 
ington  was  scarcely  sworn  in  before  he  told  Hamilton  he  meant  to 
offer  him  the  department  of  finance;  and  the  next  day  Colonel 
Hamilton  called  upon  his  old  comrade,  Colonel  Troup,  then  a 
thriving  lawyer  in  New  York,  and  asked  him  if  he  would  undertake 
to  wind  up  his  law  business.  Troup  remonstrated  against  his 
making  so  great  .a  sacrifice.  Hamilton  replied  to  him  as  to  Morris, 


378  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

that  the  impression  upon  his  inind  was  strong,  that,  in  the  place 
offered  him,  he  could  essentially  promote  the  welfare  of  the  country. 
Without  being  devoid  of  a  proper  and  even  strong  desire  to  distin 
guish  himself,  doubtless  he  accepted  the  office  in  the  spirit  in  which 
he  urged  some  of  his  friends  to  take  places  under  the  experimental 
government.  "If  it  is  possible,  my  dear  Harrison,"  he  wrote  to 
one  of  those  who  shrank  from  the  toil,  the  wrandering,  and  poverty 
of  the  Supreme  Bench,  "  (jive  yourself  to  us.  We  want  men  like 
ytm."  Good  and  able  men  were  wanted,  because,  as  he  said  in  the 
same  letter,  "  I  consider  the  business  of  America's  happiness  as  yet 
to  be  done !  " 

It  is  the  privilege  of  Americans,  despite  the  efforts  of  so  many 
misinterpreters  of  the  men  of  that  time,  to  believe  that  every 
member  of  General  Washington's  administration  accepted  office  in 
the  same  high,  disinterested  spirit.  Every  one  of  them  sacrificed 
his  pecuniary  interest,  and  most  of  them  sacrificed  their  inclina 
tions,  to  aid  in  giving  the  government  a  start.  The  salaries 
attached  to  their  places  were  almost  as  insufficient  as  they  are  now. 
Not  a  man  of  them  lived  upon  his  official  income,  any  more  than 
the  members  of  the  government  of  to-day  live  upon  theirs.  In 
1789  there  seemed'  (but  only  seemed)  a  necessity  for  fixing  the 
salaries  of  the  dozen  men  upon  whom  the  success  of  the  system 
chiefly  depended,  at 'such  a  point  that  their  service  was  generosity 
as  much  as  duty.  There  is  an  impression  that  we  owe  to  Jefferson 
the  system  of  paying  extravagantly  low  salaries  to  high  men.  Not 
so.  He  was  far  too  good  a  republican  to  favor  an  idea  so  aristo 
cratic.  Make  offices  desirable,  he  says,  if  you  wish  to  get  superior 
men  to  fill  them.  In  giving  his  ideas  respecting  the  proposed  new 
constitution  for  Virginia,  he  dwelt  upon  this  point,  and  returned  to 
it.  There  is  nothing  in  the  writings  of  Jefferson  which  gives  any 
show  of  support  to  temptation  salaries  or  to  ignorant  suffrage, — 
the  bane  and  terror  of  our  present  politics. 

Henry  Knox,  whom  President  Washington  appointed  secretary 
of  war,  had  been,  before  the  Revolution,  a  thriving  Boston  book 
seller,  with  so  strong  a  natural  turn  for  soldiering  that  he  belonged 
to  two* military  companies  at  once,  and  read  all  the  works  in  his 
shop  which  treated  of  military  things.  From  Bunker  Hill,  where 
he  served  as  volunteer  aid  to  General  Artemas  Ward,  to  Yorktown, 
where  he  commanded  and  ably  directed  the  artillery,  he  was  an 


THE   CABINET  OF  PEESIDENT   WASHINGTON.  379 

efficient,  faithful  soldier;  and  after  the  war,  being  retained  in 
service,  he  had  the  chief  charge  of  the  military  affairs  of  the  Con- 
federacy,  high  in  the  confidence  of  the  disbanded  army  and  its 
chief.  He  was  a  man  of  large,  athletic  frame,  tall,  deep-chested, 
loud-voiced,  brave,  delighting  in  the  whirl  and  rush  of  field-artillery 
and  the  thunder  of  siege-guns.  But  a  secretary  of  war  is  the 
adviser  of  the  head  of  the  government  on  all  subjects ;  and  General 
Knox  was  only  acquainted  with  one.  Nor  was  he  a  man  of  capa 
cious  and  inquisitive  mind.  He  was  one  who  must  take  his  opinions 
from  another  mind,  or  not  have  any  opinions.  But  such  men,  since 
they  lack  the  only  thing  in  human  nature  which  is  progressive,  — 
original  intelligence,  —  have  usually  a  bias  toward  what  we  now 
call  the  conservative  side  of  politics.  We  hear  sometimes  of  "the 
car  of  progress."  Intellect  alone  appears  to  be  the  engine  which 
draws  that  celebrated  vehicle,  every  thing  else  within  us  being 
burden  or  brake.  Not  only  are  indolence,  ignorance,  timidity,  and 
habit  conservative,  but  love  and  imagination  also  cling  fondly  to 
the  old  way,  to  the  old  house  at  home,  and  to  all  things  ancient  and 
sanctioned ;  so  that,  often,  the  highest  genius  in  the  community 
and  its  stolidest  clodhopper  belong  to  the  same  political  party. 
Thackeray  owned  that  he  preferred  the  back  seat  in  the  car  afore 
said,  because  it  commanded  a  view  of  the  country  which  had  been 
traversed,  —  Queen  Anne's  reign,  instead  of  Queen  Victoria's; 
and  we  observe  the  same  tendency  in  most  men  of  illustrious  gifts. 

It  is  only  intellect,  the  fearless  and  discerning  mind,  that  dis 
covers  the  better  path,  or  welcomes  the  news  that  a  better  path 
has  been  discovered.  Happy  the  land  where  this  priceless  force  has 
free  play ;  for,  small  as  it  ever  is  in  quantity,  we  owe  to  it  every 
step  that  man  has  made  from  the  condition  of  the  savage. 

General  Knox  had  much  faith  in  the  tools  he  was  accustomed  to 
use.  His  original  remedy  for  the  ills  of  the  Confederacy  was  as  sim 
ple  and  complete  as  a  patent  medicine :  Extinguish  the  State  gov 
ernments,  and  establish  an  imposing  general  government,  with 
plenty  of  soldiers  to  enforce  its  decrees.  In  the  cabinet  of  Presi 
dent  Washington,  he  was  the  giant  shadow  of  his  diminutive  friend 
Hamilton.  When  Hamilton  had  spoken,  Knox  was  usually  ready 
to  say  in  substance,  "  My  own  opinion,  better  expressed." 

These  two  men  were  established  as  members  of  the  cabinet  as 
early  as  September,  1789,  Mr.  Jay  continuing  to  serve  as  secre- 


380  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

tary  for  foreign  affairs;  and  all  of  them  were  highly  valued  by 
their  chief.  How  honorable  and  how  right  was  the  conduct  of 
this  group  of  men  in  setting  the  government  in  motion !  What  an 
honest  soul  breathes  in  this  first  note  which  the  president  ever 
wrote  to  the  secretary  of  the  treasury :  "  From  a  great  variety  of 
characters,  who  have  made  a  tender  of  their  services  for  suitable 
offices,  I  have  selected  the  following.  If  Mr.  Jay  and  you  will 
take  the  further  trouble  of  running  them  over,  to  see  if  among  them 
there  can  be  found  one,  who,  under  all  circumstances,  is  more  eligi 
ble  for  the  post-office  than  Colonel  0 ,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  you 

for  your  opinion  thereon  by  eleven  o'clock.  Another  paper,  which 
is  enclosed,  will  show  how  the  appointments  stand  to  this  time. 
And  that  you  may  have  the  matter  jfa//y  before  you,  I  shall  add, 
that  it  is  my  present  intention  to  nominate  Mr.  Jefferson  for  secre 
tary  of  state,  and  Mr.  Edmund  Randolph  as  attorney-general ; 
though  their  acceptance  is  problematical,  especially  the  latter." 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  every  thing  was  done, — public  good 
the  object,  patient  inquiry  the  means. 

Edmund  Randolph,  who  accepted  the  post  of  attorney-general, 
besides  being  a  Randolph  and  a  Virginian,  had  this  claim  to  the 
regard  of  General  Washington  :  he  had  been  disinherited  by  his 
father  for  siding  with  the  Revolution.  He  was  a  rising  lawyer 
twenty-two  years  of  age  when  his  father,  the  king's  attorney-gen 
eral,  withdrew  to  England,  —  an  act  upon  which  the  son  commented 
by  mounting  his  horse,  and  riding  by  the  side  of  General  Wash 
ington  a>  his  volunteer  aid,  until  the  general  could  organize  his 
military  household.  This  marked  "discrepancy"  cost  the  young 
man  his  estate,  and  made  his  fortune.  The  next  year,  1776,  young 
as  In-  was,  Virginia  sent  him  to  the  convention  which  called  upon 
Congress  to  declare  independence.  At  twenty-six  he  was  a  mem 
ber  of  the  war  Congress,  in  which  he  served  three  years,  and  at 
thirty-three  was  governor  of  Virginia.  In-ing  a  Randolph,  we 
might  infrr,  even  without  Mr.  Wirt's  full-length  portrait  of  him  in 
the  Uritish  Spy,  that  he  \vas  a  man  of  great  but  peculiar  talents, — 
resembling  his  eccentric  kinsman,  John  Randolph  of  a  later  day, 
but  sounder  and  stronger  than  that  meteoric  ]>tT>onai,'(>.  Tall, 
meagre,  emaciated,  loose-jointed,  awkward,  with  small  head,  and  a 
face  dark  and  wrinkled,  nothing  in  his  appearance  denoted  a  superior 
person  except  his  eyes,  which  were  black  and  most  brilliant.  Mr. 


THE   CABINET   OF  PRESIDENT   WASHINGTON.  381 

Wirt,  who  knew  him  some  years  later,  when,  after  much  public 
service,  he  had  resumed  the  leadership  of  the  Virginia  bar,  tells  us 
that  he  owed  his  supremacy  there  to  a  single  faculty,  that  of  seeing 
and  seizing  at  once  the  real  point  at  issue  in  a  controversy.  "  No 
matter  what  the  question,"  says  Mr.  Wirt,  "  though  ten  times  more 
snotty  than  the  gnarled  oak,  the  lightning  of  heaven  is  not  more 
rapid  nor  more  resistless  than  his  astonishing  penetration.  Nor 
does  the  exercise  of  it  seem  to  cost  him  an  effort.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  as  easy  as  vision."  John  Randolph  possessed  a  residuum  of 
;he  same  talent  in  his  power  of  condensing  one  side  of  a  question 
nto  an  epigram  of  ten  words,  which  pierced  every  ear,  and  stuck  in 
every  memory. 

But  Edmund  Randolph,  keen  and  bold  as  he  was  before  judge 
and  jury,  where  the  responsibility  of  deciding  lay  with  others,  was 
:imid  and  hesitating  when  it  was  his  part  to  utter  the  decisive 
word.  He  saw  clearly,  he  saw  correctly;  but,  when  the  time  came 
;o  vote,  his  ingenious  mind  conjured  up  difficulties,  and  he  often 
gave  his  voice  to  the  side  his  head  disapproved,  —  his  argument  sup- 
)orting  one  party  and  his  vote  the  other ;  or,  as  Jefferson  expressed 
t,  he  sometimes  gave  the  shells  to  his  friends,  and  the  oyster  to  his 
enemies.  Most  men,  whose  profession  it  has  long  been  to  use 
words,  would  experience  the  same  difficulty  when  called  upon  to 
deal  with  things ;  so  much  easier  is  it  to  be  eloquent  than  to  be 
wise.  How  confident  the  hero  of  the  platform  or  of  the  editorial 
)age  !  what  vigorous  blows  he  gets  in  at  enemies,  remote  or  ima 
ginary  !  how  striking  the  skill  with  which  he  barbs,  and  the  audacity 
with  which  he  shoots,  the  poisoned  arrow  which  will  rankle  a  life 
time  in  an  unseen  breast !  But  put  the  same  man  in  a  situation 
which  requires  him  on  his  honor  to  decide  the  smallest  practical 
question,  and  his  confidence  is  gone.  A  government  of  orators  and 
editors  would  never  do,  unless  at  or  near  the  head  of  it  there  was 
one  unfluent  man  trained  in  the  great  art  of  making  up  his  mind. 

Such  were  the  gentlemen  who  were  gathered  round  the  council- 
table  at  the  president's  house  in  New  York  in  1790.  How  inter 
esting  the  group!  At  the  head  of  the  table,  General  Washington, 
now  fifty-eight,  his  frame  as  erect  as  ever,  but  his  face  showing 
deep  traces  of  the  thousand  anxious  hours  he  had  passed.  Not 
versed  in  the  lore  of  schools,  not  gifted  with  a  great  sum  of  intel 
lect,  the  eternal  glory  of  this  man  is,  that  he  used  all  the  mind  he 


382  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

had  in  patient  endeavors  to  find  out  the  right  way  ;  ever  on  the 
\\a:ch  to  keep  out  of  his  decision  every  thing  like  bias  or  prejudice; 
never  deciding  till  he  had  exhausted  every  source  of  elucidation 
within  his  reach.  Some  questions  he  could  not  decide  with  his  own 
mind;  and  he  knew  he  could  not.  In  such  cases,  he  bent  all  his 
powers  to  ascertaining  how  the  subject  appeared  to  minds  fitted  to 
grapple  with  it,  and  getting  them  to  view  it  without  prejudice. 

I  am  delighted  to  learn  that  Mr.  Carlyle  can  seldom  hear  the 
name  of  Washington  pronounced  without  breaking  forth  with,  an 
explosion  of  contempt,  especially,  it  is  said,  if  there  is  an  American 
within  hearing.  Washington  is  the  exact  opposite  of  a  fell  Car- 
lylean  hero.  His  glory  is,  that  he  was  not  richly  endowed,  not 
sufficient  unto  himself,  not  indifferent  to  human  rights,  opinions, 
and  preferences;  but  feeling  deeply  his  need  of  help,  sought  it, 
where  alone  it  was  to  be  found,  —  in  minds  fitted  by  nature  and 
training  to  supply  his  lack.  It  is  this  heartfelt  desire  to  be  RIGHT 
whii-h  shines  so  affectingly  from  the  plain  words  of  Washington, 
and  gives  him  rank  so  far  above  the  gorgeous  bandits  whom  hero- 
worshippers  adore. 

On  the  right  of  the  president, — in  the  place  of  honor.  —  sat 
Jefferson,  now  forty-seven,  the  senior  of  all  his  colleagues;  older 
in  public  service,  too,  than  any  of  them ;  tall,  erect,  ruddy;  noticea 
bly  quiet  and  unobtrusive  in  his  address  and  demeanor ;  the  least 
pugnacious  of  men.  Not  a  fanatic,  not  an  enthusiast;  but  an 
old-fashioned  Whig,  nurtured  upon  "old  Coke,"  enlightened  by 
twenty-five  years'  intense  discussion,  —  with  pen,  tongue,  and 
sword,  —  of  Cokean  principles.  Fresh  from  the  latest  commentary 
upon  Coke,  —  the  ruins  of  the  Bastille,  —  and  wearing  still  his  red 
Paris  waistcoat  and  breeches,  he  was  an  object  of  particular  interest 
to  all  men,  and  doubtless  often  relieved  the  severity  of  business 
by  some  thrilling  relation  out  of  his  late  foreign  experience. 

Opposite  him,  on  the  president's  left,  was  the  place  of  Hamilton, 
secretary  of  the  treasury,  in  all  the  alertness  and  vigor  of  thirty- 
three  years.  If  time  had  matured  his  talents,  it  had  not  lessened 
his  self-sufficiency ;  because,  as  yet,  all  his  short  life  had  been  suc 
cess,  and  he  had  associated  chiefly  with  men  who  possessed  nothing 
either  of  his  fluency  or  his  arithmetic.  A  positive,  vehement  little 
gentleman,  with  as  firm  a  faith  in  the  apparatus  of  finance  as 'Gen 
eral  Knox  had  in  great  guns.  He  was  now  in  the  full  tide  of  activ- 

• 


THE  CABINET   OF   PRESIDENT   WASHINGTON.  383 

ity,  lobbying  measures  through  Congress,  and  organizing  the  treasury 
department;  the  most  conspicuous  man  in  the  administration, 
except  the  president.  As  usual,  his  unseen  work  was  his  best.  In 
organizing  a  system  of  collecting,  keeping,  and  disbursing  the  rev 
enue,  he  employed  so  much  tact,  forethought,  and  fertility,  that  his 
successors  have  each,  in  turn,  admired  and  retained  his  most  impor 
tant  devices.  He  arranged  the  system  so  that  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  at  any  moment,  could  survey  the  whole  working  of  it ;  and 
he  held  at  command  all  the  resources  of  the  United  States,  subject 
to  lawful  use,  without  being  able  to  divert  one  dollar  to  a  purpose 
not  specially  authorized.  He  could  not  draw  his  own  pittance  of 
salary  without  the  signatures  of  the  four  chief  officers  of  the  depart 
ment, —  comptroller,  auditor,  treasurer,  and  register. 

"  Hamilton  and  I,"  Jefferson  wrote,  "  were  pitted  against  each 
other  every  day  in  the  cabinet,  like  two  fighting-cocks."  Age  had 
not  quenched  the  vivacity  of  either  of  the  four  secretaries  :  Jeffer 
son,  forty-seven  ;  Knox,  forty ;  Randolph,  thirty-seven ;  Hamilton, 
thirty-three.  When,  in  the  world's  history,  was  so  3roung  a  group 
charged  with  a  task  so  new,  so  difficult,  so  momentous  ?  At  first, 
what  good  friends  they  were  !  No  "opposition,"  in  the  party  sense, 
seems  to  have  been  thought  of.  "I  remember,"  said  a  lady  who 
was  living  in  1858,  "how  Hamilton  and  Madison  would  talk  together 
in  the  summer  [of  1789],  and  then  turn  and  laugh  and  play  with  a 
monkey  that  was  climbing  in  a  neighbor's  }Tard."  But  how  suddenly 
was  all  this  changed  when  the  administration  set  to  work  in  ear 
nest  !  An  opposition  sprang  into  being  full-formed.  By  the  time 
Jefferson  took  his  seat  in  the  cabinet,  it  had  attained  even  menacing 
proportions;  and  it  was  chiefly  due  to  Hamilton's  inexperience  and 
precipitation,  his  ignorance  of  man,  and  his  ignorance  of  America. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT. 

IN  September,  1789,  when  his  appointment  to  the  place  of  minis 
ter  of  finance  hud  set  the  seal  of  Washington's  approval  to  his  repu 
tation,  Hamilton's  position  before  the  country  was  commanding. 
The  dead  corpse  of  the  public  credit,  of  which  Mr.  Webster  spoke 
(repeating  the  tradition  of  his  father's  fireside),  took  a  startling  leap, 
even  before  I  lumilton  could  be  supposed  to  have  "touched"  it:  thirty- 
three  per  cent  from  January  to  November.  The  mere  establishment 
of  a  government,  "clothed,"'  as  Hamilton  expressed  it,  "with  powers 
capable  <>f  calling  forth  the  resources  of  the  community."  hud  wrought 
tli is  third  part  of  a  miracle.  The  appointment  of  Hamilton,  who 
was  known  to  be  in  favor  of  using  those  powers  to  the  uttermost, 
accelerated  the  rise,  which  received  a  further  impetus  when  Con 
gress,  late  in  September,  before  adjourning  over  till  January,  referred 
the  knotty  subject  of  the  public  credit  to  the  secretary  of  the  treas 
ury,  requesting  him  to  report  a  plan  for  its  restoration.  He  threw 
himself  upon  this  work  with  honorable  ardor,  not  disdaining  to  con 
sult  Madison,  Morris,  and  all  accessible  men  competent  to  advise 
on  a  matter  so  full  of  difficulty.  The  rumor  of  what  he  intended 
to  recommend  had  such  effect  upon  the  market,  that  the  debt  rose 
in  price  fifty  per  rent  more  in  the  last  two  months  of  17S',)  :  making 
a  rise  of  eighty-three  per  cent  in  the  year.  The  day  on  which  the 
report  was  read  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  .January  14,  1790, 
wus  memorable  for  the  throng  of  ea^er  auditors  that  gathered  to 
hear  it  in  gallery  and  lobby,  and  the  breathless  interest  with  which 
so  difficult  a  paper  was  listened  to.  The  Senate  still  sat  with  closed 
doors,  in  secrecy  meant  to  be  awful;  but  the  public  were  admitted 
to  what  the  'Federal  i>ts  were  pleased  to  designate  the  Lower  House. 

Hamilton's  report  on  the  public  credit  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 

384 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT.   385 

esting  documents  in  the  archives  of  the  United  States.  It  began 
the  strife  of  parties  under  the  new  Constitution.  It  was  hailed 
with  triumphant  rapture  by  the  moneyed  few,  and  received  by  the 
landed  many  with  doubt  and  distrust,  which  soon  became  opposition, 
hostility,  rancor,  mania. 

How  much  does  the  reader  suppose  the  Revolution  cost  per 
annum?  Seventeen  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars  ;  about  ten  days' 
expenditure  of  the  late  war.  Such  was  "  the  price  of  liberty." 
The  debt  of  the  United  States  in  January,  1790,  was  $54,124,464. 
56; -of  which,  as  before  remarked,  nearly  fifteen  millions  were 
arrears  of  interest;  and,  besides  this  general  debt,  there  was  a  chaos 
of  State  debts,  amounting,  as  the  secretary  erroneously  computed,  to 
twenty-five  millions  more.  Not  eighty  millions  in  all ;  not  a 
month's  expenditure  during  the  Rebellion.  But  if  the  billions  of 
our  present  debt  were  multiplied  by  two,  the  stupendous  total  would 
not  affright  us  half  as  much  as  these  figures  did  the  people  of  1790, 
four  millions  in  number,  mostly  farmers  and  fishermen,  without 
steam,  without  cotton,  without  the  mines,  without  a  West.  It  was 
a  grave  question  with  intelligent  men,  whether  it  was  possible  for 
the  country  to  pay  the  interest,  and  carry  on  the  general  government 
at  the  same  time.  The  expenses  of  supporting  the  government 
could  not  be  kept,  Hamilton  thought,  under  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  year,  and  the  interest  of  the  whole  debt  was  four  millions 
and  a  half.  Would  the  country  stand  such  a  drain  ?  The  secretary 
thought  it  possible,  but  not  probable.  "It  would  require,"  he  said, 
"an  extension  of  taxation  to  a  degree  and  to  objects  which  the  true 
interest  of  the  public  creditor  forbids."  This  was  a  polite  way  of 
stating  the  case,  but  the  meaning  was  sufficiently  clear:  The  people 
will  not  bear  a  tax  of  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  each  per  annum.  What 
then? 

The  secretary's  answer  to  this  question  was,  Fund  the  debt  at  a 
lower  rate  of  interest.  But  how  could  a  country  borrow  at  a  lower 
rate,  which  already  owed  fifteen  millions  of  unpaid  interest?  It 
was  in  answering  this  question  that  the  young  financier  displayed 
too  much  ingenuity  and  not  enough  wisdom.  He  answered  it  very 
much  as  John  Law  would  have  done,  if  John  Law  had  been  a  man 
of  honor.  His  suggestions  were  so  numerous,  so  complex,  and  so 
refined,  as  to  suggest  to  opponents  the  idea  that  he  had  contrived 
them  on  purpose  to  puzzle  the  people.  Nothing  could  be  more 
25 


LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

unjust.  lie  was  a  financier  of  thirty- three,  whose  mind  was  as  full 
of  ideas  as  his  pockets  were  empty  of  money  and  his  life  devoid  of 
experience.  Txit  every  page  of  his  report  is  warm  with  the  passion 
of  honesty  which  possessed  the  author's  mind.  If  some  cool,  prac- 
ti-"<l  man  of  the  world,  like  Gouverneur  Morris,  had  gone  over  this 
report,  stricken  out  three  out  of  every  four  of  Hamilton's  ingenuities, 
kept  his  best  ideas,  and  given  them  the  simplest  expression,  an  ad 
mirable  result  might  have  been  attained.  But  what  could  the  most 
uncommercial  and  uncapitalled  of  all  people  on  earth  be  expected 
to  think  of  a  scheme  which  would  require  the  United  States  to.  em 
bark  in  the  business  of  selling  annuities,  and  contracting  loans  "on 
the  principles  of  a  tontrne,  to  consist  of  six  classes"?  I  think  I 
see  the  country  gentleman  of  the  period  puzzling  over  the  secretary's 
lucid  explanations  of  the  annuity  business:  "One  hundred  dollars, 
bearing  an  interest  of  six  per  cent  for  five  years,  or  five  per  cent  for 
fifteen  years,  and  thenceforth  of  four  per  cent'  (these  being  the 
successive  rates  of  interest  in  the  market),  is  equal  to  a  capital  of 
$122.510725,  bearing  an  interest  of  four  per  cent;  which,  con- 
V'-rii  <l  into  a  capital  bearing  a  fixed  rate  of  interest  of  six  per  cent, 

is  equal  to  £.si.r>7:isir>G." 

A  valuable  suggestion  was  to  turn  the  waste  lands  to  account  in 
paying  part  of  the  debt.  He  wished  to  raise  one  loan  by  giving 
every  holder  of  the  debt  the  option  to  fund  his  whole  amount  at  six 
per  cent,  or,  receiving  one-third  of  it  in  land  at  twenty  cents  an  acre, 
fund  the  rest  at  four  per  cent.  Another  loan  of  ten  millions  he  pro 
posed  to  effect  on  Law's  own  plan  of  utilizing  depreciated  bonds: 
every  man  subscribing  one  hundred  dollars,  to  pay  half  in  money 
ami  the  other  half  in  Congress  paper;  the  whole  to  bear  an  interest 
of  five  per  cent.  A  third  scheme  was  founded  upon  the  erroneous 
opinion,  that  the  rate  of  interest  would  decline  from  six  per  cent  to 
four  in  a  lew  years.  I'esides  suggesting  six  ditVerent  plans  of  luring 
money  IVum  tin-  public  in  aid  of  the  government,  he  pr<>p.»ed  a  still' 
duty  up.ui  liquors,  wim->,  tea.  and  cofl'ee.  J>ut  even  his  tariu"  had 
the  vice  of  complication.  Kadi  grade  of  tea  (four  in  number)  had 
its  special  rate  of  duty  ;  and  every  barrel  of  liquor  was  to  be  tested  by 
"  Dica's  hyd-oineter."  to  ax-rrtain  exactly  how  many  degrees  it  was 
above  or  In-low  proof.  Tin-re  were  to  be  six  rates  upon  liquor; 
beginning  with  twenty  cents  a  gallon  upon  spirits  ten  per  cent 
below  proof,  aud  rising  to  forty  cents  a  gallon  if  it  wejt'e  forty  per 


THE  NEW  GOVEKNMENT  AND  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT.  887 

cent  above  proof.  If  the  report  had  been  contrived,  as  some  of  its 
heated  opponents  charged,  to  perplex  the  people  and  multiply  cus 
tom-house  officers,  it  could  hardly  have  been  better  done.  Even  the 
loans  on  "  the  tontine  plan  "  were  to  be  of  "  six  classes." 

Congress,  of  course,  disregarded  the  refinements  and  the  ingenui 
ties,  and  adopted  the  substance  of  the  report;  the  opposition  con 
centrating  upon  two  points. 

The  public  debt,  as  the  secretary  remarked,  was  "  the  price  of 
liberty/'  The  veterans  of  the  Revolution,  a  kind  of  sacred  class  at 
this  period,  had  been  the  most  numerous  original  holders  of  it ;  and 
many  of  them,  through  the  failure  of  Congress  to  pay  the  interest, 
had  been  obliged  to  sell  their  claims  for  a  small  fraction  of  their 
amount.  It  was  not  as  when  a  poor  widow  in  a  hard  time  sells  her 
diamond  for  a  quarter  of  its  value  ;  for,  in  the  case  of  the  'Revolution 
ary  soldier,  it  was  neither  his  fault  nor  his  necessity  that  lessened 
the  value  of  his  property,  but  the  government's  inability  to  keep  its 
promise.  Hence  there  was  a  wide-spread  feeling  in  the  country, 
that,  in  funding  the  debt,  original  holders  should  be  credited  with 
the  full  amount  of  their  claims  ;  but  the  "  speculator"  should  receive 
only  what  he  had  paid  for  his  certificate,  with  interest,  and  the  rest 
should  go  to  the  original  holder.  The  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
anticipating  this  opinion,  argued  against  it  with  equal  ability  and 
good  feeling.  Probably  there  is  not  to-day  a  man  in  Wall  Street 
nor  in  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington  who  will  not  give 
his  approval  to  Hamilton's  reasoning  upon  this  point.  But,  in 
1790,  an  immense  number  of  the  most  able  and  just-minded  men 
denounced  it  with  bitterness.  What !  pay  a  speculator  a  thousand 
dollars,  with  ten  years'  arrears  of  interest,  for  a  bond  which  he  had 
bought  from  a  veteran  of  the  Revolution  for  a  hundred  and  fifty ! 
Yes,  even  so;  because  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  so  cumbrous  a  thing 
as  a  government  to  execute  any  scheme  for  avoiding  this  twofold 
wrong  which  would  not  cause  more  wrong  than  it  would  prevent. 
To  those  who  have  shall  be  given,  and  from  those  who  have  not 
shall  be  taken  away  that  which  they  have.  Such  is  the  scheme  of 
the  universe,  which  man's  devices-  can  but  regulate  and  mitigate; 
but,  in  a  large  number  of  instances,  this  profoundly  beneficent  law 
appears  to  the  sufferers  to  work  sheer  cruelty.  After  a  long  and 
severe  struggle,  in  which  Madison  strove  worthily  for  the  soldiers' 
interest,  Congress  accepted  Hamilton's  conclusion  as  the  law  of 
necessity  governing  the  case. 


388  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

This  contest  was  at  its  height  while  Jefferson  was  floundering 
through  the  mud  from  Virginia  to  New  York.  Immersed  at  once 
upon  his  arrival  in  the  business  of  his  own  department,  and  having  a 
dislike  of  financial  questions,  he  took  no  part  in  the  strife.  But 
Hamilton,  unhappily,  had  cumbered  his  report  with  a  recommenda 
tion  that  Congress  should  assume  the  debts  of  the  States.  To  him, 
born  in  a  little  sugar-island,  from  which  he  had  early  escaped,  and 
then-fore  unaUc  to  comprehend  or  sympathize  with  the  hereditary 
love  of  the  native  citixen  for  the  State  in  which  he  was  born,  nothing 
seemed  more  natural  or  more  proper  than  this  sweeping  measure. 
Debt  is  debt.  The  people  of  the  United  States  owe  this  money. 
Ho\v  much  better  to  arrange  it  all  under  the  same  system  !  He  sur 
veyed  this  tangled  scene  of  debt  as  Bonaparte  may  be  supposed  to 
have  looked  upon  the  map  of  Europe  when  he  was  about  to  piece 
out  a  new  kingdom  for  one  of  his  brothers.  Here  is  a  nice  little 
.duchy  to  round  off  that  corner;  this  pretty  province  will  make  a 
capital  finish  to  the  western  boundary;  and,  to  fill  up  this  gap  on 
the  north,  we'll  g«>uge  a  piece  out  of  the  king  of  Prussia,  poor  devil. 
The  reader,  perhaps,  in  looking  upon  the  map  of  New  England,  has 
sometimes  thought  what  an  improvement  it  would  be  to  the  sym 
metry  of  things  to  obliterate  the  lines  which  make  Rhode  Island  a 
separate  State,  with  its  own  apparatus  of  government;  not  expen 
sive,  indeed,  but  superfluous.  If  the  reader  has  ever  had  this  bold 
thought,  let  him,  the  next  time  he  finds  himself  in  Thames  Street, 
Newport,  propose  the  scheme  of  merging  Khode  Island  into  Massa 
chusetts  to  the  inhabitants  of  that  too  narrow  thoroughfare.  The 
idea  will  seem  to  the  worthy  sons  of  Newport  too  preposterous  to  be 
considered;  but  if  you  could  succeed  in  convincing  one  of  them  that 
the  plan  was  seriously  entertained,  with  some  remote  possibility  of 
success",  you  would  perhaps  discover  why  Hamilton's  plan  of  assump 
tion  excited,  not  disapproval  merely,  but  passion.  It  cut  deeply  into 
State  pride.  It  gave  the  party  which  had  held  out  longest  against 
the  new  Constitution  an  opportunity  to  turn  upon  the  Federalists 
with  a  hitter,  Did  we  not  tell  you  so?  What  is  this  but  consolida 
tion? 

Besides,  the  rapid  rise  in  the  value  of  the  public  debt,  and 
especially  the  jump  towards  par  which  it  gave  when  the  funding  reso 
lution  was  passed,  had  had  the  usual  effect  (so  familiar  to  us  of  this 
generation)  of  enriching  several  individuals  not  the  most  estimable 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT.   389 

of  men,  and  of  luring  from  honest  industry  a  considerable  class  of 
speculators.  Whoever  saw  exaggerated  Wall  Street  when  gold  was 
going  up  and  down  the  scale  at  ten  per  cent  a  week,  or  whoever  has 
read  of  the  precisely  similar  scenes  in  Paris  when  Louis  XIV.  had 
died  insolvent,  leaving  France  littered  with  every  kind  of  fluctu 
ating  paper  for  John  Law  to  operate  with  and  upon,  can  form  some 
idea  of  the  -horror  excited  in  the  unsophisticated  minds  of  country 
members  in'  1790  by  the  spectacle  of  sudden  wealth  gained  by  spec 
ulation  in  the  public  debt.  As  a  rule,  no  sudden  fortune  is  made 
without  wrong  to  some  and  injury  to  many.  It  is  in  the  highest 
degree  undesirable  for  money  to  be  made  fast;  and,  in  a  healthy, 
proper  state  of  things,  it  will  seldom  be  done.  During  the  colonial 
period,  it  is  questionable  if  one  individual  had  made  a  fortune  even 
in  so  short  a  period  as  ten  years,  except  by  wrecking  or  privateer 
ing;  and  privateer  fortunes  were  proverbially  demoralizing  and 
evanescent.  It  was  thought  remarkable  that  Franklin  should  have 
gained  a  competence  in  twenty  years  by  legitimate  business,  and  he 
never  ceased  to  speak  of  it  himself  with  grateful  wonder.  And 
what  made  these  paper  fortunes  of  1790  and  1791  so  aggravating  to 
country  gentlemen  was,  the  serious  decline  in  the  value  of  their  own 
lands.  In  Hamilton's  report  upon  the  public  credit  occurs  this  sen 
tence  :  "  The  value  of  cultivated  lands,  in  most  of  the  States,  has 
fallen,  since  the  Revolution,  from  twenty  to  fifty  per  cent."  And 
here  were  speculators  in  the  public  debt  setting  up  their  carriages 
in  the  face  of  honorable  members  of  hereditary  estates,  hard  put  to 
it  to  pay  their  board !  At  that  period,  all  Southern  members  were 
country  members;  the  whole  south,  except  Charleston,  being 
"  country." 

On  public  grounds,  too,  the  mania  for  getting  rich  in  a  week  was 
deplorable,  since  it  injured  those  who  lost  and  spoiled  those  who 
gained.  It  was  a  true  mania,  as  Hamilton  himself  admits.  "In 
the  late  delirium  of  speculation,"  he  wrote,  after  the  worst  of  it  was 
over,  "large  sums  [of  the  public  debt]  were  purchased  at  twenty- 
five  per  cent  above  par  and  upwards;"  which  was  just  what  hap 
pened  when  John  Law  "  touched  the  corpse  "  of  French  credit  in 
1717.  "  Since  this  report  has  been  read,"  exclaimed  a  fiery 
member  from  Georgia,  "a  spirit  of  speculation  and  ruin  has  arisen, 
and  been  cherished  by  people  who  had  an  access  to  the  information 
the  report  contained,  that  would  have  made  a  Hastings  blush  to 


390  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

have  been  connected  with,  though  long  inured  to  preying  on  the 
vitals  of  his  fellow-men.  Three  vessels,  sir,  have  sailed  within  a 
fortnight  from  this  port,  freighted  for  speculation :  they  are  intend 
ed  to  purchase  up  the  State  and  other  securities  in  the  hands  of  the 
uninformed  though  honest  citizens  of  North  Carolina,  South  Caro 
lina,  and  Georgia.  My  soul  rises  indignant  at  the  avaricious  and 
moral  turpitude  which  so  vile  a  conduct  displays." 

Thus  the  virtuous  Georgian.  And,  indeed,  few  persons  then 
perceived  the  usefulness  of  speculators,  —  the  men  who  employ 
themselves  in  applying  the  redundancy  of  one  place  to  the  scarcity 
of  another.  Too  many  nutmegs  in  London,  not  enough  nutmegs 
in  New  York :  it  is  the  speculator  who1  remedies  both  evils  at 
a  stroke,  with  occasional  advantage  to  himself.  But  how  far  a 
speculator  may  honorably  avail  himself  of  special  knowledge 
is  a  question  upon  which  "Wayland's  Moral  Philosophy  (school 
edition)  is  clear  and  decisive,  but  which  presents  difficulties  in 
practical  life.  Those  three  fast-sailing  schooners  play  a  great  part 
in  the  journalism  and  politics  of  the  time.  Whether  they  were 
phantom  vessels  or  genuine  two-masted  schooners  is  not  certain,  but 
they  excited  profound  and  general  horror.  "If  any  man  burns  his 
fingers,1'  said  the  indignant  Jackson  of  Georgia,  "  which  I  hope  to 
God,  with  all  the  warmth  of  a  feeling  heart,  they  may,  they  will 
only  have  their  own  cupidity  to  blame." 

Now,  the  proposed  assumption  of  the  State  debts,  even  if  the 
principle  could  be  admitted,  even  if  the  measure  could  be  thought 
desirable  or  timely,  was  open  to  the  obvious  objection,  that  it  would 
throw  upon  the  market  twenty-one  millions  more  of  the  fuel  that 
hud  caused  this  alarming  conflagration.  It  would  be  like  putting 
gallons  of  tar  into  the  furnace  of  a  Mississippi  steamboat  already 
making  nineteen  miles  an  hour,  with  a  colored  boy  on  the  safety- 
valve  ;  a  proceeding  usually  applauded  by  the  gamblers  and  betting 
men  on  board,  though  extremely  unpleasing  to  steady-going  pas 
sengers. 

Some  of  the  States,  moreover,  had  paid  off  half  their  war-debt; 
others  were  making  strenuous  efforts  in  that  direction ;  but  some 
had  not  diminished  their  indebtedness  at  all,  nor  tried  to  do  so. 
Tin-  proposed  assumption  phuvd  all  the  States  upon  a  level.  The 
live  foolish  virgins  were  to  have  their  lumps  tilled  for  them  at  the 
door  of  the  mansion,  and  to  be  allowed  to  flaunt  into  the  banquet- 


THE  NEW   GOVERNMENT   AND   THE  PUBLIC   DEBT.      391 

ing-room  on  the  same  footing  as  their  wise  companions.  The  bad 
apprentice  and  the  good  apprentice  were  each  to  marry  his  master's 
daughter,  inherit  the  business,  and  be  lord-mayor. 

For  these  and  other  reasons,  a  small  majority  of  the  House  (31 
to  29),  in  spite  of  the  outcries  of  an  army  of  creditors,  and  in  spite 
of  Hamilton's  dazzling  prestige  and  irrepressible  resolution,  rejected 
the  plan  of  assumption.  So  acrimonious  had  been  the  debate,  so 
intense  the  feeling  on  both  sides,  on  the  floor,  in  the  loftby,  in  "the 
street,"  that  when  at  last  the  rash  scheme  was  rejected,  it  seemed 
as  if  the  experiment  of  a  general  government  had  failed.  Congress 
assembled  every  morning  as  usual,  but  only  to  adjourn  at  once ;  as 
the  two  sides  were  "  too  much  out  of  temper  to  do  business  to 
gether."  It  was  a  case  of  Town  versus.  Country,  North  against 
South,  centralism  against  the  rights  and  dignity  of  the  State  gov 
ernments. 

But  why  so  much  ill-humor  ?  Because  Hamilton  and  his  friends, 
the  men  who  were  conducting  the  experiment  of  Federal  govern 
ment  by  the  people,  had  no  faith  in  the  principle.  It  was  not  in 
their  blood  to  submit  at  once,  without  a  word,  to  the  decision  of  a 
majority.  The  cogent  arguments  of  Madison  and  the  Republican 
members  against  assumption,  instead  of  instructing  this  brilliant 
young  pupil  of  John  Law,  only  irritated  him,  only  made  him  the 
more  resolute  to  carry  his  point,  only  convinced  him  the  more  that 
the  people  do  not  know  what  is  best  for  them.  He  had  an  tmteach- 
able  mind.  "  I  will  not  give  him  up  yet,"  he  said,  when  he  heard 
of  Madison's  opposition ;  as  though  it  were  a  moral  aberration  in  a 
friend  to  object  to  his  measures  ;  and  when  it  became  clear  that 
Madison  was  fixed  in  his  opposition,  he  had  the  immeasurable 
insolence  to  say,  "Alas,  poor  human  nature!"  The  idea  never 
crossed  his  mind  of  dropping  the  scheme.  And  we  may  be  sure, 
that,  at  such  a  time,  the  clamor  of  an  interested  lobby  will  make 
itself  heard ;  for  the  vote  against  assumption  was  a  shivering  blow 
to  many  a  paper  fortune. 

Mr.  Madison,  in  his  bright  and  happy  old  age,  once  gave  Jtis 
version  of  the  reason  why  Hamilton  and  himself  had  separated  in 
1790.  Mr.  Nicholas  P.  Trist  preserves  the  anecdote.  "I  aban 
doned  Colonel  Hamilton,"  said  Madison,  "or  Colonel  Hamilton 
abandoned  me,  - —  in  a  word,  we  parted,  —  upon  its  plainly  becom 
ing  his  purpose  and  endeavor  to  administration  the  government 


LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

into  a  thing  totally  different  from  that  which  he  and  I  both  knew 
perfectly  well  had  been  understood  and  intended  by  the  Convention 
which  framed  it,  aud  by  the  people  in  adopting  it." 

In  this  extremity,  to  whom,  of  all  men  in  the  world,  should 
Hamilton  apply  for  assistance  but  Jefferson,  his  colleague  of  three 
weeks'  standing,  up  to  the  eyes  in  the  work  of  his  own  department! 
Chance  gave  him  tin-  opportunity.  On  an  April  day,  as  the -secre 
tary  of  state  was  walking  from  his  house,  54  Maiden  Lane,  to  the 
president's  mansion,  at  the  corner  of  Pearl  and  Cherry  Streets, 
Hamilton  met  and  joined  him,  and  broke  into  the  topic  that  filled 
his  mind.  The  distance  being  much  too  short  for  his  purpose,  he 
u  walked"  his  colleague  to  and  fro  in  front  of  the  president's  house 
for  half  an  hour,  descanting  upon  the  situation,  dwelling  especially 
upon  the  dangerous  temper  into  which  Congress  had  been  wrought, 
and  the  fierce  disgust  of  members  whose  States  were  supposed  to 
have  more  to  receive  than  to  pay.  That  word  of  fearful  omen, 
secessiim,  was  then  first  uttered  in  connection  with  the  politics  of 
the  I'nited  States.  There  was  danger,  Hamilton  said,  of  the 
secession  of  the  opposing  members,  and  the  -separation  of  their 
States  from  the  Union.  At  such  a  crisis,  he  thought,  members  of 
the  administration  should  rally  round  the  president,  who  was  "  the 
centre  on  which  all  administrative  measures  ultimately  rested,"  and 
give  a  united  support  to  such  as  he  approved.  This  misinterpreta 
tion  of  the  situation  shows  us  how  much  he  was  "  bewitched  by  the 
British  form."  The  man  was  incapable  of  comprehending  the 
crisis.  There  was  no  crisis,  except  of  his  own  making.  One  of  the 
suggestions  of  his  report  having  been  rejected  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  he  and  his  friends  had  only  to  acquiesce  in  becom 
ing  silence,  and  all  was  well.  But  confused  by  their  familiarity 
with  the  English  system,  excited  by  the  clamor  of  the  street,  and 
having  an  ample  share  of  false  pride,  they  must  needs  persist  until 
they  had  produced  a  crisis. 

Thus  appealed  to,  Jefferson  fell  back  upon  the  expedient  which 
had  IH-CII  so  successful  in  Paris  during  the  French  crisis  of  August, 
1789,  —  a  dinner.  He  told  his  anxious  colleague  that  he  was  a 
stranger  to  the  whole  subject,  not  having  yet  informed  himself  of 
the  system  of  finance  adopted,  and  unable,  therefore,  to  decide  how 
far  this  measure  of  assuming  the  State  debts  was  "  a  necessary 
sequence."  But  of  one  thing  there  could  be  no  doubt :  if  its  rejec- 


THE  NEW  GOVEKNMENT  AND  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT.   393 

tion  was  really  perilous  to  the  Union  at  this  early  stage  of  its 
existence,  all  partial  and  temporary  evils  should  be  endured  to  avert 
that  supreme  catastrophe.  "Dine  with  me  to-morrow,"  he  con 
tinned,  "and  I  will  invite  another  friend  or  two,  and  bring  you  into 
conference  together.  I  think  it  impossible  that  reasonable  men, 
consulting  together  coolly,  can  fail,  by  some  mutual  sacrifices  of 
opinion,  to  form  a  compromise  which  is  to  save  the  Union." 

The  conference  occurred.  Jefferson,  as  usual  with  him  on  such 
occasions,  did  not  join  in  the  discussion,  but  only  exhorted  his  friends 
to  conciliation,  and  quieted  their  minds  by  his  serene  presence.  A 
compromise  was  effected ;  but,  unhappily,  it  was  not  a  compromise 
of  opinion.  Contending  interests  had  to  be  assuaged;  and  thus  a 
vast  permanent  wrong  was  done  in  order  to  tide  over  a  temporary 
inconvenience.  Nay,  two  permanent  wrongs  :  log-rolling  was  in 
vented,  and  the  city  of  Washington  was  sprawled  over  the  soft 
banks  of  the  Potomac. 

As  early  as  September,  1789,  the  question  of  a  capital  of  the 
United  States  had  been  debated  in  Congress,  and  debated  with  that 
warmth  and  irritation  which  such  a  subject  excites  always.  A  Ring 
loomed  up  dimly  upon  the  imaginations  of  members,  supposed  to 
have  been  formed  "  out  of  doors,"  in  order  to  fix  the  capital  at 
"  Wright's  Ferry  on  the  Susquehanna ; "  a  place  which  has  since 
developed  into  Wrightsville,  containing,  according  to  the  Gazetteer, 
"two  saw-mills,  and  thirteen  hundred  and  ten  inhabitants."  Few, 
perhaps,  of  these  thirteen  hundred  and  ten  inhabitants  know  what 
a  narrow  escape  their  secluded  village  had  of  being  the  capital  of 
their  country.  The  members  from  New  England  and  New  York 
agreed  in  preferring  it,  as  the  point  nearest  the  centre  of  population, 
wealth,  and  convenience;  and  for  many  days  it  seemed  to  have  a 
better  chance  than  any  of  the  other  places  proposed,  —  Harrisburg, 
Baltimore,  New  York,  Germantown,  Philadelphia.  Wright's  Ferry 
was  shown  in  the  debates  to  be  the  veritable  "hub  of  the  universe," 
a  region  favored  by  nature  above  others ;  where,  as  one  member 
remarked,  not  merely  the  soil,  the  water,  and  the  "  advantages  of 
nature,"  were  unsurpassed,  but  where,  "  if  honorable  gentlemen  were 
disposed  to  pay  much  attention  to  a  dish  of  fish,  he  could  assure 
them  their  table  might  be  furnished  with  fine  and  good  from  the 
waters  of  the  Susquehanna." 

But  Wright's  Ferry  lost  its  chance  through  the  opposition  of  the 


394  LITE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Southern  member*;  and  the  King  rumor  was  the  ass's  jawbone 
which  they  used  to  kill  the  project.  "Preconcerted  out  of  doors," 
said  Madison.  "I  am  sorry  the  people  should  learn,"  remarked 
the  loud  Jackson  of  Georgia,  whose  home  was  a  thousand  miles  from 
Wright's  Ferry,  "that  the  members  from  New  England  and  New 
York  had  fixed  on  a  seat  of  government."  Such  a  report,  he 
thought,  would  "blow  the  coals  of  sedition,  and  endanger  the 
Union." 

The  members  from  New  England  and  New  York  denied  the  offen 
sive  charge,  and  contended  that  Wright  had  fixed  his  ferry  at  the 
point  which  would  be  "the  centre  of  population  for  ages  yet  to 
come."  With  regard  to  the  country  west  of  the  Ohio,  "an  im 
measurable  wilderness,"  Fisher  Ames  was  of  opinion  (and  it  was 
everybody's  opinion)  that  it  was  "perfectly  romantic"  to  allow  it 
any  weight  in  the  decision  at  all.  "  When  it  will  be  settled,  or  how 
it  will  be  possible  to  govern  it,"  said  he,  "is  past  calculation." 
Southern  gentlemen,  on  the  other  hand,  denied  the  "  centrality  " 
of  Wright,  and  maintained  that  the  shores  of  the  noble  Potomac 
presented  the  genuine  centre  to  the  nation's  choice.  The  Potomac! 
Horror!  A  deadly  miasma  hung  over  its  banks  ;  and  no  native  of 
New  England  could  remain  there  and  live.  "Yast  numbers  of 
Eastern  adventurers,"  said  Mr.  Sedgwick  of  Massachusetts,  "  have 
gone  to  the  Southern  States,  and  all  have  found  their  graves  there  : 
they  have  met  destruction  as  soon  as  they  arrived."  Centre  of  popu 
lation?  "Yes,"  said  Sedgwick,  "if  you  count  the  slaves ;"  but 
"if  they  were  considered,  gentlemen  might  as  well  estimate  the 
black  cattle  of  New  England." 

One  remark  made  by  Madison  in  the  course  of  this  long  and  too 
warm  discussion  has  a  particular  interest  for  us  who  live  under  a 
network  of  telegraphic  wires.  "If,"  said  he,  "it  were  possible  to 
promulgate  our  laws  by  some  instantaneous  operation,  it  would  be 
of  less  consequence,  in  that  point  of  view,  where  the  government 
might  be  placed."  lUit  even  in  that  case,  centrality.  lie  thought, 
would  be  but  just,  since  the  government  would  probably  expend 
every  year  as  much  as  half  a  million  of  dollars,  and  every  citizen 
should  partake  of  this  advantage  as  equally  as  Nature  had  rendered 
it  i>«-sil>le. 

And  so  the  debate  went  on  day  after  day.  The  Susquehanna 
men  triumphed  in  the  House  ;  but  the  senate  sent  back  the  bill  with 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT.   395 

"  Susquehanna  "  stricken  out,  and  "  Germantown  "  inserted.  The 
House  would  not  accept  the  amendment,  and  the  session  ended 
before  a  place  had  been  agreed  upon.  The  subject  being  resumed 
in  the  spring  of  1790,  it  was  again  productive  of  heat  and  recrimi 
nation  ;  again  the  South  was  outvoted,  and  the  Potomac  rejected  by 

small  majority.  Baffled  in  the  House,  Southern  men  renewed 
their  efforts  over  Mr.  Jefferson's  wine  and  hickory-nuts  in  Maiden 
Lane.  Two  sets  of  members  were  sour  or  savage  from  the  loss  of 
a  measure  upon  which  they  had  set  their  hearts  :  Southern  men  had 
lost  the  capital,  and  Northern  men  assumption.  Then  it  was  that 
the  original  American  log-roller — name  unrecorded  —  conceived  the 
idea  of  this  bad  kind  of  compromise.  The  bargain  was  this :  two 
Southern  members  should  vote  for  assumption,  and  so  carry  it ;  and,  in 
return  for  this  concession,  Hamilton  agreed  to  induce  a  few  Northern 
members  .to  change  their  votes  on  the  question  of  the  capital,  and 
so  fix  it  upon  the  Potomac.  It  was  agreed,  at  length,  that  for  the 
next  ten  years  the  seat  of  government  should  be  Philadelphia,  and 
finally  near  Georgetown.  How  much  trouble  would  have  been 
saved  if  some  prophetic  member  had  been  strong  enough  to  carry  a 
very  simple  amendment,  to  strike  out  ten  years,  and  insert  one  hun 
dred  !  And,  in  that  case,  what  an  agreeable  task  would  have  been 
devolved  upon  this  generation,  of  repealing  Georgetown,  and  begin 
ning  a  suitable  capital  at  the  proper  place ! 

To  the  last  of  his  public  life,  Jefferson  never  ceased  to  regret  the 
part  he  had  innocently  taken  in  this  bargain.  Even  as  a  matter  of 
convenience  (leaving  principle  out  of  sight),  he  thought  the  separate 
States  could  reduce  their  chaos  of  debts  to  order,  and  put  them  in  a 
fair  way  to  be  discharged,  better,  sooner,  and  cheaper,  than  it  could 
be  done  by  the  general  government.  But,  while  the  crisis  lasted, 
the  minds  of  all  men  were  filled  with  dismay  and  apprehension ;  for 
the  threat  of  disunion  had  then  lost  none  of  its  terrors  by  repetition 
and  familiarity.  The  letters  of  the  time  are  full  of  the  perils  of  the 
situation.  Jefferson  himself,  in  a  letter  to  his  young  friend  Monroe, 
dated  June  20,  1790,  held  this  fearful  language  :  "  After  exhausting 
their  arguments  and  patience  on  these  subjects,  members  have  been 
for  some  time  resting  upon  their  oars,  unable  to  get  along  as  to  these 
businesses,  and  indisposed  to  attend  to  any  thing  else  till  they  are 
settled.  And,  in  fine,  it  has  become  probable,  that,  unless  they  can 
be  settled  by  some  plan  of  compromise,  there  will  be  no  funding- 


396  LIFE  OP  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

bill  agreed  to,  and  our  credit  (raised  by  late  prospects  to  be  the  first 
011  the  exchange  at  Amsterdam,  where  our  paper  is  above  par)  will 
burst  and  vanish,  and  the  States  separate  to  take  care  every  one  of 
itself." 

And  so  Hamilton  triumphed.  The  young  republic  rose  in  the 
estimation  of  all  the  money-streets  of  Christendom  ;  and  in  Amster 
dam,  a  few  months  later,  a  new  United-States  loan  of  two  and  a 
half  millions  of  florins  was  filled  in  two  hours  an.d  a  half.  What  a 
contrast  from  the  time  when  all  Mr.  Adams's  pertinacity  and  elo 
quence,  united  with  Mr.  Jefferson's  tact  and  suavity,  had  only  been 
able  to  wring  florins  enough  from  Holland  to  keep  the  servants  of 
Congress  in  Europe  supplied  with  the  necessaries  of  life  !  At  home 
the  sudden  increase  in  the  value  of  the  widely  scattered  debt  enriched 
many  people,  improved  the  circumstances  of  more,  and  gave  a  lift 
to  the  whole  country.  America  began  to  be.  New  York  entered 
upon  its  predestined  career.  Corner-lots  acquired  value.  But  the 
corpse  of  the  public  credit,  having  got  firmly  upon  its  feet,  began 
soon  to  dance,  caper,  leap,  and  execute  gymnastic  wonders ;  for  the 
young  gentleman  at  the  head  of  the  treasury  must  needs  apply  the 
galvanic  fluid  once  more.  That  "Bank  of  the  United  States,"  of 
which  he  had  dreamed  by  the  camp-fires  of  the  Revolution,  he  was 
now  in  a  position  to  establish.  Deaf  to  the  warnings  of  the  prudent 
and  the  arguments  of  the  wise,  he  forced  it  through  Congress,  and 
sat  up  all  night  writing  a  paper  to  convince  the  president  that  he 
ought  to  sign  the  bill.  The  books  were  opened.  In  a  day  —  as  fast, 
indeed,  as  the  entries  could  be  made  —  the  shares  were  all  taken, 
and  large  numbers  of  people  were  still  eager  to  subscribe. 

Then  arose  in  the^  United  States  just  such  a  mania  for  speculation 
as  France  experienced  when  the  gambler  Law,  and  the  roue  lie- 
gent,  put  their  heads  together  in  1717.  Every  scrap  of  paper  issued 
by  the  United  Stairs  or  bearing  its  sanction,  whether  debt  or  shares, 
acquired  a  fictitious  value.  "What  do  you  think  of  this  scrippo- 
niauia?''  a>ks  J< •ilVrson  of  a  frend  in  August,  1791.  "Ships  are 
lying  idle  at  the  wharves,  buildings  are  stopped,  capitals  are  with 
drawn  from  coinmeive,  manufactures,  arts  and  agriculture,  to  be 
employed  in  gambling;  and  the  tide  of  public  prosperity,  almost 
unparalleled  in  any  country,  is  arrested  in  its  course,  and  suppressed 
by  the  rage  of  getting  rich  in  a  day.  No  mortal  can  tell  when  this 
will  stop;  for  the  spirit  of  gaming,  when  once  it  has  seized  a 


THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT.   397 

subject,  is  incurable.  The  tailor  who  >  has  made  thousands  in  one 
}',  though  he  has  lost  them  the  next,  can  never  again  be  content 
with  the  slow  and  moderate  earnings  of  his  needle."  Hamilton, 
too,  was  alarmed  at  the  "  extravagant  sallies  of  speculation/'  which, 
he  said,  disgusted  all  sober  citizens,  and  gave  "  a  wild  air  to  every 
thing."  Such  periods,  happily,  can  never  be  of  long  duration : 
under  the  magic  touch  of  Law,  the  corpse  of  French  credit  kept 
upon  its  feet  eight  months,  then  collapsed,  and  "a  hundred  thousand 
persons  ruined."  The  period  of  inflation  in  the  United  States  lasted 
about  the  same  time,  and  was  followed  by  the  usual  depression,  and 
the  sudden  return  of  the  speculating  tailor  to  his  needle. 

We  laugh  at  those  periods  of  collapse  when  they  are  past ;  but, 
while  they  are  passing,  the  hurricanes  of  the  West  Indies,  the 
simooms  of  Sahara,  the  earthquakes  of  the  Andes,  are  not  more  ter 
rible.  They  once  threatened  to  play  the  same  part  in  the  spiritual 
history  of  America  as  the  "  terrible  aspects  of  Nature  "  did  in  that 
of  Spain,  where, .  as  Mr.  Buckle  remarks,  famines,  epidemics,  and 
earthquakes  kept  the  human  mind  in  a  bondage  of  terror,  and  ren 
dered  it  the  easy  prey  of  the  priest. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

JEFFERSON    SETTLING   TO    HIS    WORK. 

THE  secretary  of  state,  meanwhile,  was  grappling  with  the 
weighty,  nnconspicuous  duties  of  his  place.  No  one  knew,  at  first, 
what  those  duties  were,  or  were  not.  For  a  while  he  was  postmaster- 
general  ;  and  we  find  him  inviting  Colonel  Pickering  to  dinner  to 
confer  upon  a  dashing  scheme  of  sending  the  mail  over  the  country 
at  the  furious  pace  of  one  hundred  miles  a  day.  His  idea  was  to 
employ  the  public  coaches  for  the  service  ;  but,  as  they  only  travelled 
by  day,  he  wished  to  "hand  the  mail  along  through  the  night,  till  it 
may  fall  in  with  another  stage  the  next  day."  He  was  commis 
sioner  of  patents  as  well;  and,  in  that  capacity,  saw  what  "a 
spring  "  was  given  to  invention  by  the  patent-law.  Happy  were 
the  inventors  to  find  so  appreciative  an  examiner  of  their  devices ! 
Oddly  enough,  too,  it  was  to  him  the  House  referred  a  pretended 
discovery  of  one  Isaacs  for  converting  sea  water  into  fresh.  Pie 
gave  a  quietus  to  the  claim  of  the  enterprising  Isaacs  by  inviting 
him  to  try  his  hand  upon  a  few  gallons  of  salt  water  in  tin-  presence 
of  Kittenhouse,  Wistar,  Hutchinson,  and  himself,  all  members  of 
the  Philosophical  Society.  The  process  proved  to  be  a  mere  di>t il 
lation  (known  and  practised  for  many  years),  veiled  by  a  little  hocus- 
pocus  of  Mr.  Isaac's  own  contriving.  He  reported  against  the  claim, 
and  advised  that  a  short  account  of  the  best  way  of  extemporizing 
a  still  on  board  ship  be  printed  on  the  back  of  all  ships'  clearances, 
with  an  invitation  to  forward  results  of  such  attempts  to  the  secre 
tary  of  state. 

The  question  of  establishing  a  mint  was  referred  by  a  lazy  House 
of  Representatives  to  the  secretary  of  state.  Shall  we  send  abr<»a.l 
to  get  our  coins  made,  or  manufacture  them  at  home  ?  At  home, 
said  Mr.  JTefferson.  "  Coinage  is  peculiarly  an  attribute  of  sovereign- 


JEFFERSON   SETTLING  TO  HIS   WORK.  399 

by.  ...  To  transfer  its  exercise  into  another  country,  is  to  submit 
it  to  another  sovereign."  So  the  mint  was  established  at  Philadel 
phia,  workmen  were  invited  from  abroad,  and  a  quantity  of  copper 
3rd e red  from  Europe  to  be  made  into  American  cents. 

Some  questions,  which  would  now  be  answered  by  the  Supreme 
Dourt,  were  referred  to  him  for  an  opinion.  One  was  this  :  If  the 
^resident  nominates  an  ambassador,  has  the  senate  a  right  to  change 
the  grade  of  the  nominee  to  plenipotentiary  ?  It  has  not,  was  the 
opinion  given.  Even  the  validity  of  a  grant  of  land  was  referred 
to  him.  Many  a  day  of  arduous  toil,  and  many  an  hour  of  earnest 
consultation,  were  devoted  by  Jefferson  in  the  summer  of  1790  to  a 
report,  called  for  by  the  House,  of  a  plan  of  establishing  uniformity 
n  coinage,  weights,  and  measures  ;  a  subject  familiar  to  his  mind 
'or  many  years.  In  this  most  elaborate  and  able  paper,  packed 
close  with  curious  knowledge,  and  illumined  with  happy  suggestions, 
le  made  one  more  attempt  to  introduce  the  decimal  system.  If  his 
advice  had  been  followed,  school-boys  to-day  might  be  " saying" 
:heir  tables  in  this  fashion:  "Ten  points  one  line;  ten  lines  one 
nch  ;  ten  inches  one  foot ;  ten  feet  one  decad  ;  ten  decads  one  rood; 
;en  roods  one  furlong ;  ten  furlongs  one  mile."  But  this  was  too 
audacious  for  Congress  to  accept.  The  only  decimal  table  adopted 
was  the  one  relating  to  the  new  Federal  money.  But  the  people 
ong  clung  to  the  familiar  difficulties  of  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence, 
iggravated  by  the  intricacies  of  the  different  State  currencies.  After 
;he  lapse  of  eighty-two  years,  —  so  inveterate  is  habit  —  we  are  not 
yet  universally  submissive  to  the  easy  yoke  of  the  decimal  currency. 
'  Dime  "  comes  slowly  into  use  ;  the  words  "  sixpence  "  and  "  shil- 
ing  "  linger  after  the  coins  are  gone ;  and  the  popular  propensity 
s  to  call  an  eagle  a  "  ten-dollar  piece." 

In  addition  to  these  domestic  duties,  it  devolved  upon  the  secre- 
:ary  of  state  to  superintend  the  laying  out  of  the  District  of  Co- 
umbia,  and  the  planning  of  the  public  edifices  in  the  dense  forest 
;hat  covered  the  site  of  Washington.  Hence,  perhaps,  the  general 
resemblance  of  that  city  to  ancient  Williamsburg  in  Virginia,  where 
;he  secretary  of  state  attended  college,  studied  law,  played  the  violin, 
and  loved  Belinda.  If  Jefferson  could  have  forgotten  the  spacious, 
pleasant  old  town,  there  was  "  dear  Page  "  at  his  side,  and  plenty  of 
other  graduates  of  William  and  Mary,  to  remind  him  of  it. 

In  the  autumn  of  1790  the  government  packed  up  its  traps,  and 


400  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

removed  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia.  New-Yorkers  took  the 
loss  good-humoredly  enough,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  newspapers. 
"And  so  Congress  is  going  to  Philadelphia/'  said  one.  "Well, 
then  there  is  an  end  of  every  thing:  no  more  pavement;  no  more 
improvements  of  any  kind."  And  the  editor  wound  up  a  long, 
jocular  article  fty  telling  the  story  of  Charles  II.  and  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  London.  "What  did  the  king  say?"  asked  his  Lordship 
of  a  deputation  of  aldermen  just  returned  from  court.  "He  says, 
if  we  don't  give  him  more  monej',  he'll  remove  his  court/ to  Wind 
sor."  "Is  that  all?"  cried  the  Mayor.  "I  thought  his  Majesty 
said  he'd  take  the  Thames  away."  New  York,  too,  has  found  its 
Thames  sufficient. 

In  November,  then,  of  1790,  the  secretary  of  state,  after  a 
delightful  month  at  Monticello,  was  established  in  Philadelphia, 
living  in  "four  rooms"  of  a  spacious  lodging-house  on  the  pleasant 
outskirts  of  the  city,  not  far  from  where  Dr.  Franklin  flew  his 
immortal  kite.  Near  by,  the  secretary  had  a  stable  and  coach-house 
with  stalls  for  six  horses,  four  of  which  were  occupied;  so  that 
Madison,  Monroe,  and  himself  could  enjoy  a  canter  together  along 
the  delicious  banks  of  the  Schuylkill.  It  was  oftener  a  walk  than 
a  ride.  Once  it  was  a  "  wade."  "  What  say  you,"  he  writes  to 
Madison,  during  a  rainy  week  in  April,  1791,  "  to  taking  a  wade 
into  the  country  at  noon  ?  It  will  be  pleasant  above  head  at  least, 
and  the  party  will  finish  by  dining  here."  He  was  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  grandfather  in  February,  1791.  "Your  last  two  letters," 
he  writes  to  his  daughter,  "gave  me  the  greatest  pleasure  of  any  I 
ever  received  from  you.  The  one  announced  that  you  were  become 
a  notable  housewife  ;  the  other,  a  mother.  The  last  is  undoubtedly 
the  keystone  of  the  arch  of  matrimonial  happiness,  as  the  first  is 
its  daily  aliment."  Monticello  waited  for  him  to  name  the  baby. 
"Anne"'  was  his  choice,  because  it  was  a  name  frequent  in  both 
families. 

He  had  also  the  honor,  at  this  time,  of  being  a  kind  of  martyr  to 
his  principles.  It  was  Jefferson  who  had  taken  the  lead  in  destroy 
ing  the  ancient  system  of  primogeniture  and  entail  in  Virginia;  and 
one  of  the  first  great  heirs  who  suffered  by  the  reform  was  his  own 
son-in-law,  Randolph.  The  father  of  the  j'oung  husband,  a  brisk 
and  social  old  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  gave  alarming  symptoms 
of  a  second  marriage.  A  girl  in  her  teens  was  the  object  of  his 


JEFFERSON  SETTLING  TO  HIS   WOEK.  401 

choice,  upon  whom  he  proposed  to  make  a  settlement  so  lavish  as  to 
greatly  abridge  the  inheritance  of  the  young  couple,  as  well  as  to 
throw  a  great  part  of  the  charge  of  their  immediate  settlement  upon 
Mr.  Jefferson.  The  letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  daughter  on  this 
occasion  has  been  a  thousand  times  admired,  and  will  be  admired 
again  as  often  as  it  is  read  by  a  person  in  whose  disposition  there  is 
any  thing  of  magnanimity  or  tenderness.  He  told  her  that  Colonel 
Randolph's  marriage  was  a  thing  to  have  been  expected ;  -for,  as  he 
was  a  man  whose  amusements  depended  upon  society,  he  could  not 
live  alone.  The  settlement  upon  the  old  man's  bride  might  be 
neither  prudent  nor  just,  but  he  hoped  it  would  not  lessen  their 
affection  for  him. 

"  If  the  lady,"  he  continued,  "  has  a;iy  thing  difficult  in  her 
disposition,  avoid  what  is  rough,  and  attach  her  good  qualities  to 
you.  Consider  what  are  otherwise  as  a  bad  stop  in  your  harpsi 
chord,  and  do  not  touch  on  it,  but  make  yourself  happy  with  the 
good  ones.  Every  human  being,  my  dear,  must  thus  be  viewed, 
according  to  what  he  is  good  for;  for  none  of  us,  —  no  not  one,  —  is 
perfect ;  and,  were  we  to  love  none  who  had  imperfections,  this  world 
would  be  a  desert- for  our  love.  All  we  can  do  is  to  make  the  best 
of  our  friends,  love  and  cherish  what  is  good  in  them,  and  keep  out 
of  the  way  of  what  is  bad ;  but  .no  more  think  of  rejecting  them 
for  it,  than  of  throwing  away  a  piece  of  music  for  a  flat  passage  or 
two.  Your  situation  will  require  peculiar  attentions  and  respects 
to  both  parties.  Let  no  proof  be  too  much  for  either  your  patience 
or  acquiescence.  Be  you,  my  dear,  the  link  of  love,  union,  and 
peace  for  the  whole  family.  The  world  will  give  you  the  more 
credit  for  it  in  proportion  to  the  difficulty  of  the  task,  and  your  own 
happiness  will  be  the  greater  as  you  perceive  that  you  promote  that 
of  others.  Former  acquaintance  and  equality  of  age  will  render  it 
the  easier  for  you  to  cultivate  and  gain  the  love  of  the  lady.  The 
mother,  too,  becomes  a  very  necessary  object  of  attentions." 

The  marriage  took  place,  and  the  settlements  upon  the  bride  were 
made.  The  young  couple,  in  consequence,  were  much  more  cur 
tailed  in  their  resources  than  any  one  had  expected.  But  the 
daughter  of  Jefferson  remained,  for  thirty-five  years,  "  the  link  of 
love,  union,  and  peace  for  the  whole  family ; "  one  member  of  which, 
John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  estranged  as  he  was  from  her  father, 
toasted  her  as  "  the  noblest  woman  in  Virginia." 

26 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

NEGOTIATIONS  WITH  ENGLAND  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION. 

PRESIDENT  WASHINGTON'S  chief  difficulties,  after  the  public  debt 
had  been  provided  for,  arose  from  the  relations  of  the  young  repub 
lic  with  foreign  powers.  To  weakness  every  thing  is  difficult.  The 
necessity  of  keeping  the  peace  was  so  manifest  and  so  urgent,  that 
the  government  could  not  meet  the  representatives  of  an  unfriendly 
power  on  equal  terms.  The  United  States  then  signified  merely  a 
thin  line  of  settlements  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  open  on  the  side  of 
the  ocean  to  a  hostile  fleet,  and  on  the  western  boundary  to  the 
Indian  tribes ;  Spain  holding  New  Orleans,  and  Great  Britain  Can 
ada.  There  was  no  army,  no  navy,  no  surplus  revenue ;  and  the 
country  was  but  just  recovering  from  the  exhaustion  and  ravage  of 
an  eight-years'  war.  A  Happily,  for  one  reason  or  another,  from 
policy  or  sentiment,  all  Christendom  wished  well  to  the  infant 
nation,  excepting  alone  the  king  and  ruling  class  of  Great  Britain. 
These  could  not  forgive  America  the  wrongs  they  had  done  her. 
There  was,  also,  a  small,  but  influential  class  in  the  United  States, 
whose  ancient  fondness  for  the  land  of  their  ancestors  had  survived 
the  war,  and  affected  their  judgment  concerning  questions  in  dispute 
between  the  two  countries. 

When  (Jriierul  Washington  came  to  the  presidency  in  1789,  six 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  peace.  In  the  treaty  of  1783,  Great 
Britain  hud  agreed  to  evacuate,  without  needless  delay,  every  forti 
fied  place  within  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States;  and  yet 
British  garrisons  still  held  seven  American  posts  of  little  use  to  her, 
but  of  vital  importance  both  to  the  honor  and  the  safety  of  this 
country,  —  posts  the  retention  of  which  was  a  menace  as  well  as  an 
injury;  for  they  kept  open  the  great  natural  highways  from  Canada 
into  the  United  States.  The  posts  were  Detroit,  Mackinaw, 

402 


NEGOTIATIONS   WITH   ENGLAND.  403 

Oswego,  Ogdensburg,  Niagara,  and  two  commanding  places  on 
Lake  Champlain,  called  then  Iron  Point  and  Dutchman's  Point. 
Independence  was  not  complete  while  the  English  flag  flew  above 
these  posts;  nor  were  the  frontiers  safe.  What  could  the  Indians 
think  of  it?  An  Indian  head  is  a  small,  poor  thing,  which  cannot 
hold  many  ideas  at  a  time.  The  Indians  could  see  that  familiar  flag, 
and  could  recognize  those  red-coated  soldiers  as  servants  of  the 
power  to  which  they  had  been  submissive  for  thirty  years ;  but  what 
could  they  know  of  President  Washington  and  his  government,  dis 
tant  a  month's  journey  ? 

The  fur-trade,  too,  which  would  have  been  important  to  an  infant 
nation  obliged  to  buy  so  much  in  Europe,  was  necessarily  in  the 
hands  of  men  having  access  to  those  posts.  John  Jacob  As-tor  was 
already  a  furrier  in  New  York,  doing  business  in  1790  at  No.  40, 
Little  Dock  Street ;  but  while  the  English  held  the  posts,  he  could 
only  tramp  the  eastern  half  of  the  State  of  New  York,  with  his  pack 
of  gewgaws  and  paint  upon  his  back,  and  gather  furs  from  the 
friendly  part  of  the  Six -Nations.  A  nice  little  business  he  had,  it  is 
true,  but  not  sufficient  to  encourage  him  to  think  of  building  an 
Astor  House  or  founding  an  Astor  Library.  Captain  Cooper  (father 
of  Peter  Cooper),  who  had  a  small  hat-factory  in  the  same  street, 
and  bought  many  a  beaver-skin  of  this  thriving  furrier,  would  have 
had  them  cheaper  if  his  neighbor  could  have  ranged  free  over  the 
western  country.  Another  grievance  was  this  :  In  evacuating  New 
York,  the  British  commander,  in  open  disregard  of  the  treaty,  had 
permitted  a  large  number  of  slaves  to  find  passage  in  the  fleet;  three 
thousand  of  whom  had  been  received  on  board  under  the  eyes  of  the 
American  commissioners  appointed  to  prevent  it,  in  spite  of  their 
remonstrance,  and  in  consequence  of  an  avowed  order  of  the  general 
in  command. 

To  these  substantial  wrongs  was  added  a  neglect,  an  indifference,  a 
silence,  that  looked  like  systematic  discourtesy.  Congress  sent  Mr. 
Adams  to  London,  in  1785,  to  represent  the  new  member  of  the 
family  of  nations  near  the  court  of  one  of  the  oldest.  No  English 
minister  was  sent  to  America  till  six  years  after.  Mr.  Adams, 
though  he  was  received  civilly  enough,  was  kept  haunting  ante-cham 
bers  for  three  months  before  he  began  to  get  any  certainty  as  to  the 
reason  why  the  posts  were  retained.  When  the  king,  in  1775,  made 
war  upon  the  colonies,  suddenly  suspending  commercial  intercourse, 


404  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

America  owed  British  merchants  vast  sums.  The  long-credit  sys 
tem  had  been  so  encouraged  by  the  merchants,  that  the  colonies 
were,  perhaps,  a  year  behindhand  in  their  payments.  The  war 
lasted  nearly  eight  years,  and  left  the  country  exhausted  and  impov 
erished, —  with  an  alarming  public  debt  to  provide  for,  with  a  host 
of  needy  soldiers  to  appease,  with  the  means  of  recuperation 
destroyed,  with  the  commerce  of  the  West  Indies  closed  to  them, 
and  all  the  old  commerce  gone  into  other  hands.  But  the  treaty  of 
j-ea.-e  had  not  been  signed  before  the  British  creditors  began  to 
clamor  for  their  debts,  with  interest!  Eight  years' interest  added 
to  the  principal !  Interest  for  the  long  period  when  every  port  was 
blockaded,  and  the  productive  industry  of  the  country  suspended  by 
the  power  which  owed  protection  to  both  !  Not  Grotius,  nor  Vattel, 
no,  nor  Puffendorf,  nor  all  these  learned  pundits  in  accord,  were  ever 
al>le  to  convince  New  England  merchants  or  Virginia  planters  that 
this  was  right.  Every  State  passed  laws  protecting  its  citizens 
against  ruinous  suits  to  recover  these  debts.  There  was  a  general 
intention  to  pay  the  ancient  principal;  but  the  war  interest  no 
Whig  could  feel  to  be  just. 

Mr.  Adams  had  at  length  the  satisfaction  of  sitting  face  to  face 
with  Mr.  Pitt,  the  heaven-born  minister,  aged  twenty-six,  still  in 
the  splendid  dawn  of  his  wonderful  career.  "  What  are  the  princi 
pal  points  to  be  discussed  between  us?"  Mr.  Pitt  inquired.  The 
American  minister  enumerated  them.  The  posts,  the  negroes,  and 
a  treaty  of  commerce,  were  the  chief.  With  regard  to  the  negroes, 
Mr.  Pitt  was  cundid  and  explicit.  Carrying  them  off,  he  said,  was 
so  clearly  against  the  treaty,  that,  if  Mr.  Adams  could  produce  the 
requisite  proof  of  their  number  and  value,  the  British  government 
"  must  take  measures  to  satisfy  that  demand."  This  was  a  good 
beginning.  Another  point,  relating  to  certain  captures  of  American 
ve>-els  after  the  armistice  of  178^,  Mr.  Pitt  thought  was  "  clear," 
and  could  be  "  easily  settled."  But  those  were  all  the  concessions 
the  English  minister  was  disposed  to  make.  "As  to  the  post-." 
said  he,  "that  is  a  point  connected  with  some  others,  that,  I  think, 
must  be  settled  at  the  same  time."  We  can  imagine  the  eager 
interest  with  which  Mr.  Adams  asked  what  those  points  were. 
"The  debts,"  was  Mr.  Pitt's  reply:  "several  of  the  States  have 
interfered  ag-iinst  the  treaty,  and  by  acts  of  their  legislatures  have 
interposed  impediments  to  the  recovery  of  debts,  against  which  there 
are  great  complaints  in  this  country." 


NEGOTIATIONS   WITH  ENGLAND.  405 

The  secret  was  out.  The  creditors,  as  Mr.  Pitt  remarked,  were 
clamorous.  In  London  they  formed  themselves  into  a  society  for  the 
purpose  of  urging  on  the  government  to  press  their  claims;  and  this 
society  was  so  powerful,  that  no  administration  could  willingly  disre 
gard  its  wishes. 

The  conversation  continued.  No  American  jury,  Mr.  Adams  said, 
would  ever  award  any  interest  for  the  time  of  the  war.  That  would 
surprise  people  in  England,  Mr.  Pitt  observed;  for  wars  never  inter 
rupted  the  interest  or  principal  of  debts ;  and  he  could  see  no  differ 
ence  between  this  war  and  any  other,  and  English  lawyers  made 
none.  This  was  too  much  for  Mr.  Adams.  "  I  begged  his  pardon 
here,"  he  reports,  "and  said  that  American  lawyers  made  a  wide 
difference  :  they  contended  that  the  late  war  was  a  total  dissolution 
of  all  laws  and  government,  and  consequently  of  all  contracts  made 
under  those  laws."  This  being  the  case,  he  thought  the  two  gov 
ernments  should  come  to  an  understanding,  so  that  the  same  rule  of 
law  might  be  observed  on  both  sides.  Mr.  Pitt  seemed  to  think 
this  not  unreasonable ;  but  he  frankly  owned  that  the  administration 
"  would  not  dare  to  make  the  proposal,  without  previously  feeling 
out  the  dispositions  of  the  persons  chiefly  interested." 

From  this  subject  they  turned  to  the  desired  treaty  of  commerce, 
so  necessary  to  enable  America  to  pay  these  very  debts.  It  was 
unaccountable,  Mr.  Adams  said,  that  Great  Britain  should  sacrifice 
the  general  interest  of  the  nation  to  the  private  interest  of  a  few 
individuals  interested  in  the  whale-fishery  and  ship-building,  so  far 
as  to  refuse  to  take  American  oil  and  ships  in  payment  of  the  debts. 
Mr.  Adams  became  eloquent  on  this  point.  "  The  fat  of  the  sperma 
ceti  whale,"  he  said,  "  gives  the  clearest  and  most  beautiful  flame  of 
any  substance  known  in  nature ;  and  we  are  all  surprised  that  you 
prefer  darkness,  and  consequent  robberies,  burglaries,  and  murder?, 
in  your  streets,  to  the  receiving,  as  a  remittance,  our  spermaceti  oil. 
The  lamps  around  Grosvenor  Square  "  (where  Mr.  Adams  lived)  "I 
know,  and  in  Downing  Street "  (where  this  conversation  occurred), 
"I  suppose,  are  dim  by  midnight,  and  extinguished  by  two  o'clock; 
whereas  our  oil  would  burn  bright  till  nine  o'clock,  and  chase  away 
before  the  watchmen  all  the  villains,  and  save  you  the  trouble  and 
danger  of  introducing  a  new  police  into  the  city." 

The  whole  conversation  was  sprightly  and  good-tempered.  Mr. 
Pitt  sent  a  thrill  of  triumphant  joy  through  the  frame  of  Mr, 


406  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Adams  by  saying,  as  the  conference  closed,  that  he  was  in  favor  of 
taking  advantage  of  the  recess  to  mature  a  plan  for  settling  the 
differences.  The  American  minister  declared  he  was  rejoiced  to 
hear  it.  lie  would  be  ready  at  all  times  to  attend  whenever  expla 
nation  was  wanted.  Meanwhile,  he  was  anxious  about  the  posts:  he 
v:<nil<1  like  an  answer  on  that  point,  so  vital  to  the  peace  and  safety, 
a-  wi-11  as  to  the  business  of  his  country.  "I  am  in  duty  bound," 
said  he,  "to  insist  on  their  evacuation."  To  which  the  wary  Pitt 
replied,  that  that  point  was  connected  with  others,  and  he  should 
be  for  settling  all  these  together. 

And  that  was  all  the  satisfaction  Mr.  Adams  received  during  his 
three  years'  residence  in  England.  No  summons  from  the  Ministry 
came,  no  explanation  was  asked,  no  apology  offered.  King,  Parlia 
ment,  and  people  were  against  him,  against  America,  against 
receiving  oil  from  Nantucket,  or  ships  from  Maine ;  against  remit- 
ting  tin-  war  interest;  against  giving  up  the  posts  till  the  debts 
were  paid  ;  against  affording  a  young  nation  the  slightest  chance  of 
getting  on  in  the  world.  In  these  circumstances,  what  could  the 
Mini-try  do  but  do  nothing?  If  Mr.  Adams  sought  an  interview, 
he  never  advanced  a  step  beyond  the  point  where  Mr,  Pitt  and 
himself  had  left  the  controversy.  Give  up  the  posts,  said  Mr. 
Adams.  /'.///  the  debts,  replied  the  English  minister.  What,  cried 
Adams.  jHiy  the  debts?  No  government  was  ever  before  asked  to 
pay  the  private  d<'hts  of  its  subjects.  The  treaty  only  stipulated 
that  no  lawful  impediment  should  be  put  in  the  way  of  the  recovery 
of  the  debts.  "  r>uf,"  said  the  minister,  "  if  lawful  impediments 
have  been  thrown  in  the  way'' —  Finally,  the  king  himself,  when 
Mr.  Adams,  weary  ol'  hopeless  waiting,  went  to  take  formal  leave, 
said  bluntly,  "Mr.  Adams,  you  may  with  great  truth  assure  the 
United  States,  that,  whenever  they  shall  fullil  the  treaty  on  their 
part.  1.  on  my  part,  will  fulfil  it  in  all  its  particulars." 

Kxasperating  as  all  this  was  to  the  old  Adam  in  human  nature, 
<  gxess  were  patient  under  it.  They  referred  the  whole  subject, 
as  disclosed  in  Mr.  Adams's  letters,  to  John  Jay,  for  his  opinion. 
Mr.  Jay,  in  an  elaborate  paper,  which  aimed  to  present  the  whole 
matter  from  the  beginning,  came  to  this  strange  conclusion  :  }}'<> 
are  ivrong,  and  angfand  i*  ri'jlit !  The  fourth  article  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  was  in  the>e  words:  "It  is  agreed  that  the  creditors  on 
either  bidu  shall  meet  with  no  lawful  impediment  to  the  recovery  of 


NEGOTIATIONS   WITH   ENGLAND.  407 

the  full  value,  in  sterling  money,  of  all  the  bona  fide  debts  hereto 
fore  contracted."  The  simple  question  was,  according  to  Mr.  Jay, 
"  Have  British  creditors '  met  with  lawful  impediments  to  the 
recovery  of  their  American  debts  ?  "  To  this  question,  he  said,  but 
one  answer  could  be  given :  They  have ;  every  State  had  passed 
laws  impeding,  delaying,  or  forbidding  the  collection  of  the  debts. 
This  infraction,  Mr.  Jay  thought,  justified  Great  Britain  in  holding 
the  posts;  "  nor  would  Britain  be  to  blame  in  continuing  to  hold 
them,  until  America  shall  cease  to  impede  her  enjoying  every  essen 
tial  right  secured  to  her  and  her  people  and  adherents  by  the 
treaty." 

Having  reached  this  conclusion,  he  advised  Congress,  1,  To 
recommend  the  States  to  repeal  the  impeding  laws ;  2,  To  instruct 
Mr.  Adams  "candidly  to  admit  that  the  fourth  and  sixth  articles  of 
the  treaty  had  been  violated  in  America;"  and  to  say  that  the 
United  States  were  taking  efficacious  measures  for  removing  all 
cause  of  complaint.  Congress  accepted  Mr.  Jay's  conclusions. 
They  gave  the  required  advice  to  the  States,  arid  gave  it  with  all 
the  requisite  tact  and  dignity.  A  majority  of  the  State  legisla 
tures  repealed  the  laws ;  others  were  considering  the  subject,  when 
the  Constitution  of  1787  removed  the  difficulty  by  rendering  the 
general  government  unquestionably  supreme  in  all  matters  of 
foreign  concern. 

But  this  sublime  diplomacy  did  not  touch  the  heart  of  the  British 
creditor,  nor  change  the  policy  of  the  government,  nor  assuage  the 
animosity  of  the  ruling  class.  As  a  rule,  Americans  who  were  able 
to  pay  their  British  debts  paid  them ;  but  a  considerable  number, 
dead  or  ruined  by  the  war,  gave  no  sign.  America  remained  an 
odious  name  in  England,  Mr.  Adams  informs  us.  Members  of 
Parliament,  he  wrote,  had  been  so  long  badgered  and  tormented  on 
the  subject,  that  they  detested  to  hear  the  name  mentioned,  and  the 
humor  of  the  nation  seemed  to  be  neither  to  speak  nor  think  of 
America.  Four  millions  sterling  had  already  been  appropriated  by 
Parliament  to  compensate  banished  Tories  and  ruined  adherents. 
The  pension-list  had  been  lengthened  by  a  long  catalogue  of  Ameri 
can  placemen ;  and  still  the  lobbies  and  ante-chambers  were  haunted 
by  a  clamorous  multitude  of  hungry  claimants.  We  can  hardly 
wonder,  that  when  at  length  Mr.  Adams,  in  weariness  and  despair, 
was  preparing  to  leave,  he  should*  have  been  treated  "witk  that  dry 


408  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

decency  and  cold  civility  which  appears  to  have  been  the  premedi 
tated  plan  from  the  beginning." 

Two  years  passed.  The  new  government  came  into  existence, 
with  General  Washington  at  its  head.  Great  Britain  still  held  the 
posts,  retained  the  fur-trade,  ruled  the  Indians,  shut  Ae  ports  of  the 
West  Indies,  and  sent  no  minister  to  Philadelphia-  The  president, 
after  an  attentive  perusal  of  the  papers  and  a  survey  of  the  situa 
tion,  privately  commissioned  Gouverneur  Morris,  in  October,  1789, 
to  cross  the  channel,  and  "converse  with  his  Britannic  majesty's 
ministers'7  on  the  points  in  controversy,  and  "ascertain  their 
views,"  and  endeavor  to  discover  whether  negotiations  could  be 
re-opened  with  any  fair  prospect  of  a  termination  satisfactory  to  the 
United  States. 

It  is  a  trial  to  the  temper  of  an  American  citizen  to  read  the 
record  of  Mr.  Morris's  mission.  The  policy  of  "dry  decency  and 
cold  civility"  was  carried  to  an  extreme  which  was  sometimes  too 
much  for  the  warm  temper  of  the  American  commissioner,  who  gave 
Mr.  Pitt  some  pretty  sharp  retorts.  On  one  occasion,  after  pressing 
the  English  minister  hard  for  some  basis  of  a  negotiation,  he  got  a 
glimpse  of  daylight. 

MORRIS.  If  I  understand  you,  Mr.  Pitt,  you  wish  to  make  a 
new  treaty,  instead  of  complying  with  the  old  one. 

PITT.   That  is,  in  some  sort,  my  idea. 

MORRIS.  I  do  not  see  what  better  can  be  done  than  to  perform 
the  old  one.  As  to  the  compensation  for  negroes  taken  away,  it  is 
too  trifling  an  object  for  you  to  dispute,  so  that  nothing  remains  but 
the  posts.  I  suppose,  therefore,  that  you  wish  to  retain  those  posts. 

PITT.    Why,  perhaps  we  may. 

MORRIS.  They  are  not  worth  the  keeping;  for  it  must  cost  you  a 
great  deal  of  money,  and  produce  no  benefit.  The  only  reason  you 
can  have  to  desire  them  is  to  secure  the  fur-trad*' ;  and  that  will 
centre  in  this  country,  let  who  will  carry  it  on  in  America. 

PITT.  If  you  consider  these  posts  as  a  trivial  object,  there  is  the 
less  reason  for  requiring  them.. 

MORRIS.  Pardon  me,  sir,  I  bnly  state  the  retaining  them  as  use 
less  to  you.  .  .  .  Our  national  honor  is  interested.  You  hold  them 
with  the  avowed  intention  of  forcing  us  to  comply  with  such  con 
ditions  as  you  may  impose. 


NEGOTIATIONS  WITH  ENGLAND.  409 

PITT.  Why,  sir,  as  to  the  consideration  of  national  honor,  we 
nay  retort  the  observation,  and  say,  our  honor  is  concerned  in  your 
lelay  of  performance  of  the  treaty. 

M.ORBI8.  No,  sir :  your  natural  and  proper  course  was  to  comply 
ully  on  your  part,  and  if  then  we  had  refused  compliance,  you 
alight  rightfully  have  issued  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  to  such 
>f  your  subjects  as  were  injured  by  our  refusal.  ,But  the  conduct 
you  have  pursued,  naturally  excites  resentment  in  every  American 
>osom.  We  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to  go  to  war  with  you  for 
hese  posts  ;  but  we  know  our  tights,  and  will  avail  ourselves  of  them 
vhen  time  and  circumstances  may  suit. 
PITT.  Have  you  powers  to  treat  ? 

MORRIS.  I  have  not.     We  cannot  appoint  any  person  as  minister, 
rou  so  much  neglected  the  former  appointment. 
PITT.  Will  you  appoint  a  minister  if  we  do  ? 
MORRIS.  I  can  almost  promise  we  shall,  but  am  not  authorized  to 
;ive  any  positive  assurance. 

PITT.  Then  the  question  is,  How  shall  we  communicate  on  this 
ubject? 

MORRIS.  Perhaps  it*  would  be  expedient  for  you  to  appoint  a 
minister,  and  delay  his  departure  till  we  have  made  a  similar 
ippointment. 

PITT.  We  could  communicate  to  the  president   our  intention  to 
appoint. 

MORRIS.  Your  communication  might  encounter  some  little  diffi 
culty,  because  the  president  cannot  properly  hear  any  thing  from  the 
British  consuls,  these  being  characters  unacknowledged  in  America. 
PITT  (firing  up  a  little).  I  should    suppose,  Mr.   Morris,   that 
attention  might  as  well  be  paid  to  what  they  say,  as  that  the  Duke 
of  Leeds  and  myself  should  hold  the  present  conversation  with  you. 
MORRIS.  By   no  means,  sir.     I   should  never  have   thought  of 
asking  a  conference  with  His  Grace,  if  I  had  not  possessed  a  letter 
from  the  president  of  the  United  States. 

PITT.  We,  in  like  manner,  could  write  a  letter  to  one  of  our 
consuls. 

MORRIS.  Yes,  sir ;  and  the  letter  would  be  attended  to,  but  not  the 
consul,  who  is  in  no  respect  different  from  any  other  British  subject. 
PITT.  Etiquette  ought  not  to  be  pushed  so  far  as  to  injure  busi 
ness,  and  keep  the  countries  asunder. 


410  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

MORRIS.  The  rulers  of  America  have  too  much  understanding  to 
care  for  etiquette ;  but  I  beg  you  to  recollect,  that  you  have  hitherto 
kept  us  at  a  distance,  instead  of  making  advances.  The  president 
L;i-  gone  quite  as  far  as  you  had  any  reason  to  expect,  in  writing 
the  letter  I  have  just  mentioned ;  and,  from  what  has  passed  in  con 
sequence  of  it,  we  cannot  but  consider  you  as  wishing  to  avoid  an 
intercourse. 

PITT.  I  hope  you  will  endeavor  to  remove  such  an  idea.  I  assure 
you,  we  are  disposed  to  cultivate  a  connection. 

MORRIS.  Any  communications  which  His  Grace  of  Leeds  may 
make  shall  be  duly  transmitted;  but  I  do  not  like  to  write  mere 
conversations.  Our  disposition  towards  a  good  understanding  is  evi 
denced,  not  only  by  the  president's  letter,  but  by  the  decision  of  a 
majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives  against  laying  extraordi 
nary  restrictions  on  British  vessels  in  American  ports. 

PITT.  Instead  of  restrictions,  you  ought  to  give  us  particular 
privileges,  in  return  for  those  which  you  enjoy  here. 

MORRIS.  I  assure  you  I  know  of  no  particular  privileges  which 
we  enjoy  here,  except  that  of  being  impressed,  which,  of  all  others, 
is  the  one  we  least  wish  to  partake  of. 

DUKE  OF  LEEDS  (laugliing).  You  are  at  least  treated  in  that 
respect  as  "  the  most  favored  nation,"  seeing  that  you  are  treated 
like  ourselves. 

PITT  (seriously}.  We  have  certainly  evidenced  good-will  towards 
you  by  what  we  have  done  respecting  your  commerce. 

MORRIS.  Your  regulations  were  dictated  by  a  view  to  your  own 
interest;  and  therefore,  as  we  feel  no  favor,  we  owe  no  obligation. 

Here  the  conversation  ended.  Mr.  Pitt  said  that  the  Duke  of 
Leeds  and  himself  would  consult  together,  and  give  Mr.  Morris  the 
result  of  their  deliberations.  Doubtless  they  meant  to  do  so;  and, 
if  the  decision  had  rested  with  the  three  gentlemen  present  on  this 
occasion,  the  posts  would  have  been  speedily  surrendered,  and  a 
reasonable  treaty,  of  commerce  concluded.  But  there  was  a  royal 
Dunderhead  in  the  way,  the  sum-total  of  whose  American  policy 
was  this:  '-.My  American  Tories  stood  by  me:  I  will  stand  by 
them.  Annul  the  confiscations,  make  good  the  lost  debts,  and  f/teti 
we'll  talk  about  the  posts."  There  was,  also,  an  ignorant  mer 
cantile  and  manufacturing  class,  who  had  not  yet  begun  to  study 


NEGOTIATIONS   WITH  ENGLAND.  411 

leir  Adam  Smith,  and  who  cherished  the  pride  that  goes  with 
*norance,  whether  its  possessor  is  an  Indian  chief  or  a  British  cot- 
>n-spinner. 

The  conversation  given  ahove  occurred  May  21,  1790.  May 
tided,  June  began  and  ended,  July  and  August  passed,  September 
as  gliding  by,  and  yet  Gouverneur  Morris  received  not  a  line,  not  a 
ord,  from  the  ministry.  Had  they  forgotten  his  existence  ?  He 
ad  extensive  affairs  in  Holland  that  demanded  his  presence;  and 
t  lie  waited, — waited  solely  for  the  promised  communication, 
[can while,  the  nocturnal  exploits  of  the  press-gang  in  British  sea- 
orts  added  new  outrage  to  the  old  grievances.  Morris,  after  wait- 
g  four  months,  was  compelled  to  ask  attention  to  his  mission.  He 
)tained  "dry  decency  and  cold  civility"  in  return  for  his  patient 
aiting ;  but  he  could  never  wring  a  satisfactory  word  from  the 
inisters  of  a  king,  who,  he  said,  "  hated  the  very  name  of  America." 
he  president,  acting  upon  Jefferson's  advice,  terminated  his  mis- 
on,  and  sent  him  a  thousand  dollars  to  defray  the  expenses  of  his 
months'  residence  in  London.  The  outspoken  founder  of  "  Mor- 
nia"  returned  polite  acknowledgments  of  the  president's  con- 
deration,  and  remarked  to  the  secretary  of  state,  that  his  detention 
London  had  cost  him  four  hundred  and  eighty-nine  pounds  six 
liHings  and  sixpence. 

Such  were  the  relations  between   the   United  States  and  Great 

ritain   in   1790,   when  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  began  to  discuss 

ational   affairs   across  the   president's   mahogany.     And  still    the 

vncliant  of  the   secretary  of  the   treasury  was  for  Great  Britain.' 

Yashington's  was  not:  he  had  been  cured  of  it  years  before.     Jef- 

rson's  was  not,  of  course.     Hamilton  had  concurred  with  Mr.  Jay 

id  Mr.  Adams  in  the  opinion,  that  there  had  been  violations  of  the 

reaty  on  both  sides,    and  that,  as  America  began  it,  England  had 

not  l)een  to  blame   for  retaining   the  posts.     Penchant  is  a  great 

matter.       I    am  .sure    that    Colonel    Hamilton    was    most   warmly 

attached,  nay,  wholly  devoted  to  the  country  which  he  served;  but 

this  leaning  toward  Great  Britain,  and  a  certain  British  aversion  to 

France,  could  not  but  have  its  effect  upon  his  judgment. 

In  September,  1790,  while  Gouverneur  Morris  was  still  waiting  in 
London,  occurred  one  of  those  diplomatic  crises,  once  so  frequent, 
which  threatened  war  between  Great  Britain  and  Spain,  with  strong 
probability  of  involving  half  of  Europe  in  the  strife.  The  president, 


412  LIFE    OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

from  many  indications,  concluded,  that,  in  case  the  war  broke  out, 
Mr.  Pitt  would  strike  at  once,  in  his  father's  style,  for  New  Orleans, 
and  all  the  Spanish  territory  in  that  region  ;  floating  troops  from 
Detroit  down  our  lakes  and  rivers  to  meet  a  British  armament  from 
the  sea.  Two  momentous  questions  arose  in  the  president's  mind, 
which  he  proposed  to  Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  requesting  answers  in 
writing:  1,  Suppose  Lord  Dorchester,  the  governor  of  Canada, 
should  ask  permission  to  send  troops  through  the  territories  of  the 
United  States,  what  answer  shall  we  give?  2,  Suppose  he  should 
do  it  without  leave  ("the  most  probabl*  proceeding"),  what  shall 
we  do  about  it?  The  president  was  profoundly  impressed  with  the 
magnitude  of  the  danger  to  a  young  nation,  exhausted  with  a  long 
war,  deep  in  debt,  without  army  or  navy,  of  having,  as  he  said,  "  so 
formidable  and  enterprising  a  people  as  the  British  on  both  our 
Hanks  and  rear,  with  their  navy  in  front." 

Mr.  Jefferson's  reply  was  short  and  explicit.  Rather  than  have 
Xew  Orleans  and  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  a  British  possession, 
he  thought,  we  should  join  in  the  melee  of  nations,  and  fight.  But 
this  was  the  last  thing  to  do,  not  the  first ;  and  not  to  be  done  so 
long  as  any  other  decent  expedient  remained  untried.  If  permission 
to  pass  troops  should  be  asked  and  refused,  and  still  they  should  pass, 
we  must  instantly  declare  war;  since  "one  insult  pocketed  soon  pro 
duces  another."  Let  us,  then,  begin  by  trying  a  middle  course. 
Avoid  giving  an  answer.  Then,  if  they  march,  we  can  accept  an 
apology,  or  make  it  a  "handle  of  quarrel  hereafter,"  according  to  cir 
cumstances.  If  they  should  march  without  asking  leave,  we  should 
resent,  or  forgive,  or  disregard  it,  just  as  we  might  find  it  most  con 
ducive  to  our  main  object. 

Mr.  Jerlerson  was  ready  with  his  brief  opinion  tl>e  day  after  the 
president  asked  for  it.  Hamilton  took  nineteen  days,  and  sent  in  a 
treatise.  1'eing  out  of  his  element,  and  beyond  his  depth,  he  floun 
dered  in  a  distres.-ing  manner,  clutching  at  Punendorf,  Grotius,  Vat- 
tel,  and  Barbcyrac.  He  wandered  so  far  as  to  introduce  a  discourse 
upon  his  favorite  topic  of  the  United  States  owing  no  "'romantic 
gratitude  "  to  France,  and  no  gratitude  at  all  to  Spain.  The  tone 
and  spirit  of  this  long  essay  are  such  as  to  justify  much  of  the 
warmth  of  opposition  which  Hamilton's  political  system  excited.  It 
is  evident  that  the  insolence  of  the  British  government,  and  the  out 
rage  of  holding  the  posts,  had  excited  in  his  mind  no  indignation; 


NEGOTIATIONS    WITH    ENGLAND. 


413 


ind  that  he  was  one  of  those,  who,  to  use  his  own  language,  "  would 
prefer  an  intimate  connection  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
[Britain  as  most  conducive  to  our  security  and  advantage."  He 
Iwelt  upon  the  obvious  unfitness  of  the  country  to  enter  into  the 
[war,  and  the  little  likelihood  there  was  of  our  accomplishing  our 
object  if  we  did.  His  conclusions  were,  that,  if  Lord  Dorchester 
should  ask  permission,  it  would  be  best  to  grant  it  5  if  he  should 
march  without  permission,  but  commit  no  offence,  we  should  remon 
strate  ;  but,  if  he  should  force  a  passage  past  a  fortification,  we  must 
(declare  war. 

Happily  the  European  war-cloud  blew  over.  In  America  the  west- 
!ern  sky  was  overcast,  and  General  St.  Clair  was  preparing  the  ex- 
.pedition  against  the  hostile  Indians  which  was  to  terminate  in  the 
surprise  of  the  white  army,  and  the  massacre  of  six  hundred  troops. 
Jefferson  and  Hamilton  differed  again  ;  for  Jefferson  was  opposed  to 
the  expedition.  He  hoped,  indeed,  that  General  St.  Clair  would 
give  the  Indians  "a  thorough  drubbing,"  since  the  affair  had  come 
to  that;  but  he  thought  that  "the  most  economical,  as  well  as  most 
humane,  conduct  toward  them  is  to  bribe  them  into  peace,  and  retain 
them  in  peace  by  eternal  bribes."  A  hundred  years  of  present-giv 
ing,  he  said,  would  not  cost  as  much  as  this  single  expedition  ;  and 
then  follows  a  sentence  which  reveals  the  heat  of  many  a  cabinet 
battle,  as  the  lava  on  Vesuvius  betrays  past  eruption  :  "  The  least 
rag  of  Indian  depredation  will  be  an  excuse  to  raise  troops  for  those 
who  love  to  have  troops  and  for  those  who  think  that  a  public  debt 
is  a  public  blessing."  This  to  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  April, 
1791. 

Upon  another  practical  question,  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  dif 
fered  from  the  secretary  of  state.  Hamilton  opposed,  Jefferson 
favored,  a  system  of  retaliating  the  restrictions  imposed  by  Great 
Britain  upon  American  commerce.  With  regard  to  commercial 
intercourse  with  foreign  nations,  the  only  system  Jefferson  ever 
heartily  approved  was  this  :  "  Perfect  and  universal  free-trade,  as  one 
of  the  natural  rights  of  man  and  as  the  only  sound  policy.  We  may 
style  that  his  first  choice.  His  second  was  this  :  Free-trade  with 
any  nation  which  will  reciprocate.  But,  as  no  nation  was  yet  pre 
pared  for  so  advanced  a  measure,  he  was  in  favor  of  reciprocating 
privileges  conceded  by  a  foreign  power,  and  retaliating  restrictions. 
"  Free  trade  and  navigation,"  he  thought,  "  are  not  to  be  given  in 


414  LIFE    OF    THOMAS     JEFFERSON. 

exchange  for  restrictions  and  vexations,  nor  are  they  likely  to  pro 
duce  a  relaxation  of  them." 

Great  Britain  imposed  such  restrictions  upon  American  commerce 
as  seem,  at  present,  too  preposterous  for  belief.  From  her  West 
India  Islands  American  vessels  were  utterly  excluded  ;  and  only  such 
American  products  were  admitted  as  could  not  be  dispensed  with,  — 
grain,  horses,  live  animals  used  for  food,  timber,  tar,  arid  turpentine. 
But  neither  an  American  vessel  nor  American  products  of  any  kind 
whatever  were  admitted  into  one  British  possession  which  could  do 
without  them;  not  into  Newfoundland,  Canada,  or  India.  From 
Great  Britain  itself,  whale-oil,  salt  fish,  salt  provisions,  were  ex 
cluded,  and  grain  only  admitted  when  the  people  must  have  it  or 
go  hungry.  Jefferson  proposed  to  meet  all  this  by  "  counter  prohi 
bitions,  duties,  and  regulations,"  and  at  the  same  time  go  to  the 
in  in-most  in  responding  to  the  more  liberal  policy  of  France. 

Hamilton,  ever  desirous  of  a  cordial  alliance  with  Great  Britain, 
favored  an  opposite  policy;  and  Jefferson  thought  it  was  his  influ 
ence  which  finally  held  back  Congress  from  retaliating  restriction  by 
restriction.  In  the  cabinet,  Hamilton  opposed  the  retaliation  sys 
tem  "violently,"  and  offered  one  argument  which  the  placable  Jeffer 
son  owned  was  cogent.  It  was  of  more  importance,  Hamilton  said, 
for  us  to  have  the  posts  than  an  open  commerce,  because  nothing 
but  the  possession  of  the  posts  would  free  us  from  the  expense  of  the 
Indian  wars;  and  therefore,  while  we  were  treating  for  the  posts,  it 
would  be  folly  to  irritate  the  English  by  restricting  their  commerce. 
The  English  government  would  say,  "  These  people  mean  war,  let 
us  therefore  hold  what  we  have  in  our  hands."  Struck  with  this 
argument,  Jefferson  replied,  "  If  there  is  a  hope  of  obtaining  the 
posts,  I  agree  it  would  be  imprudent  to  risk  that  hope  by  a  commer 
cial  retaliation."  He  agreed  to  delay  recommending  his  scheme  to 
Congress  till  the  next  session. 

For,  when  this  conversation  occurred,  negotiations  had  been 
recommenced.  In  August,  1791,  George  Hammond,  the  first  IJiiti.-h 
plenipotentiary  who  ever  made  his  bow  to  a  president  of  the  United 
States,  reached  Philadelphia;  and,  in  the  course  of  the  following 
winter,  he  was  in  correspondence  with  tkp  secretary  of  state  upon 
the  vexed  questions.  They  were  old  I'aris  acquaintances,  and  both 
were  truly  doirous  of  adjusting  the  diit'erences  on  a  basis  of  justice. 
The  despatch  of  Mr.  Jefferson  of  May  29,  1792,  in  which  he  argues 


NEGOTIATIONS  WITH   ENGLAND. 


415 


lie  American  case,  is  the  longest  and  the  ablest  of  his  official  papers. 

fhere  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  convinced  Mr.  Hammond ; 

id  we  know  that  a  large  number  of  Jefferson's  political  opponents 

'•ned,  that,  whatever  errors  he  may  have  committed  in  his  public 
.fe,  he  was  a  great  man  when  he  argued  the  cause  of  his  country 
gainst  the  honest  misconceptions  of  the  British  minister.  "  He  is 
nly  fit  for  a  secretary  of  state,"  they  would  say,  when  his  name  was 
Mentioned  in  connection  with  places  more  eminent.  In  this  paper 
I  e  proved  by  original  documents,  that  "  the  treaty  of  1783  was  vio 
ated  in  England  before  it  was  known  in  America,  and  in  America 

soon  as  known,  and  that,  too,  in  points  so  essential,  as  that,  with- 
|'Ut  them,  it  never  would  have  been  concluded."  He  also  showed, 

an  array  of  documentary  evidence,  that  "  the  recovery  of  the  debts 
Ivas  obstructed  validly  in  none  of  our  States,  invalidly  only  in  a 
ew,  and  that  not  till  after  the  infractions  committed  on  the  other 
ide."  This  despatch  is  perhaps  unsurpassed  among  the  diplomatic 
documents  of  recent  times  for  the  thoroughness  with  which  the  work 
undertaken  was  performed.  Its  tranquil,  dispassionate  tone,  and  its 
freedom  from  every  thing  that  pould  irritate  the  self-love  of  the 
English  government  or  the  English  people,  are  as  remarkable  as  the 
I  perfect  frankness  and  fulness  with  which  the  rights  of  his  country 
lare  stated. 

Jefferson  invited  Mr.  Hammond  to  a  "solo  dinner"  on  the  sub 
ject,  a  few  days  after  the  delivery  of  this  despatch,  when  they  con 
versed  on  the  points  at  issue  in  the  most  open  and  friendly  manner. 
[The  British  minister  admitted  that  the  idea  of  England  having 
committed  the  first  infraction  was  a  new  element  in  the  controversy. 
His  court  had  never  heard  of  it ;  and  it  "  gave  the  case  a  complexion 
so  entirely  new  and  different  from  what  had  been  contemplated, 
that  he  should  not  be  justified  in  taking  a  single  step."  He  could 
only  send  the  despatch  across  the  ocean,  and  await  further  instruc 
tions.  From  the  whole  of  this  conversation,  Jefferson  derived  the 
impression,  that  the  English  government  "  had  entertained  no 
thought  of  ever  giving  up  the  posts."  Toward  the  close  of  the 
interview,  Mr.  Hammond  suggested  the  idea  of  neither  party  having 
j fortified  posts  on  the  frontier,  but  trading-posts  only;  which,  says 
Jefferson,  "  accorded  well  with  two  favorite  ideas  of  mine,  of  leaving 
commerce  free,  and  never  keeping  an  unnecessary  soldier." 

Mr.  Jefferson's  despatch  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  manuscript 


416  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

pages  made  its  way  to  Downing  Street,  but  not  to  the  brain  or  the 
conscience  of  George  III.  Nothing  came  of  it.  The  controversy 
remained  open  during  the  whole  period  of  his  tenure  of  office.  He 
sent  in,  at  last,  his  report,  recommending  commercial  retaliation,  but 
only  to  have  the  scheme  defeated,  as  he  always  supposed  by  his  col 
league. 

And  we  must  keep  in  mind,  that  while  these  two  gentlemen, 
Hammond  and  Jefferson,  calmly  conversed  over  their  wine  on  these 
subjects,  there  was  an  American  people  whose  conversation  upon 
them  was  t*he  farthest  possible  from  being  tranquil.  The  people 
might  not  be  up  in  their  Puifendorf,  nor  was  Vattel  often  seen  on 
the  family  table;  but  the  St.  Clair  massacre  struck  horror  to  the 
coldest  heart,  and  excited  reflections  in  the  dullest  head.  Everj> 
one  could  enter  into  such  cases  as  that  of  Hugh  Purdie,  a  native  of 
Virginia,  impressed  in  London  streets,  cairied  to  sea  in  a  man-of- 
war,  ordered  to  be  released  by  the  admiralty,  put  in  irons  and 
flogged  after  those  orders  had  been  received,  and  set  on  shore  in  a 
strange  land  without  the  means  of  subsisting  for  a  day.  It  tool* 
fifty  years  to  get  the  hatred  out  of%  the  hearts  of  the  American  peo 
ple  which  was  engendered,  not  so  much  by  the  war,  as  by  this  inso 
lent  persistence  in  outrage  after  the  war. 


CHAPTER  XLVL 

THE    FRENCH   REVOLUTION    IX  AMERICAN    POLITICS. 

MEANWHILE  the  [Revolution  in  France,  followed  at  first  with  uni 
versal  approval,  was  becoming  an  element  of  discord  in  the  politics 
of  the  country ;  and  nowhere  were  the  questions  involved  discussed 
so  warmly  as  in  President  Washington's  cabinet.  An  accident 
revealed  to  the  public  in  1791  Jefferson's  complete  sympathy  with 
the  French  people,  placed  him  distinctly  at  the  head  of  the  popular 
party,  and  made  him,  at  length,  president  of  the  United  States. 

At  first,  I  repeat,  all  classes  in  all  countries  seemed  to  hail  the 
proceedings  of  the  French  people  as  the  beginning  of  a  better  day 
for  France  and  for  man :  even  kings,  nobles,  and  the  other  classes 
most  obviously  interested  in  the  existing  system,  cherished  or 
affected  a  sentimental  approval  of  the  ideas  most  subversive  of  it. 
The  destruction  of  the  Bastille  shook  off  from  the  popular  party  all 
such  adherents.  "  The  time  of  illusions  is  past,"  wrote  the  queen 
of  France  to  Madame  de  Polignac,  "  and  to-day  we  pay  dear  for  our 
infatuation  and  enthusiasm  for  the  American  war."  But  it  was  not 
from  the  party  assailed  that  the  first  protest  reached  the  ear  of  Chris 
tendom.  It  was  from  a  man  whose  whole  public  life  had  been  a  strug 
gle  against  despotic  principles,  the  most  eloquent  defender  America 
ever  had  in  Europe,  Edmund  Burke.  From  an  Early  period  —  as 
soon,  indeed,  as  the  king  and  queen  of  France  had  been  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  Revolution  in  that  wild  inarch  from  Versailles 
to  Paris  —  he  had  recoiled  from  it  with  a  horror  which  only  his  own 
mighty  pen.  could  express. 

In  November,  1789,  Dr.  Richard  Price,  an  honored  member  of 

Franklin's  familiar  London  circle,  published  his  famous  sermon  on 

Love  of  County,  in  which  he  applied  the  example  of  France  to  the 

case  of  England,  maintaining  the  principle   now  so  familiar,  that 

26  417 


418  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON". 


* 


government  is,  properly,  the  creature  and  servant  of  the  people.  It 
was  in  reply  to  this  discourse  that  Edmund  Burke  wrote  his  Reflec 
tions  on  the  Revolution  in  France,  —  four  hundred  pages  of  rhap 
sody  and  passion,  invested  with  the  potent  charm  of  his  inthralling 
style.  It  was  a  sorry  lapse  from  the  Edmund  Burke  of  the  Stamp- 
act  nights  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  work  was  so  weak  in 
argument,  of  substance  so  flimsy  and  transparent,  as  really  to  give 
some  slight  show  of  probability  to  the  dastardly  charge,  that  his 
motives  in  writing  it  were  not  disinterested.  But  we  ought  not  to 
doubt  that  this  poor  pamphlet  was  the  faithful  expression  of  his 
state  of  mind  at  the  time.  In  1773,  during  a  recess  of  Parliament, 
he  had  had  a  joyous  holiday  in  France,  when  he  saw  all  that  was 
brightest  and  most  bewitching  there,  in  court  and  salon,  in  town 
and  country,  himself  honored  as  the  great  orator  of  the  British  Par 
liament.  Only  the  most  pleasing  recollections  of  that  happy  time 
lingered  in  his  memory. 

"  It  is  now,"  he  wrote  in  his  Reflections,  "  sixteen  or  seventeen 
years  since  I  saw  the  queen  of  France,  then  the  danphiness,  at  Ver 
sailles  ;  and  surely  never  lighted  on  this  orb,  which  she  hardly 
seemed  to  touch,  a  more  delightful  vision.  I  saw  her  just  above  the 
horizon,  decorating  and  cheering  the  elevated  sphere  she  had  just 
begun  to  move  in,  —  glittering  like  the  morning  star,  full  of  life  and 
splendor  and  joy.  O  what  a  revolution!  and  what  a  heart  must  I 
have,  to  contemplate,  without  emotion,  that  elevation  and  that  fall ! 
Little  did  I  dream,  when  she  added  titles  of  veneration  to  those  of 
enthusiastic,  distant,  respectful  love,  that  she  should  ever  be  obli^rd 
to  carry  the  sharp  antidote  against  disgrace  concealed  in  that 
bosom  ;  little  did  I  dream  that  I  should  have  lived  to-see  such  disas 
ters  fall  upon  her  in  a  nation  of  gallant  men,  in  a  nation  of  men  of 
honor  and  of  cavaliers.  I  thought  ten  thousand  >words  must  have 
leaped  fiv.m  their  scabbards  to  avenge  even  a  look  that  threatened 
her  with  insult.  But  the  age  of  chivalry  is  gone.  That  of  sophis- 
ters,  economists,  ami  calculators  has  succeeded  ;  and  the  glory  of 
Europe  is  extinguished  forever.  Never,  never  more  shall  \ve  behold 
that  generous  loyalty  to  rank  and  sex,  that  proud  submission,  that 
dignified  obedience,  that  subordination  of  the  heart,  which  kept 
alive,  even  in  servitude  itself,  the  spirit  of  an  exalted  freedom.  The 
1111  bought  grace  of  life,  the  (heap  defence  of  nations,  the  nurse  of 
manly  sentiment  and  heroic  ei.:«  rprise,  is  -one(!  It  is  gone,  that 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  IN  AMERICAN  POLITICS.      419 

sensibility  of  principle,  that  chastity  of  honor,  which  felt  a  stain  like 
a  wound,  which  inspired  courage  while  it  mitigated  ferocity,  which 
ennobled  whatever  it  touched,  and  under  which  vice  itself  lost  half 
its  evil,  by  losing  all  its  grossness." 

What  a  Celtic  fluency  and  gorgeousness  in  these  false,  false 
words !  In  the  composition  of  such  a  piece,  how  necessary  an 
ingredient  is  that  remoteness  from  the  object  depicted  which  veils 
all  of  it  which  is  not  enchanting!  In  this  whole  pamphlet,  the 
agony  and  shame  and  panic-terror  of  fair  France,  how  small  and 
slight  they  seem  compared  with  the  discomfort  endured  by  one 
Austrian  woman  rudely  interrupted  in  her  career  of  ignoble  pleas 
ures !  Mr.  Burke,  too,  had  known  personally  many  of  the  French 
nobility;  and  he  had  found  them  "  tolerably  well-bred,"  "frank  and 
open,"  ''with  a  good  military  tone,  and  reasonably  tinctured  with 
literature."  "  As  to  their  behavior  to  the  inferior  classes,  they 
appeared  to  me  to  comport  themselves  toward  them  with  good 
nature,"  and  "  I  could  not  discover  that  their  agreements  with  their 
farmers  were  oppressive."  In  speaking  of  the  great  multitude  of 
industrious  and  frugal  persons,  whose  toil  maintained  those  tolera 
bly  well-bred  nobles  of  a  good  military  tone ;  in  speaking,  I  say,  of 
THE  PEOPLE  OF  FRANCE,  whom  king  and  nobility  had  had  in  charge 
for  a  thousand  years,  and  had  permitted  to  remain  grossly  ignorant 
and  squalidly  poor,  he  used  expressions  surcharged  with  the  most 
insolent  and  inhuman  contempt.  The  inarch  from  Versailles  to  the 
Tuileries,  he  said,  was  like  "a  procession  of  American  savages 
entering  into  Onondaga,  and  leading  into  hovels  hung  round  with 
scalps  their  captives,  overpowered  with  the  scoffs  and  buffets  of 
women  as  ferocious  as  themselves;"  and  he  said,  also,  that  when  the 
nobles  and  priests  had  been  expelled  from  France,  learning  itself 
would  be  "  trodden  down  under  the  hoofs  of  a  swinish  multitude" 
This  hideous  expression  (which  admitted  more  than  the  worst 
enemies  of  nobles  and  priests  had  ever  charged  against  them)  rang 
through  Europe,  imbittering  every  generous  heart  and  maddening 
every  excited  head. 

Never  had  pamphlet  such  success  with  the  class  it  was  written 
to  please.  George  III.,  of  his  own  motion,  settled  upon  the  author, 
whom  he  had  hated  for  twenty-six  years,  a  pension  of  twelve 
hundred  pounds  a  year,  and  soon  after  a  second  pension  of  twenty- 
five  hundred  pounds  a  year.  The  king  had  also  a  number  of  copie.s 


420  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

handsomely  bound  for  presents;  and  when  lie  gave  one  to  a  favorite, 
lie  would  say,  "This  is  a  book  which  every  gentleman  ought  to 
read."  The  Emperor  of  Germany,  the  Empress  Catherine  of 
Russia,  the  royal  family  of  France,  and  even  poor  Stanislaus  of 
Poland,  scut  the  author  some  tribute  of  their  sincere  gratitude. 
The  book  had  a  great  run  with  the  public:  in  England  nineteen 
thousand  copies  were  sold  in  three  months,  and  in  France  thirteen 
thousand  of  the  French  translation.  During  the  first  half-year,  the 
number  of  replies  which  it  called  forth  was  thirty-eight. 

Its  effect, upon  the  public  was  wholly  and  greatly  bad,  because  it 
excited  the  reader  without  instructing  him.  It  hardened  the  Tory's 
heart,  and  shut  his  mind  to  every  truth  which  it  most  concerned  him 
to  know;  while  the  humane  portion  of  the  people  were  only 
incensed  at  the  contemptuous  tone  of  the  work  toward  all  the  most 
pitiable  victims  of  aristocratic  misrule,  —  those  who  had  lapsed 
under  it  from  citizens  to  populace.  Mad  world  !  For  thirty  years, 
in  various  capacities,  public  and  private,  Edmund  Burke  had  served 
his  countrymen  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  with  fidelity  and  power, 
and  got  little  by  it  bat  the  opportunity  to  serve  them  better.  He 
writes  this  false  and  foolish  pamphlet,  and  behold  him  rich,  and 
the  world  at  his  feet!  The  people  gave  him  little  but  honor,  and  the 
kings  rewarded  him  with  all  but  that. 

Among  the  friends  of  Mr.  Burke,  many  may  have  been  more 
grieved  at  his  new  departure,  but  none  was  more  astonished,  than 
Thomas  Paine,  then  at  Paris,  pushing  into  publicity  his  own  self- 
supporting  bridge.  He  appears  to  have  originated  that  kind  of 
structure,  now  so  common.  Arriving  in  England,  a  year  or  two 
before,  on  the  same  errand,  he  had  been  Mr.  Burke?s  guest  for 
several  weeks,  during  which  they  had  made  together  the  tour  of  the 
iron  foundries  of  Yorkshire,  and  visited  together  some  of  Mr. 
Burke's  political  allies  on  the  liberal  side.  "I  am  just  jjoing  to 
dine  with  the  Duke  of  Portland/'  writes  Burke  to  Wilkes  in 
August,  1788,  "in  company  with  the  great  American,  Pjiim-,  whom 
I  take  with  me"  From  Paris,  Paine  wrote  occasionally  to  the  great 
Whig  orator  ;  one  letter,  indeed,  after  Mr.  Burke  must  have  begun 
the  composition  of  his  work,  in  which  Paine  gave  him  an  account, 
as  he  says,  "how  prosperously  matters  were  going  on  in  France;" 
not  doubting  that  he  was  pouring  his  information  into  a  sympa 
thetic  ear.  Like  most  writers  who  make  sentences  that  stick  in  the 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  IN  AMERICAN  POLITICS.      421 

general  memory,  and  long  remain  part  of  the  common  speech,  of 
men,  Thomas  Paine  composed  very  slowly  and  with  great  toil.  One 
of  his  friends  reports  that  the  author  of  Common  Sense  knew  by 
heart  all  that  he  had  ever  written,  —  so  thoroughly  had  he  wrought 
each  sentence  and  each  phrase.  Nevertheless,  in  March,  1791, 
about  four  months  after  the  publication  of  Burke's  Reflections,  he 
was  ready  with  his  reply  to  it,  which  he  named  "  The  Rights  of 
Man."  The  two  works  from  that  time  were  competitors  for  the 
possession  of  the  public  mind;  editions  quickly  following  editions; 
each  work  execrated,  and  each  extolled,  with  almost  equal  extrava 
gance.  Paine,  with  his  usual  generosity,  gave  up  his  copyright  as 
soon  as  he  discovered  that  it  was  an  obstacle  to  cheaper  issues ;  and 
at  once,  in  every  town  where  there  was  a  press  not  controlled  by 
squire  or  parson,  there  was  a  sixpenny  edition  of  The  Bights  of 
Man.  One  hundred  thousand  copies  were  sold  before  the  demand 
abated;  and  when  the  author  followed  up  his  success,  the  next  year, 
with  a  Second  Part,  the  government  gave  a  prodigious  impulse  to 
the  sale  of  both  by  a  series  of  prosecutions,  accompanied  by  a 
system  of  riots,  —  so  familiar  a  resource  of  the  Tory  party  in  every 
recent  age,  from  James  I.  to  Dilke. 

To  say  that  Mr.  Paine's  pamphlet  is  superior  to  Burke's  in  every 
worthy  quality  of  composition,  is  not  to  praise  it ;  for  Burke's  pro 
duction  is  a  shallow,  misleading,  pernicious  work.  Let  me  rather 
say,  that  it  is  as  good  air  answer  to  Burke  as  so  rambling  a  rhapsody 
admits  ;  and  that  for  every  one  of  Burke's  swelling  passages  of 
declamation,  Paine  has  an  epigram  which  reduces  it  to  its  proper 
dimensions.  So  compassionate  a  man  as  Thomas  Paine  could  not 
fail  to  be  shocked  at  Burke's  insensibility  to  all  the  anguish  endured 
in  France  except  that  suffered  by  a  few  conspicuous  individuals: 
"He  pities  the  plumage,  but  forgets  the  dying  bird."  "His  hero  or 
his  heroine  must  be  a  tragedy  victim  expiring  in  show,  and  not  the 
real  prisoner  of  misery,  sliding  into  deatli  in  the  silence  of  a  dun 
geon."  Burke's  lamentation  over  the  abolition  of  titles  in  France 
gave  Paine  an  opportunity:  "France  has  outgrown  the  bab}?hood 
of  count  and  duke,  and  breeched  itself  in  manhood.  France  has 
not  levelled,  it  has  exalted.  It  has  put  down  the  dwarf  to  set  up 
the  man.  .  .  .  Titles  are  like  circles  drawn  by  the  magician's  wand 
to  contract  the  sphere  of  man's  felicity.  He  lives  immured  within 
the  Bastille  of  a  word,  and  surveys  at  a  distance  the  envied  life  of 


422  LIFF,   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

man."  On  the  union  of  Church  and  State,  extolled  by  Burke, 
Paine  had  a  happy  word :  "Take  away  the  law-establishment,  and 
every  religion  resumes  its  original  benignity.  In  America  a 
Catholic  priest  is  a  good  citizen,  a  good  character,  and  a  good 
neighbor;  an  Episcopalian  minister  is  of  the  same  description;  and 
this  proceeds,  independent  of  men,  from  there  being  no  law-estab 
lishment  in  America." 

The  work  was  dedicated  to  George  Washington,  who  cherished 
for  this  skilful  and  humane  writer  that  warmth  of  grateful  regard 
which  is  due  from  the  patriotic  sword  to  the  patriotic  pen.  When 
Paine  \\-as  about  to  leave  Paris,  in  the  spring  of  1790,  it  was  to  his 
hands  that  Lafayette  intrusted,  for  transmission  to  the  president, 
the  interesting  relic  which  is  preserved  to  this  day  at  Mount 
Yemen.  "I  take  over  with  me  to  London,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
Philadelphia,  March  16,  1790,  "the  key  of  the  Bastille,  which  the 
Marquis  intrusts  to  my  care  as  his  present  to  General  Washington, 
and  whirl)  I  >hall  send  by  the  first  American  vessel  to  New  York." 
lie  wa-  to  go  back  to  Paris  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  inauguration 
of  the  new  constitution ;  "at  which  time  there  is  to  be  a  procession, 
and  I  am  to  return  to  Paris  to  carry  the  American  flag."  Pie  added 
these  words,  the  prophetic  meaning  of  which  the  lapse  of  eighty- 
three  years  has  not  exhausted:  "I  wish  most  anxiously  to  see  my 
much-loved  America.  It  is  the  country  from  whence  all  reforma 
tion  must  originally  spring."  Nor  did  he  forget  that  America,  too, 
like  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  needed  reformation;  and  he  wished 
that  "a. few  well-instructed  negroes  could  be  sent  among  their 
brethren  in  bondage;  for,  until  they  are  enabled  to  take  their  own 
part,  nothing  will  be  done." 

His  dedication  to  the  president  was  in  harmony  with  his  habitual 
feelings  :  '•  I  present  you  a  small  treatise  in  defence  of  those  princi 
ples  which  your  exemplary  virtue  hath  so  eminently  contributed  to 
establish.  That  the  rights  of  man  may  become  as  univ«-rs;d  as  your 
benevolence  can  wish,  and  that  you  may  enjoy  the  happiness  of  see 
ing  the  new  world  regenerate  the  old,  is  the  prayer  of  ....  Tho 
mas  Paine." 

A  single  copy  of  the  work  chanced  to  reach  America  about  the 
fir>t  of  May.  1791,  in  advance  of  the  parcel  sent  by  the  author  to 
the  president.  This  copy  was  lent  by  the  owner  to  Madison,  who 
lent  it  to  Jefferson ;  but,  before  the  secretary  of  state  had  finished 


THE    FRENCH  REVOLUTION  IN  AMERICAN  POLITICS.      423 

reading  it,  the  owner  called  upon  him  for  it,  as  he  had  promised  to 
lend  it  for  reprinting.  The  owner,  discovering  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  not  done  with  it,  asked  him  to  send  it  himself,  when  he  had  fin 
ished  the  reading,  to  Mr.  Jonathan  B.  Smith,  a  noted  merchant  of 
Philadelphia,  once  a  member  of 'Congress,  whose  brother,  Samuel 
H.  Smith,  an  enterprising  young  printer  (founder  in  1800  of  the 
National  Intelligencer  at  Washington),  was  to  issue  the  American 
edition.  Mr.  Jefferson  complied  with  this  request.  Not  being 
acquainted  with  the  merchant,  he  wrote  him  a  short  note  to  explain 
why  he,  a  stranger,  should  send  him  the  pamphlet,  and  added  a 
few  words  of  commendation  of  the  work,  "to  take  off,"  as  he 
explained  afterwards,  "a  little  of  the  dryness  of  the  note,"  and,  as 
he  might  have  added,  because  he  was  thrilled  with  triumphant 
delight  at  so  vigorous  and  telling  a  vindication  of  American  princi 
ples  from  a  pen  identified  in  the  popular  mind  with  the  gloom  and 
glory  of  the  Revolution.  "I  am  extremely  pleased,"  he  wrote,  "to 
find  it  will  be  reprinted  here,  and  that  something  is  at  length  to  be 
publicly  said  against  the  political  heresies  which  have  sprung  up 
among  us.  I  have  no  doubt  our  citizens  will  rally  a  second  time 
round  the  standard  of  Common  Sense." 

So  little  importance  did  he  attach  to  this  hasty  note,  that  he,  the 
most  scrupulous  docketer  in  the  world,  did  not  keep  a  copy  of  it. 
In  a  few  days  the  pamphlet  was  published;  and  behold,  printed  on 
the  cover,  the  material  sentences  of  this  note,  attributed  distinctly 
to  the  "Secretary  of  State"!  "I  was  thunderstruck,"  he  tells  us, 
fearing  that  an  excited  public,  applying  the  remark  concerning 
"  political  heresies "  to  Mr.  Adams's  Discourses  upon  Davila, 
recently  stopped  by  the  growing  indignation  of  the  people,  would 
force  him  to  an  antagonism  with  the  vice-president.  And  who 
would  believe  the  indorsement  unauthorized  ?  He  was  the  more 
embarrassed,  because  he  really  had  had  those  Discourses  in  his  mind 
while  writing  the  note.  In  familiar,  half-jocular  conversation  with  the 
vice-president,  he  had  combated  those  "political  heresies,"  always 
feigning  to  be  ignorant  of  the  author  of  Davila.  Davila,  indeed, 
had  no  friends;  Hamilton  himself  censuring  the  Discourses,  as  ill- 
timed  and  injudicious.  But  ante-chamber  chaff  was  very  different 
from  an  open,  serious  collision  between  two  officers  of  a  government 
still  on  trial. 

The  mutterings  of  a  coming  storm  were  soon  audible.     A  Major 


4:24  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Beckwith  from  Canada  was  loitering  then  about  Philadelphia,  a 
non-commissioned,  semi-authorized,  semi-recognized  British  agent, 
\vho  was  in  punctual  attendance  at  presidential  levees,  where  he 
conversed  freely  with  the  president's  secretary,  Tobias  Lear,  who 
used  to  report  the  conversations  at  large  to  the  president.  The 
excellent  Tobias,  a  dear  lover  of  gossip,  hail  much  to  tell  General 
Washington  (absent  at  Mount  Vernon)  in  his  letter  of  May  8,  1791, 
of  the  astonishment  of  this  major  on  seeing  Mr.  Paine's  work  dedi 
cated  to  the  president  of  the  United  States,  and  commended  by  the 
secretary  of  state.  The  scene  occurred  at  "Mrs.  Washington's 
drawing-room."  Major  Beckwith  was  "surprised,"  not  only  at  the 
dedication,  but  that  the  work  should  be  "published  in  Philadelphia;  " 
"  <  specially  as  it  contained  many  remarks  that  could  not  but  be 
offensive  to  the  British  government."  A  highly  Pickwickian  con 
versation  followed  :  — 

LEAR.  The  pamphlet  was  written  and  published  in  England. 
The  president  has  neither  seen  nor  knows  what  it  contains,  and,  of 
course,  cannot  in  any  sense  be  considered  as  approving  its  senti 
ments,  or  as  being  responsible  for  them. 

BKCKWITJI.  True:  but  I  observe  in  the  American  edition,  that 
the  secretary  of  stair  has  given  a  most  unequivocal  sanction  to  the 
book,  as  Secretary  of  State  ;  it  is  not  said  as  Mr.  Jefferson. 

LKAK.  I  have  not  seen  the  American,  or  any  other  edition  of  this 
pamphlet;  but  I  will  venture  to  say  that  the  secretary  of  state  has 
not  done  a  thing  which  he  would  not  justify. 

r>i:<  KWITH.  On  this  subject  you  will  consider,  that  I  hava  only 
spoken  as  an  individual,  and  as  a  private  person. 

LEAR.  I  do  not  know  you,  sir,  in  any  other  character. 

BECKWITH.  I  was  apprehensive  that  you  might  conceive,  that,  on 
this  occasion,  I  meant  to  enter  the  lists  in  more  than  a  private  char 
acter. 

At  this  moment  they  were  interrupted,  and  the  awful  conversa 
tion  was  not  resumed.  But  the  m-xt  da}',  when  Mr.  Edmund  Ran 
dolph  dined  with  ]\Irs.  Washington  "in  a  family  way/'  Mr.  Lear 
related  to  him  what  had  pas>ed.  The  attorney-general  thought  the 
matter  important  enough  to  report  to  his  colleague,  and  asked  him 
if  he  had  authorized  the  printing  of  his  note.  Mr.  Jefferson  said  ho 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION   IN  AMERICAN  POLITICS.      425 

iad  not,  though  he  approved  the  work.  The  faithful  Tobias,  a  few 
lays  after,  had  an  opportunity  to  learn  the  sentiments  of  the  vice- 
president.  "I  was  at  the  vice-president's  house/'  he  records,  "and 
vhile  there  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Rush  came  in.  The  conversation  turned 
apon  this  hook,  and  Dr.  Hush  asked  the  vice-president  what  he 
liought  of  it.  After  a  little  hesitation,  he  laid  his  hand  upon  his 
)'reast,  and  said  in  a  very  solemn  manner,  'I  detest  that  book  and 
ts  tendency,  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart.'" 

As  yet,  however,  though  the  reprint  was  rapidly  spread  abroad, 
eagerly  read,  and  hotly  discussed,  the  slow  newspaper  of  the  period 
was  silent.  About  the  middle  of  May,  1791,  Jefferson  and  Madi 
son,  both  exhausted  with  official  labor  during  the  session  of  Con 
gress,  set  out  on  a  tour  to  the  northward,  which  they  had  long  before 
>romised  themselves,  leaving  politics  and  all  its  irritations  and 
misconceptions  behind  them. 

Up  the  Hudson  by  sloop,  — the  true  way,  always,  of  enjoying  it,  — 
and  then  onward  from  Albany  to  Lake  George  on  horseback,  a  ride 
)f  sixty  miles,  mostly  through  the  primeval  wilderness,  with  a  taste 
>f  Saratoga  water  011  the  way,  as  it  bubbled  up  from  the  springs 
vhere  the  deer  had  licked  or  lapped  it  from  the  beginning  of  time. 
A  hut  or  two,  and  one  frame-house  built  by  General  Schuj'ler  seven 
years  before,  were  all  that  man  had  done  to  mark  the  site  ;  although, 
from  the  time  (1767)  when  Sir  William  Johnson  had  been  carried 
to  Saratoga  in  a  litter  to  drink  the  waters  so  highly  extolled  by  his 
Indians,  and  had  found  them  salutary,  the  springs  had  enjoyed  a 
certain  vague  celebrity.  All  the  scenes  near  by,  made  famous  by 
Burgoyne's  vain  struggle  with  wild  nature  and  brave  men,  they 
visited  also ;  "  the  cataracts  of  the  Hudson,"  too,  of  course,  —  great 
marvels  then.  The  limpid  crystal  of  Lake  George,  and  the  luxu 
riant  foliage  on  its  banks,  awoke  all  the  enthusiasm  of  the  two  Vir 
ginians,  to  whom  some  of  the  trees,  and  many  of  the  shrubs,  were 
new.  "  Lake  George,"  wrote  Mr.  Jefferson  to  his  daughter,  "  is, 
without  comparison,  the  most  beautiful  water  I  ever  saw."  They 
walked  to  the  picturesque,  commanding  bluff  on  which  Fort  Ticon- 
deroga  stood  so  long,  its  site  still  marked  by  ruins  ;  and  they  visited 
the  other  spots  of  bloody  memory  in  that  region,  as  we  do  now;  but 
not,  like  us,  with  guide-book  in  hand,  for  all  that  gory  history  was 
fresh  and  vivid  then  in  every  one's  memory.  Lake  Champlain  they 
did  not  see  to  advantage,  —  the  day  on  which  they  crossed  it  being 


426  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

rough  and  gusty;  and  they  were  not  far  enough  north  to  see  the 
three  ranges  of  mountains  in  one  view,  —  Green,  White,  and  Adiron- 
dacks, —  a  multitudinous,  billowy  sea  of  mountains.  But,  while 
musing  this  lake,  he  wrote  a  long  letter  to  one  of  his  daughters  in 
a  little  book  of  birch-bark,  which  still  exists;  and  some  of  the  com-] 
pany  shot  at  the  squirrels  swimming  from  New  York  to  Vermont,  j 
where  the  States  are  three  miles  apart.  Reaching  Bennington.  in 
Vermont,  on  a  Saturday  evening,  they  were  detained  till  Monday 
morning,  "the  laws  of  the  State  not  permitting  us  to  travel  on 
Sunday."  They  crossed  the  State  of  Vermont  to  a  point  near  um 
brageous  r.rattleborough,  on  the  Connecticut  River;  and,  floating 
down  that  uncomfortable  and  capricious  stream,  made  their  way  by 
the  Sound  to  New  York,  and  reached  Philadelphia,  in  perfect  health, 
after  a  month's  journey  of  a  thousand  miles. 

These  summer  holidays  of  our  modern  life  are  delightful  enough  ; 
only  the  getting  into  harness  again  is  so  disagreeable.  Upon  reach 
ing  Philadelphia,  the  secretary  of  state  found  the  newspapers  in  full 
cry  after  him.  Mr.  Paine's  pamphlet,  to  use  Jefferson's  homely 
expression,  had  "  kicked  up  a  dust."  There  was  a  young  lawyer  in 
Boston,  named  John  Quincy  Adams,  aged  twenty-four,  who  did  not 
approve  the  pamphlet,  and  perhaps  still  less  the  indorsement  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  and .  his  seeming  fling  at  the  vice-president. 
This  young  lawyer,  fresh  from  the  courts  of  Europe,  not  the  best 
school  in  which  to  learn  the  rights  of  man,  answered  "  Mr.  Pain  " 
in  a  series  of  seven  short  newspaper  essays,  signed  Publicola;  not 
omitting  to  give  the  secretary  of  state  a  fair  hit  in  passing,  though 
polite  and  decorous  to  both.  The  fair  hit  was  in  reference  to  Mr. 
Jefferson's  unlucky  use  of  the  word  "heresies."  Publicola  asked, 
"Does  he  consider  the  pamphlet  of  Mr.  Pain  as  the  canonical  book 
of  political  scripture  ?  As  containing  the  true  doctrine  of  political 
infallibility,  from  which  it  would  be  heretical  to  depart  in  a  single 
point?  The  expressions  would,  indeed,  imply  more  :  they  seem,  like 
the  Arabian  prophet,  to  call  upon  all  true  believers  in  the  Islam  of 
democracy  to  draw  their  sword-,  in  the  fervor  of  their  devotion,  to 
compel  all  their  countrymen  to  cry  out,  There  is  but  one  Goddess  of 
Lihertv.  and  Common  Sense  is  her  prophet!" 

This  was  but  a  fair  retort,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  once  acknowledged; 
but  the  younu;  genth-man  proceeded  to  discourse  upon  the  superi 
ority  of  the  Brhi.-h  >\>tem  of  government  over  the  new  French  con- 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  IK  AMERICAN  POLITICS.      427 

itution  eulogized  by  Paine  ;  and  he  did  this  so  well,  that  the  essays 
ere  republished  in  England,  with  the  name  of  John  Adams  on  the 
tie-page,  as  an  antidote  to  what  the  Tories  of  the  period  courteously 
yled  "the  French  disease."  But  the  American  people,  who  had 
ad  experience  for  a  century  and  a  half  of  the  badness  of  the  gov- 
nmental  system  of  Great  Britain,  did  not  relish  the  essays  of  Pub- 
cola.  The  leading  principles  of  Thomas  Paine's  Rights  of  Man 
ere,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  remarked  at  the  time,  "  the  principles  of  the 
eople  of  the  United  States."  They  are  such  at  this  moment.  The 
>ctrines  of  the  work,  if  they  could  now  be  put  to  the  vote,  would  be 
.stained  by  a  majority  of  a  thousand  to  three.  A  political  party 
ight  as  well  place  itself  in  opposition  to  the  multiplication  table, 
encc,  as  soon  as  Publicola  appeared,  Brutus,  Agricola,  Cato,  and 
her  noble  Romans,  threw  themselves  into  the  arena  to  defend  the 
ersons  and  axioms  assailed,  and  thus  "kicked  up  the  dust"  to 
bich  Mr.  Jefferson  alluded. 

"  I  thank  God,"  he  wrote  to  Paine  soon  after,  "  that   the  people 

pear  firm  in   their  republicanism,  notwithstanding  the   contrary 

pes  and  assertions  of  a  sect  here,  high  in  name  but  small  in  num- 

rs.     These  had  flattered  themselves  that  the  silence  of  the  people 

ider  the  'Defence'  and  'Davila'  was  a  symptom  of  their  conver- 

on    to   the    doctrine  of  King,   Lords,  and  Commons.     They   are 

ihecked  at  least  by  your  pamphlet,  and  the  people  confirmed  in  their 

rood  old  faith."     And  to  Colonel  Monroe  :  "  A  host  of  writers  have 

:isen  in  favor  of  Paine,  and  prove,  that,  in  this  quarter  at  least,  the 

spirit  of  republicanism  is  sound.     The  contrary  spirit  of  the  high 

officers  of  government  is  more  understood  than  I  expected.     Colonel 

Hamilton  avows  that  he  never  made  a  secret  of  his  principles,  yet 

baxes  the  imprudence  of  Mr.  Adams  in  having  stirred  the  question, 

and   agrees  that   '  his  business  is   done.'     Jay,  covering  the  same 

principles  under  the  veil  of  silence,  is  steadily  rising  on  the  ruins  of 

his  friends." 

Colonel  Hamilton  was  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  vice-presi 
dent's  "business  was  done."  The  newspaper  storm,  however,' 
alarmed  Mr.  Adams  not  a  little.  Mr.  Jefferson  gave  him  an  expla 
nation  of  the  circumstances  attending  the  publication  of  his  note, 
which  restored  to  its  usual  cordiality  the  old  friendship  between 
them,  —  a  friendship,  said  Mr.  Adams  in  reply,  "which  ever  has 
been  and  still  is  very  dear  to  my  heart."  But  no  private  explanation 


428  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

could  still  the  tempest  out  of  doors.  Chimeras  dire  haunted  th 
vice-president's  mind.  "It  is  thought  by  some,"  he  wrote  to  Jeffei 
son,  "that  Mr.  Hancock's  friends  are  preparing  the  way  by  m; 
destruction  for  his  election  to  the  place  of  vice-president,  and  that  o: 
Mr.  Samuel  Adams  to  be  governor  of  this  Commonwealth  ;  and  thei 
the  Stone-house  faction"  (Mr.  Hancock  lived  in  a  stone  house 
"'will  be  sure  of  all  the  loaves  and  fishes."  All  of  which  might  hav 
speedily  come  to  pass  if  the  later  excesses  and  woful  collapse  of  t-h 
French  Involution  had  not  afforded  a  new,  though  short,  lease  oi 
hfe  to  the  old  ideas,  and  given  pause  to  all  but  the  stanchest  an< 
farthest-sighted  republicans.  It  was  Robespierre  that  balked  tli 
Stone-house  faction, — if  there  was  such  a  faction;  and  it  was  tli 
murder  of  the  amateur  locksmith  of  the  Tuileries,  beginning  to  b 
known  as  "  Mr.  Capet,"  that  suspended  the  decline  of  the  author  oJ 
Davila. 

Thus  was  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  man  of  all  others  most  averse  t< 
controversy,  placed,  without  act  or  volition  of  his  own,  at  the  hea< 
of  the  Republicans  of  the  United  States.  He  took  no  part  in  tin 
public  strife.  "  I  never  did  in  my  life,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams  oi 
this  occasion,  "either  by  mj'self  or  by  any  other,  have  a  sentence  oi 
mine  inserted  in  a  newspaper  without  putting  my  name  to  it;  and  I 
believe  I  never  shall."  Nor  do  we  ever  find  his  name  appended  t< 
any  controversial  piece  or  passage  in  the  papers  of  his  time. 

But  in  the  privacy  of  the  president's  cabinet  the  questions  of  th< 
da}-  were  discussed  between  Colonel  Hamilton  and  himself  with  ever 
growing  warmth.  There  was  little  harmony  between  them  after  tin 
publication  of  Mr.  Paine's  Rights  of  Man,  though  no  perxma 
breach  occurred  for  another  year.  On  nearly  every  subject  then 
wa<  a  difference  between  them,  either  of  sentiment  or  of  opinion  ;  anc 
on  some  points  the  difference  was  such  that  neither  could  quite 
believe  in  the  other's  sincerity.  Hamilton,  for  example,  could  no1 
comprehend,  and  therefore  could  not  respect,  the  state  of  mind  whict 
caused  Jefferson  to  oppose  his  darling,  long-cherished  scheme  of  a 
United  States  Bank.  Other  nations  have  national  banks:  whj 
should  not  we?  Jefferson  replied  in  the  words  of  the  Constitution; 
V  All  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution, 
nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  or  tc 
the  peopl.'.^  To  which  plain  statement  of  fundamental  law.  Hamil 
ton  opposed  his  mere  opinion:  "Congress  can  be  considered  as  undei 


THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  IN  AMERICAN  POLITICS.      429 

nly  one  restriction  which  does  not  apply  to  other  governments,  — 
hey  cannot  rightfully  apply  the  money  they  raise  to  any  purpose 
nerely  or  purely  local."  Hamilton  laughed  at  the  "  metaphysical 
vhimseys"  of  the  strict-constructionists,  and  predicted  that  "the 
nost  incorrigible  theorist  among  the  opponents  of  the  bank  would, 
n  one  month's  experience  as  head  of  the  department  of  the  treasury, 
>e  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  it  is  an  indispensable  engine  in  the 
management  of  the  finances" 

In  this  dispute  we  find  another  proof,  that,  when  two  honest  men 
iffer,  both  are  much  in  the  right.  How  convenient,  urged  the  sec- 
etary  of  the  treasury,  to  have  bank-notes  that  would  be  current  in 
11  the  States  of  the  Union  !  True,  said  Jefferson  ;  and  it  would  be 
till  more  convenient  to  have  a  bank  the  bills  of  which  should  be 
urrent  all  over  the  world  ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  there  exists 
ny where  authority  to  establish  such  a  bank  !  The  bank  was  estab- 
shed,  and  proved  an  element  of  discord  and  a  menace  of  evil,  from 
tie  day  of  its  creation  to  that  of  its  final  suppression  in  1836.  But 
be  single  utility  which  Hamilton  claimed  and  Jefferson  admitted 
as  since  been  constitutionally  attained  by  that  most  exquisite 
.evice  of  finance,  the  National-bank  system  of  the  United  States. 

Suppose  now  we  had  a  Bank  of  the  United  States,  with  a  capital 
f,  say  three  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars  (about  equivalent 
the  thirty-five  millions  of  1830),  overshadowing  Wall  Street,  its 

president  holding  the  same  relation  to  the  business  of  to-day  which 

Nicholas  Biddle  held  to  that  of  1830  ! 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 

THE    QUARREL    OF   JEFFERSON    AND    HAMILTON. 

POLITENESS  .appears  to  have  been  invented  to  enable  people  who 
would  naturally  fall  out  to  live  together  in  peace.  And  there  is 
great  need  of  etiquette  in  a  world  where  antipathy  plays  a  part  not 
less  essential  than  sympathy.  It  is  as  necessary  to  the  continuance 
of  animated  nature  that  cat  and  dog  should  hate,  as  that  cat  and  cat 
should  love.  A  genuine  and  profound  antipathy,  therefore,  may 
exist  without  eithex  of  the  parties  being  to  blame;  and,  in  our  com 
plicated  civilization,  vast  numbers  of  us  are  compelled  to  live  in  the 
nearest  intimacy,  or  labor  in  the  closest  contact,  with  persons 
between  whom  and  ourselves  there  is  this  incurable  dislike.  In 
sucli  cases  there  is  no  peace,  no  dignity,  save  through  the  resolute 
observance  of  all  the  etiquette  which  the  situation  imposes. 

It  was  tli is  that  kept  our  two  secretaries,  Jefferson  and  Hamilton, 
on  friendly  terms  with  one  another  for  many  months  after  both  had 
discovered  that  they  differed  in  toto  and  on  every  leading  question. 
A  breach  of  etiquette  finally  embroiled  them  past  reconciliation.  It 
was  difficult  to  quarrel  with  Jefferson  ;  since,  besides  being  naturally 
placable  and  good-tempered,  he  had  a  vivid  sense  of  the  value  of 
peace  and  a  singular  knowledge  of  the  arts  by  which  peace  is  pre 
served.  He  advised  his  daughters  t<>  avoid  breaking  with  disagree 
able  people  as  long  as  they  could  with  honor.  Sacrifices  and  sup 
pressions  of  feeling  for  such  an  object,  he  thought,  cost  much  less 
pain  than  open  separation.  The  effort  of  self-control  was  soon  for 
gotten  ;  but  an  open  breach  "  haunts  the  peace  of  every  day." 

Hamilton,  too,  though  much  spoiled  by  applause  too  early  and 
too  easily  won,  seemed  a  good  fellow;  amiable  at  home,  agreeable 
abroad;  who  sang  his  old  song  of  The  Drum  at  the  annual  dinner  of 
the  Cincinnati,  and  was  welcome  in  all  companies  and  circles  till  politi- 

430 


THE   QUARREL   OF   JEFFERSON  AND   HAMILTON.          431 

al  differences  imbittered  men's  minds.  What  a  pleasant  picture 
e  have  of  the  breakfast  scene  at  his  house,  No.  24  Broadway,  the 
lother  seated  at  the  head  of  the  table,  with  a  napkin  in  her  lap, 
utting  slices  of  bread  from  a  great  family  loaf  of  the  olden  time, 
nd  spreading  them  with  butter  for  the  younger  boys,  who  stood 
ound  her,  reading  in  turn  from  the  Bible  or  Goldsmith's  History  of 
ome ;  while  the  father,  in  the  room  adjoining,  was  seated  at  the 
iano  playing  an  accompaniment  to  his  daughters  new  song,  or 
nging  it  to  her  accompaniment.  When  the  lessons  were  finished, 
nd  a  stately  pile  of  bread  and  butter  was  ready,  all  the  eight  chil- 
ren  came  to  breakfast;  after  which,  the  younger  ones  were  packed 
'  to  school,  and  the  father  went  to  his  office. 

Who  more  amiable  than  that  father?     There  is  a  portrait  of  Mrs. 
[amilton,   as   one  of  her  sons  relates,   bearing  the   name   of  the 
ainter,   "  T.   Earle,   1787,"   which   attests   his   goodness  of  heart, 
arle  was  in  the  debtors'  prison  at  the  time,  and  Hamilton  induced 
is  young  wife  to  go  to  the  prison  and  sit  for  her  portrait.     She  per- 
laded  other  ladies,  and  thus  the  artist  gained  money  enough  to  pay 
is  debts  and  get  out  of  jail.     No  man  was  more  ready  than  Hamil- 
on  to  set  on  foot  such  good-natured  schemes,  though  himself  never 
oo  far  from   the   debtors'  prison.     At  this  very  time,  — 1791   to 
794,  —  while  he  was  handling  millions  upon  millions  of  the  public 
loney,  he  was  pinched  severely  in  the  effort  to  live  upon  his  little 
alary.     "  If  you  can  conveniently  lend  me  twenty  dollars  for  a  few 
ays,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  in  September,  1791,  "  be  so  good  as  to 
jnd  it  by  the  bearer."     The  friend  sent  a  check  for  fifty  dollars. 
.nd  Tallej'rand  said,  in  1794,  after  coming  from  Hamilton's  house, 
I  have  beheld  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world,  —  a  man  who  has 
lade  the  fortune  of  a  nation  laboring  all  night  to  support  a  family." 
Hamilton,  alas !  had  more  to  support  than  a  family.     Two  fami- 
es,  at  least,  we  know  he  was  supporting  at  this  time;  for  it  was 
uring  1791  and  1792  that  he  had  his  affair  with  the  Reynolds,  which 
bliged  him  to  buy  the  silence  of  the  husband  by  the  payment  of  a 
quarter's  salary,  not  to  mention  smaller  "  loans  "  whenever  that  hus 
band  chose  to  apply. 

Talleyrand  made  another  remark  upon  Hamilton.  When  Mr. 
George  Ticknor  visited  him  in  1819,  the  old  diplomatist  was  so 
warm  in  his  eulogy  of  Hamilton,  that  the  American  was  disposed 
modestly  to  waive  part  of  the  compliment  by  saying  that  the  public 


432  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

_ 
men  of  Europe  had  to  do  with  larger  masses  and  wider  interests, 

"  But,"  said  Talleyrand,  "  Hamilton  had  divined  Europe."  lie 
majr  have  divined  Europe.  His  misfortune  was,  that  he  had  not 
divined  America.  In  Europe,  after  a  drill  of  twenty-five  years  in 
the  British  House  of  Commons,  he  might  have  been  another  Can 
ning,  a  liberal  Tory,  the  forerunner  of  Peel  and  Palmerston.  In 
American  politics  it  was  impossible  that  he  should  ever  have  been  afc 
home,  because  he  never  could  believe  the  truths,  nor  share  the  hopes, 
upon  which  the  American  system  is  based.  In  an  ordinary  period, 
however,  he  might  have  co-operated  with  Jefferson  for  a  while, 
both  being  gentlemen  and  patriots;  but  the  time  was  not  ordi 
nary.  Christendom  was  losing  its  senses ;  and  the  discussions  of 
the  cabinet  had  a  bass  accompaniment  out  of  doors,  ever  deepening, 
always  becoming  more  vehement.  And  it  is  but  fair  to  remember, 
that,  if  Jefierson  had  the  inarticulate  masses  of  the  American  people 
at  his  back,  Hamilton  was  ceaselessly  flattered  by  the"  articulate 
class,  —  the  bar,  the  bench,  the  college,  the  drawing-room,  the  pul 
pit,  the  bureau.  These  two  men,  even  if  they  had  not  become 
mutually  repellent,  would  have  been  pulled  apart  by  their  adher 
ents. 

AVI i en  the  government,  in  1790,  removed  from  New  York  to  Phil 
adelphia,  John  Pintard,  the  translating  clerk  in  the  Department  of 
State,  chose  not  to  go  with  it;  and  Jefferson  gave  the  place  —  salary 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year  —  to  the  "  poet  Frem-an,"  an 
old  college  classmate  and  friend  of  [Madison  and  Henry  Lee.  Cap 
tain  Philip  Freneau,  a  native  of  New  York,  besides  being  a  kind  of 
mild  American  Peter  Pindar,  had  suffered  and  sung  the  horrors  of 
the  New  York  prison-ships  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  He 
was  the  bright,  popular  writer  of  his  day,  both  in  prose  and 
verse ;  and,  as  he  had  contemplated  "  the  British  model "  from  the 
pestilential  steerage  of  the  Scorpion  frigate  anchored  in  the  Hudson, 
he  was  never  "'bewitched"  by  it,  but  remained,  to  the  end  of  his 
long  life,  a  sound  republican.  No  appointment  could  have  been 
more  natural,  more  proper,  or  more  agreeable  to  the  public.  In 
recommending  it,  Mr.  Madison's  chief  motive  was  to  promote  the 
interest  of  his  friend,  then  gaining  a  precarious  and  slender  liveli 
hood  as  iiian-nf-all-work  on  the  New  York  Daily  Advertiser.  But 
he  had  another  object  in  view.  Uestive  under  the  opposition  of 
Hamilton's  organ  at  Philadelphia,  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States, 


THE  QUARREL  OF  JEFFERSON  AND   HAMILTON.         433 


434  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

upon  for  taking  the  side  least  characteristic  of  the  United  States. 
Tin-  burden  of  its  song  was,  government  by  the  people  is  anarchy. 
If  any  one  ventured  to  ask  a  Federalist,  "Why,  then,  are  we  not 
anarchic?  the  answer  was,  The  high  character  of  the  president, 
and  the  universal  awe  which  that  character  inspires,  hold  the  dema 
gogues  in  some  decent  show  of  restraint.  It  is  WASHINGTON  that 
saves  us,  not  our  "  shilly-shally  Constitution." 

When  Freneau's  Gazette  appeared,  defending  Paine,  attacking 
Burko,  criticising  Hamilton's  measures,  especially  his  new  Bank  of 
the  United  States,  and  commending  Jefferson's  public  acts,  Fenno 
affected  to  be  aghast.  The  morning  after  Freneau's  second  number 
was  circulated,  a  writer  in  Fenno,  without  mentioning  the  name  of 
the  audacious  sheet,  burst  into  the  most  ludicrous  fury.  He  began 
by  saying  that  there  were  acts  of  baseness  and  villany  so  atrocious, 
that  we  could  hardly  persuade  ourselves  to  believe  that  any  of  the 
human  race  were  depraved  enough  to  commit  them  •  and  lie  pro 
ceeded  t«  mention  a  crime  or  two  of  this  description,  such  as 
firing  a  city  in  the  dead  of  night.  But  there  is  a  depth  of  deprav 
ity,  he  continued,  far  beyond  that.  Such  offences  are  of  a  mild 
type  of  turpitude  compared  with  the  revolting  blackness  of  the  one 
which  he  introduces  to  the  reader's  notice  in  his  closing  paragraph  : 
"  In  a  free  republic,  the  officers  of  the  people  are  entitled  to  double 
honor,  because  the}-  have  no  inheritance  in  their  office,  and,  when 
actuated  by  just  principles,  accept  of  public  employments  from 
motives  superior  to  mercenary  considerations.  The  crime,  there 
fore,  of  individuals  who  devise  the  destruction  and  imbrue  their 
hands  in  the  innocent  blood  of  such  characters,  is  tinged  with  the 
blackest  hue  of  hellish  darkness." 

Such  was  the  spirit  of  a  paper  that  derived  an  important  part  of 
its  revenue  from  the  patronage  of  the  government,  and  an  important 
portion  of  its  contents  from  the  pens  of  high  officers  of  the  govern 
ment.  Freneau  continued  his  gazette,  however,  and  did  not  ivfrain 
from  imbruing  his  hands  in  the  innocent  blood  of  an  eminent 
public  character.  He  proceeded  to  the  length  of  mentioning  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  by  name.  He  descanted  freely  upon  all 
that  Hamilton  had  done,  and  all  that  he  proposed;  admitting  many 
communications  from  republican  friends;  doing  all  that  in  him  lay 
to  controvert  and  ridicule  the  writers  in  Fenno,  and  defend  the 
principle  of  government  by  the  people  for  the  people.  Headers  who 


THE   QUARREL  OF   JEFFERSON  AND   HAMILTON.         435 


436  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

zens  to  be  distinguished  by  the  addition  Mr.,  Esq.,  and  Deacon, 
and  whether  Thomas  Paine  or  Edmund  Burke  are  the  greatest 
fools."  Hamilton's  grammar  was  better  than  Wolcott's;  but  he, 
too,  was  at  first  disposed  to  laugh  at  Jefferson's  notion  of  abolishing 
the  small,  lingering  absurdities  of  the  feudal  system.  But  he  soon 
ceased  to  laugh.  Under  Freneau's  attacks,  he  became,  very  early 
in  1792,  as  sour  and  bitter  in  his  feelings  toward  his  colleague  as  so 
good-tempered  a  man  could  be;  and  he  poured  out  all  his  heart  to 
his  old  comrade,  Colonel  Carrington  of  Virginia.  He  said  he  was 
convinced  —  "unequivocally  convinced"  —  that  "Mr.  Madison,  co 
operating  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  is  at  the  head  of  a  faction  decidedly 
hostile  to  me  and  to  my  administration,  and  actuated  by  views,  in 
my  judgment,  subversive  of  the  principles  of  good  government,  and 
dangerous  to  the  union,  peace,  and  happiness  of  the  country." 

Such  was  Hamilton's  conviction  in  May,  1792  ;  and  it  remained 
his  conviction  until  that  fatal  day  in  July,  1804,  when  he  stood  at 
Weehawken  before  Burr's  pistol,  a  conscious  martyr.  What  reasons 
had  he  for  thinking  so!  He  gives  them  at  great  length  to  Colonel 
Carrington  :  Madison  and  Jefferson  disapproved  his  financial  meas 
ures !  They  had  openly  said  so;  Madison  in  debate,  Jefferson  in 
conversation, — yes,  even  in  conversation  vt\t}\  foreigners  !  Some 
persons,  whom  the  secretary  of  state  "  immediately  and  notoriously 
moves,"  had  even  whispered  suspicions  of  his  official  integrity.  It 
was  also  "reduced  to  a  certainty,"  that  Freneau,  a  "known  anti- 
Federalist,"  had  been  "brought  to  Philadelphia  by  Mr.  Jefferson  to 
be  the  conductor  of  a  newspaper."  And  such  a  newspaper!  Evi 
dently  devoted  to  the  subversion  of  me  and  my  measures,  as  well  as 
unfriendly  to  the  government !  Moreover,  both  Madison  and  Jeffer 
son  (and  here  Hamilton  rises  into  capital  letters)  "HAD  A  WOMAN 
ISH  ATTACHMENT  TO  FRANCE,  AND  A  WOMANISH  RESENTMENT 

A(IAI\>T  GREAT  BRITAIN  ;"  and  this  to  such  a  degree,  that,  un 
checked,  they  would  in  six  months  bring  on  "AX  OPEN  WAR 

BETWEEN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  (ii;EAT    I'.KITAIX  I  "     Mr.  Jeiler- 

son  was  espt-cially  and  extravagantly  addicted  to  these  womanish 
propensities. 

"In  France,"  continues  Hamilton,  "he  saw  government  only  on 
the  side  of  its  abuses.  He  drank  deeply  of  the  French  philosophy, 
in  religion,  in  science,  in  politics.  He  came  from  France  in  the 
moment  of  a  fermentation  which  he  had  a  share  in  exciting,  and  in 


THE  QUAEREL  OF   JEFFERSON  AND  HAMILTON.         437 


438  .  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

The  mere  difference  of  opinion  between  them  was  extreme.  One 
day  in  April,  1791,  when  the  vice-president  and  the  cabinet  dined 
together  at  Jefferson's  house  to  talk  over  some  public  question,  the 
conversation  turned,  as  it  often  did  in  those  days,  upon  forms  of 
government.  "  Purge  the  British  Constitution  of  its  corruption," 
said  Mr.  Adams,  "  and  give  to  its  popular  branch  equality  of  repre 
sentation,  and  it  would  be  the  most  perfect  constitution  ever  devised 
by  the  wit  of  man."  Hamilton  waited  a  moment,  and  then  said, 
"  Purge  it  of  its  corruption,  and  give  to  its  popular  branch  equality 
of  representation,  and  it  would  become  an  impracticable  government. 
As  it  stands  ut  present,  with  all  its  supposed  defects,  it  is  the  most 
perfect  government  that  ever  existed."  What  intelligent  American 
citizen,  whose  memory  of  public  events  ran  back  to  1765,  and  who 
had  access  to  the  pigeon-holes  of  the  state  department,  could  be 
expected  to  listen  to  such  an  opinion  without  something  like  indig 
nation  ? 

But,  in  truth,  when  Hamilton  pronounced  the  word  government, 
he  meant  something  radically  different  from  Jefferson's  idea  of  gov 
ernment.  What  is  government?  Jefferson's  answer  would  have  been : 
An  agency  for  the  execution  of  the  people's  will.  Hamilton  must 
have  answered :  A  means  of  curbing  and  frustrating  people's  will. 
The  British  government  had  proved  itself  practicable^  by  being  able, 
in  the  teeth  of  the  people's  will,  to  alienate  and  repel  the  American 
Colonies ;  and  it  had  accomplished  this  by  buying  voters  at  the 
polls,  and  voters  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Hence,  in  a  Hamilto- 
nian  sense,  it  was  a  "  practicable  "  government.  There  were  mem 
bers  of  Congress  who  had  a  pecuniary  interest  in  supporting 
Hamilton's  financial  system.  This  he  regarded  as  legitimate  and 
desirable  ;  while  good  republicans  could  only  think  of  it  with  horror, 
as  if  jurymen  should  sit  in  judgment  on  a  cause  in  which  their 
fortune  was  embarked. 

A  few  months  after,  Hamilton  seized  an  opportunity  to  explain 
himself  to  his  colleague.  Jefferson  mentioned  to  him,  in  August, 
17D1,  that  he  had  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Adams,  disavowing 
Publicola,  and  denying  that  he  had  ever  had  any  wish  to  introduce 
the  hereditary  principle.  Hamilton  eeiiMired  the  vice-preM'K-nt  for 
having  stirred  questions  of  that  nature  in  the  newspapers.  "I 
own,"  he  added,  "it  is  my  own  opinion,  though  I  do  not  publish  it  in 
Dan  or  Beershel>a;  that  the  present  government  is  not  that  which 


THE  QUARREL   OF  JEFFERSON  AND   HAMILTON.         439 

will  answer  the  ends  of  society  by  giving  stability  and  protection  to 
its  rights,  and  that  it  will  probably  be  found  expedient  to  go  into 
the  British  form.  However,  since  we  have  undertaken  the  experi 
ment,  I  am  for  giving  it  a  fair  course,  whatever  my  expectations 
maybe."  Hence,  he  thought  Mr.  Adams  was  wrong,  however  pure 
his  intentions,  to  disturb,  by  the  discourses  on  Davila,  the  public 
confidence  in  the  present  order  of  things.  These  avowals,  appar 
ently  deliberate  and  made  for  a  purpose,  Jefferson  thought  worthy 
of  preservation ;  and  this  conversation,  accordingly,  is  the  first  of 
the  "Anas"  which  give  us  so  many  interesting  glimpses  of  the 
interior  of  General  Washington's  cabinet. 

To  this  radical  difference  of  opinion  was  added  a  grievance  which 
was  at  once  public  and  personal,  wounding  both  to  Jefferson's  pat 
riotism  and  pride.  Hamilton  was  an  inveterate  lobbyist.  Excluded 
from  Congress  by  the  Constitution,  he  nevertheless  endeavored  to 
exercise  as  much  influence  over  legislation  as  an  English  Chan 
cellor  of  the  Exchequer  who  sits  in  Parliament.  In  his  published 
correspondence,  he  mentions,  with  evident  elation,  several  instances 
in  which  he  had  procured  the  passage  or  the  rejection  of  measures. 
"Upon  occasions  he  would  even  threaten  to  resign,  unless  he  had  his 
way;  and  such  was  his  ascendency, 'that  this  absurd  insolence 
provoked  from  his  adherents  neither  resentment  nor  ridicule.  The 
Republican  members  objected  to  the  reference  of  legislative  prob 
lems  to  members  of  the  cabinet;  regarding  the  cabinet  as  part 
of  the  executive  power.  Hamilton  could  not  so  much  as  believe 
that  a  member  of  Congress  could  have  any  other  than  a  factious 
reason  for  opposing  such  a  reference.  lie  distinctly  claimed  it,  as 
belonging  to  his  office,  to  perform  the  duty  which  now  devolves  upon 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  He  regarded  himself  as  an 
injured  being  when  Madison  opposed  the  reference  to  the  secretary 
of  the  treasury  of  the  question  of  ways  and  means  for  the  Indian 
War.  Madison,  he  says,  even  went  so  far  as  to  "  combat,  on  prin 
ciple,  the  propriety  of  such  reference  ;"  well  knowing,  that,  "  if  he 
had  prevailed,  a  certain  consequence  was  my  resignation"  Late  in 
the  debate  he  became  apprised  of  the  danger.  "Measures  of  coun 
teraction,"  he  says,  "  were  adopted ;  and  when  the  question  was 
called,  Mr.  Madison  was  confounded  to  find  characters  voting 
against  him  whom  he  had  counted  upon  as  certain." 

Now,  this  interference  with  legislation  was  the  more  aggravating 


440  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

to  Jefferson,  because  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  had  such  a  vast 
patronage  with  which  to  make  his  interference  effectual :  one  hun 
dred  clerks  at  Philadelphia,  a  custom-house  at  every  port,  bank- 
directors,  loan-agents,  —  a  thousand  places  in  his  gift.  And  these 
places  were  not  the  trivial  and  demoralizing  gifts  which  a  cabinet 
minister  has  at  his  disposal  now,  —  the  brief,  precarious  tenure  of 
under-paid  offices.  A  government  office  was  then  a  career.  You  were 
a  made  man  if  you  got  one.  A  peaceful  and  dignified  life  could  be 
founded  upon  it,  and  a  family  reared.  Hamilton  wielded  more  power 
of  this  kind  than  all  the  rest  of  the  administration  put  together, 
multiplied  by  ten  ;  and  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude,  that  some  voters 
in  Congress  (not  as  man}T,  perhaps,  as  Jefferson  thought)  were  influ 
enced  by  the  iuterest  members  had  in  Hamilton's  various  financial 
measures. 

In-fore  lie  had  been  a  j*ear  in  office,  the  secretary  of  state  had  had 
enough  of  it.  Scrupulously  avoiding  all  interference  with  the 
departments  of  his  colleagues,  never  lobbying,  immersed  in  the 
duties  of  his  place,  he  found  himself  borne  along  by  Hamilton's  rest- 
lr>>  impetuosity,  and  compelled  to  aid  in  the  execution  of  a  policy 
which  lie  could  as  little  approve  as  prevent.  He  was  nominally  at 
tin'  head  of  the  cabinet,  without  possessing  the  ascendency  that 
belonged  to  his  position.  He  seemed  to  himself,  at  once  responsible 
and  impotent ;  and  he  believed  the  sway  of  Hamilton  over  public 
affairs  to  be  illegitimate,  and  to  be  upheld  by  illegitimate  means. 
In  the  spring  of  1791,  when  he  had  been  in  the  cabinet  little  more 
than  a  year,  ho  discovered,  from  a  sentence  in  one  of  the  president's 
letters  to  himself,  that  he  had  no  thought  of  serving  beyond  the  end 
of  his  term,  which  would  expire  March  4,  1793.  Jefferson  instantly 
resolved  to  make  that  the  period  of  his  own  service  also.  He  loiig.-d 
for  repo-r.  His  affairs  clamorously  demanded  his  attention.  He 
\vu>  utterly  devoid  of  commonplace  ambition.  All  pageantry  was 
wearisome  to  him.  If,  in  his  earlier  years,  he  had  coveted  the  kind 
of  distinction  which  place  conferred,  he  had  outgrown  that  foible 
long  ago,  and  had  now  for  himself  but  one  wish,  —  to  enjoy  a  busy. 
traiKjiiil  e.\i.-tenee  at  home,  among  his  farms,  his  books,  his  appa 
ratus,  his  children,  and  his  friends.  "\Vhat  man  above  forty-live,  not 
a  fool,  has  ever  had,  for  himself  alone,  any  other  dream  but  that? 

With  regard  to  the  piv.-i.lnicy,  no  one  had  as  yet  presumed  to 
publish  a  conjecture  as  to  what  an  infant  nation  was  to  do,  when,  at 


THE  QUAKREL  OF  JEFFERSON  AND   HAMILTON.          441 

last,  deprived  of  its  "  father,"  it  should  be  obliged  —  to  use  Jeffer 
son's  expression  —  to  "go  alone."  Adams,  Jay,  and  Jefferson  were 
the  three  names  oftenest  whispered  in  conversation ;  but  the  situ 
ation  was  not  ripe  for  any  thing  beyond  a  whisper,  and  all  patriotic 
men  concurred  in  desiring  General  Washington's  continuance. 

It  was  in  February,  1792,  in  the  course  of  a  conference  upon  post- 
office  affairs,  that  Jefferson  disclosed  to  the  president  his  intention 
to  retire.  It  was  not  yet  clear  whether  the  post-office  belonged  to 
the  Department  of  State  or  to  that  of  the  Treasury,  and  Jefferson 
wished  the  question  settled.  He  told  the  president,  that,  in  his 
opinion,  it  belonged,  and  ought  to  belong,  to  the  State  Department, 
because,  among  other  reasons,  the  Treasury  Department  was  already 
too  powerful ;  wielding  "  such  an  influence  as  to  swallow  up  the 
whole  executive  powers,"  so  that  "  even  the  future  presidents,  not 
supported  by  the  weight  of  character  which  himself  possessed,  would 
not  be  able  to  make  head  against  it."  He  disclaimed  all  personal 
interest  in  the  matter.  If  he  was  supposed  to  have  any  appetite 
for  power,  the  intervening  time  was  too  short  to  be  an  object,  for  his 
own  tenure  of  office  would  be  exactly  as  long  as  that  of  the  presi 
dent's.  "  My  real  wish,"  said  he,  "  is  \o  avail  the  public  of  every 
occasion,  during  the  rest  of  the  president's  period,  to  place  things 
on  a  safe  footing." 

The  conversation  was  interrupted  here  at  its  most  interesting 
moment.  The  president  asked  him  to  breakfast  with  him  the  next 
morning,  in  order  that  the  subject  might  be  resumed.  They  met 
accordingly ;  and,  when  the  post-office  question  had  been  duly  con 
sidered,  the  president  revived  the  topic  of  Jefferson's  intention  to 
retire.  "  In  an  affectionate  tone,"  he  told  Jefferson  diat  he  had 
felt  much  concern  at  the  intelligence.  For  his  own  retirement  there 
were  reasons  enough,  and  he  enumerated  them  j  but  he  should  con 
sider  it  unfortunate  if  his  own  return  to  private  life  should  bring  on 
the  resignation  of  the  great  officers  of  the  government,  which  might 
give  a  shock  to  the  public  mind  of  dangerous  consequence.  Jeffer 
son  tried  to  re-assure  the  president  on  this  point.  He  did  not  believe, 
he  said,  that  any  of  his  brethren  thought  of  resigning.  On  the 
contrary,  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  trustees  of  the  sinking-fund, 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury  had  developed  a  plan  of  operations  which 
contemplated  years  of  his  own  personal  service. 

General  Washington  was  not  re-assured  by  this  statement.     He 


442  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

clung  to  Jefferson.  Pie  remarked,  that  he  considered  the  Depart 
ment  of  the  Treasury  less  important  and  less  conspicuous  than  the 
Department  of  State,  which  "  embraced  nearly  all  the  objects  of 
administration,"  and  that  the  retirement  of  a  secretary  of  state 
would  be  more  noticed.  Symptoms  of  dissatisfaction,  he  added, 
far  beyond  what  could  have  been  expected,  had  lately  shown  them 
selves  ;  and  to  what  height  these  might  arise,  in  case  of  too  great  a 
change  in  the  administration,  could  not  be  foreseen. 

Upon  this  Jefferson's  tongue  was  loosed,  and  he  expressed  him 
self,  without  reserve,  in  words  like  these :  "  In  my  opinion,  there  is 
only  a  single  source  of  these  discontents,  —  the  Treasury.  A  system 
has  there  been  contrived  for  deluging  the  States  with  paper-money 
instead  of  gold  and  silver;  for  withdrawing  our  citizens  from  the  pur 
suits  of  commerce,  manufactures,  buildings,  and  other  branches  of 
useful  industry,  to  occupy  themselves  and  their  capitals  in  a  species 
of  gambling  destructive  of  morality,  which  has  introduced  its  poison 
into  the  government  itself.  It  is  a  fact,  as  well  known  as  that  you 
and  I  are  now  conversing,  that  particular  members  of  the  legisla 
ture,  while  those  laws  were  on  the  carpet,  feathered  their  nests  with 
paper,  then  voted  for  the  Jaws,  and  constantly,  since,  have  lent  all 
the  energy  of  their  talents,  and  the  instrumentality  of  their  offices, 
to  the  establishment  and  enlargement  of  their  system.  They  have 
chained  the  system  round  our  necks  for  a  great  length  of  time;  and, 
in  order  to  keep  the  game  in  their  own  hands,  they  have,  from,  time 
to  time,  aided  in  making  such  legislative  constructions  of  the  Consti 
tution  us  make  it  a  very  different  thing  from  what  the  people 
thought  they  had  submitted  to.  And  now  they  have  brought  for 
ward  a  proposition  far  beyond  anyone  advanced  before ;  to  which 
the  eyes  of  many  are  now  turned,  as  the  decision  which  is  to  let  us 
know  whether  we  live  under  a  limited  or  an  unlimited  government." 

"  To  what  proposition  do  you  allude?"  asked  the  president. 

"To  that,"  replied  JelVers«.n,  "  in  the  Report  of  Manufactures  (by 
Hamilton),  which,  under  color  of  giving  bounties  for  the  encourage 
ment  of  particular  inunufact ures,  meant  to  establish  the  doctrine, 
that  the  Constitution,  in  giving  power  to  Congress  to  provide  for  the 
general  welfare,  permitted  Congress  to  take  every  thing  under  their 
charge  which  ////•//  should  deem  for  the  public  welfare.  If  this  was 
maintained,  then  the  enumeration  of  powers  in  the  Constitution 
does  not  at  all  constitute  the  limits  of  their  authority." 


THE  QUARREL   OF  JEFFERSON  AND   HAMILTON.         443 

With  this  topic  the  conversation  ended.  The  mingling  of  justice 
and  injustice  in  Jefferson's  observations  is  obvious.  He  was  chiefly 
unjust  in  ascribing  the  ill-working  of  some  of  Hamilton's  measures  to 
design  ;  whereas,  the  inflation  of  values,  and  the  consequent  mania  for 
speculation,  were  unforeseen,  and  were  by  no  one  more  regretted  than 
by  Hamilton.  The  real  grievances  of  the  Republicans  at  that  mo 
ment  were  two:  1,, Hamilton's  free-and-easy  construction  of  the  Con 
stitution.  2,  The  interference  of  the  Treasury  Department  with  legis 
lation.  During  that  very  week  the  Republicans  made  a  serious  effort 
toward  turning  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  and  his  allies  out  of  the 
lobby  by  breaking  up  the  system  of  referring  questions  to  members  of 
the  cabinet.  After  a  long  debate,  the  House  adjourned  without  com 
ing  to  a  vote  ;  but  Madison  and  his  friends  went  home  that  afternoon 
in  the  highest  spirits,  so  sure  were  they  of  victory  on  the  day  follow 
ing.  During  the  evening,  as  they  believed,  the  special  adherents  of 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury  bestirred  themselves  with  such  effect, 
that,  —  to  employ  Jefferson's  own  words,  —  "  The  Treasury  carried 
it  by  thirty-one  to  twenty-seven."  But  even  this  triumph  was 
esteemed  only  the  forerunner  of  defeat,  so  omnipotent  had  the  Treas 
ury  once  been.  "It  showed,"  Jefferson  thought,  "that  Treasury 
influence  was  tottering." 

So  far  the  personal  intercourse  between  the  two  diverging  minis 
ters  was  agreeable ;  and  we  even  observe  in  their  official  correspond 
ence  an  apparent  effort  to  conciliate.  In  March,  1792,  Jefferson 
submitted  the  draught  of  a  cabinet  paper  for  Hamilton's  review  and 
emendation;  and  when  it  came  back  with  comments,  Jefferson 
appears  to  have  made  a  point  of  accepting  as  many  of  his  colleague's 
suggestions  as  possible.  Out  of  ten  emendations  he  adopted  all  but 
one,  which  would  have  involved  a  looser  construction  of  the  Consti- 
tion  than  he  approved.  As  late  as  February,  1792  (a  month  before 
the  conversation  with  the  president),  Jefferson,  in  returning  his  col 
league's  Report  on  the  Mint,  commended  the  performance,  suggested 
a  change  or  two,  and  ended  his  note  thus  :  "  I  hazard  these  thoughts 
to  you  extempore,  and  am,  dear  sir,  respectfully  and  affectionately 
yours." 

This,  however,  was  the  year  of  the  presidential  election.  For  the 
presidency,  there  was,  indeed,  but  one  candidate ;  but  Mr.  Adams's 
incoherences  upon  Davila,  and  his  son's  essays  in  the  name  of  Pub- 
licola,  cost  him  a  severe  contest  for  the  vice-presidency  j  George 


444  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Clinton  of  New  York  being  the  candidate  of  the  Republicans. 
Need  it  be  said  that  the  two  Gazettes,  Fenno  and  Freneau,  improved 
the  occasion?  But  how  mild  the  prose  and  verse  of  Captain  Fre 
neau  compared  with  the  vituperation  and  calumny  which  have  since 
made  the  party  press  as  powerless  to  abase  as  to  exalt ! 

"  On  Davila's  page 

Your  discourses  so  sage 
Democratic  nuinsculls  bepuzzle, 
With  arguments  tou<;h 
As  white  leather  or  buff, 
The  Republican  bull-dogs  to  muzzle ! " 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  vice-president  did  not  take  seriously 
to  heart  such* fooling  as  this,  which  is  a  fair  enough  specimen  of 
"Jonathan  Pindar's  ''  doggerel.  Hamilton  and  his  friends  were 
assailed  in  prose  not  quite  so  pointless.  Perhaps  the  following  was 
as  "severe  "  as  most  of  the  editorial  paragraphs,  if  only  from  its  con 
taining  a  portion  of  truth  :  "  The  mask  is  at  length  torn  from  the 
monarchical  party,  who  have,  with  but  too  much  success,  imposed 
themselves  upon  the  public  for  the  sincere  friends  of  our  republican 
Constitution.  Whatever  may  be  the  event  of  the  competition  for  the 
vice-presidency,  it  has  been  the  happy  occasion  of  ascertaining  the 
two  following  important  truths:  First,  that  the  name  of  Federalist 
has  been  usMimed  by  men  who  approve  tlie  Constitution  merely  'as 
a  promising  essay  toward  a  well-ordered  government;'  that  is  to 
say,  as  a  step  toward  a  government  of  King,  Lords,  and  Commons. 
Secondly,  that  the  spirit  of  the  people  continues  firmly  republican." 
Often,  however,  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  was  specially  designated; 
and  his  financial  system  was  always  condemned,  as  Jefferson  con 
demned  it  in  the  hearing  of  the  president. 

When  Hamilton  read  his  Freneau,  week  after  week,  during  that 
exciting  summer  of  1792,  he  read  it,  not  at  all  as  the  publication  of 
Captain  Philip  Freneau,  mariner  and  poet,  but,  wholly  and  always, 
as  the  utterance  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  secretary  of  state.  He  was 
right,  and  he  was  wrong.  Jefferson,  to  people  like-minded  with 
himself,  was  a  pervading  and  fascinating  intelligence.  His  easy 
manners,  his  long  experience,  his  knowledge  of  nature,  men,  and 
events;  his  sanguine  trust  in  man,  his  freedom  from  inhuman  pride, 
bis  prodigious  Christianity,  his  great  gifts,  his  great  fume,  and  his 


THE   QUARREL   OF   JEFFERSON   AND   HAMILTON.        445 

great  place,  all  conspired  to  make  him  the  oracle  of  his  circle,  as  he 
was  the  soul  of  his  party.  Freneau  could  not  help  infusing  a  good 
deal  of  Jefferson  into  almost  every  thing  he  wrote.  But  although 
that  was  the  only  kind  of  influence  which  the  secretary  of  state  ever 
exerted  over  the  pen  of  his  translating  clerk,  Hamilton  could  not 
believe  it.  He  took  it  for  granted  that  the  National  Gazette  was 
edited  in  his  colleague's  office,  with  his  colleague's  assistance,  for  the 
purpose  of  subverting  himself.  Irritated  and  indignant,  the  secre 
tary  of  the  treasury  composed,  July  15,  1791,  the  epistle  following, 
arid  had  it  inserted  in  the  other.  Gazette, — the  Gazette  of  the 
United  States  :  — 

"  MB.  FEXNO,  —  The  editor  of  the  National  Gazette  receives  a 
salary  from  government. 

"  Quaere.  Whether  this  salary  is  paid  him  for  Translations,  or  for 
publications,  the  design  of  which  is  to  vilify  those  to  whom  the  voice 
of  the  people  has  committed  the  administration  of  our  public  affairs, 
—  to  oppose  the  measures  of  government,  and,  by  false  insinuations, 
to  disturb  the  public  peace  ? 

"  In  common  life  it  is  thought  ungrateful  for  a  man  to  bite  the 
hand  that  puts  bread  in  his  mouth;  but,  if  the  man  is  hired  to  do  it, 
the  case  is  altered.  T.  L." 

Freneau  was  not  politician  enough,  nor  guilty  enough,  to  pass  by 
this  hint  in  silence.  He  repelled  the  insinuation,  which  gave 
Hamilton  a  pretext  for  following  it  up.  A  series  of  strongly 
written,  incisive  articles,  from  the  pen  of  the  secretary  of  the  treas 
ury,  appeared  in  Fenno;  in  which  Jefferson  was  attacked  by  name. 
Some  of  these  articles  (there  were  twelve  in  all)  were  signed,  "  An 
American;"  others,  "Amicus;"  others,  "Catullus;"  one,  "Metel- 
lus;"  one,  "A  Plain,  Honest  Man:"  but  all  of  them  are  included 
in  the  authorized  edition  of  the  works  of  Alexander  Hamilton. 
They  appeared  from  time  to  time,  during  the  rest  of  the  presiden 
tial  "campaign;"  calling  forth  replies  from  "Aristides"  and  other 
sages  of  antiquity,  but  eliciting  no  printed  word  from  Jefferson. 
The  burden  of  the  earlier  numbers  was,  that  Mr.  Freneau  was 
brought  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  and  quartered  upon  the 
government,  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a 


446  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

gazette  hostile  to  the  government.  (Denied  by  Freneau  on  oath.) 
AYlien  that  topic  was  exhausted,  Colonel  Hamilton  endeavored  to 
show,  by  fragments  of  Jefferson's  letters  to  Madison  from  France, 
that  his  colleague  had  been  an  original  opponent  of  the  Constitution. 
(Disproved  by  Madison's  publishing  the  whole,  of  the  quoted  pas- 
^.)  Hamilton  proceeded  to  descant  upon  Mr.  Jefferson's  indorse 
ment  of  Paine's  reply  to  Burke:  accusing  him,  first,  of  an  intention 
to  wound  and  injure  .Mr.  Adams ;  and,  secondly,  of  a  dastardly 
denial  of  the  same,  when  he  found  that  "discerning  and  respectable 
men  disapproved  the  step."  After  relieving  his  mind  of  many  a 
column  of  fluent  and  vigorous  outrage,  he  called  upon  Mr.  Jefferson 
to  resign  his  office. 

"If,"  said  Metellus,  "he  cannot  coalesce  with  those  with  whom 
he  is  associated,  as  far  as  the  rules  of  official  decorum,  propriety, 
and  obligation  may  require,  without  abandoning  what  he  conceives 
to  be  the  true  interest  of  the  community,  let  him  place  himself  in  a 
situation  in  which  he  will  experience  no  collision  of  opposite  duties. 
Let  him  not  cling  to  the  honor  or  emolument  of  an  office,  whicbeTCV 
it  may  bo  that  attracts  him,  and  content  himself  with  defending  the 
injured  rights  of  the  people  by  obscure  or  indirect  means.  Let  him 
renounce  a  situation  which  is  a  clog  upon  his  patriotism." 

The  effect  upon  the  public  mind  of  this  ill-timed  breacb  of  offi 
cial  decorum  was  such  as  we  should  naturally  suppose  it  would  be. 
The  thin  disguise  of  the  various  signatures  adopted  by  the  secretaiy 
of  the  treasury  deceived  only  readers  distant  from  the  capital,  and 
them  not  long;  for  Hamilton,  besides  betraying  himself  by  the 
power  of  his  stroke,  seems,  in  some  passages,  to  have  courted  dis 
covery, —  pushing  aside  the  gauzy  folds  of  the  curtain,  and  all  but 
crying  out,  fii'lohl,  it  is  /,  the  administration!  "Society" 
applauded.  The  drawing-room  eyed  Jefferson  askance.  It  could 
not  quite  cut  a  secretary  of  state,  but  its  bow  was  as  distant  as  its 
habitual  deference  to  place  and  power  would  permit ;  and  to  this 
day,  if  indeed  we  can  be  said  to  have  a  drawing-room  now,  it  has 
loved  to  repeat  the  traditional  disparagement.  But  the  articles  had 
not  the  political  effect  which  their  ingenious  author  intended  ;  for, 
while  they  emphasi/cd  Jefferson's  position  as  the  Republican  chief, 
they  really  —  so  Federalists  themselves  report  —  lowered  Hamilton 
in  the  view  of  the  country.  He  lost  that  prestige  of  reserve  and 
mystery  that  gathers  round  a  name  associated  in  the  public  mind 


THE   QUAEEEL  OF  JEFFEESON  AND   HAMILTON.        447 

only  with  affairs  of  national  magnitude,  and  subjects  of  general 
importance.  The  people  were  not  pleased  to  discover,  in  an  adviser 
of  the  president,  a  partisan,  positive,  vehement,  ingenious,  and 
unjust,  a  coarse  assailant  of  a  name  hallowed  by  its  association  with 
the  birthday  of  the  nation.  Hamilton  lost  something  which  is  of 
no  value  to  an  anonymous  writer  in  a  presidential  "  campaign,"  but 
is  of  immense  value  to  a  public  man,  —  WEIGHT.  And,  with  all 
this,  be  did  not  retard  the  development  of  the  new-born  opposition. 
George  Clinton  received  fifty  electoral  votes  for  the  vice-presidency, 
Jefferson  four,  and  Burr  one,  to  seventy-seven  for  Mr.  Adams. 

There  was  one  man  in  the  country  who  was  great  enough  to  do 
justice  to  both  these  men,  and  to  feel  only  sorrow  for  their  dissen 
sions.  How  the  president  tried  to  reconcile  them  is  a  pleasing  and 
noble  passage  of  his  history.  He  wrote  a  kind,  manty  letter  to  each 
of  them,  employing  similar  arguments  and  several  identical  phrases 
in  both  letters ;  reminding  them  of  the  difficulties  and- dangers  of 
the  country's  position,  encompassed  as  it  was  by  avowed  enemies 
and  insidious  friends,  and  urging  them  to  a  more  charitable  inter 
pretation  of  one  another. 

Both  secretaries  replied,  as  it  chanced,  on  the  same  day,  Septem 
ber  9,  1792.  Hamilton  owned  that  he  had  attacked  his  colleague 
in  the  newspapers,  and  intimated,  that,  for  the  present,  he  could  not 
discontinue  his  assaults.  He  justified  his  conduct  thus:  "  I  know 
that  I  have  been  an  object  of  uniform  opposition  from  Mr.  Jefferson, 
from  the  moment  of  his  coming  to  the  city  of  New  York  to  enter 
upon  his  present  office.  I  know,  from  the  most  authentic  sources, 
that  I  have  been  the  frequent  subject  of  the  most  unkind  whispers 
and  insinuations  from  the  same  quarter.  I  have  long  seen  a  formed 
party  in  the  legislature  under  his  auspices,  bent  upon  my  subver 
sion.  I  cannot  doubt,  from  the  evidence  I  possess,  that  the  National 
Gazette  was  instituted  by  him  for  political  purposes ;  and  that  one 
leading  object  of  it  has  been  to  render  me,  and  all  the  measures 
connected  with  my  department,  as  odious  as  possible."  These,  how 
ever,  were  personal  wrongs,  which  he  had  resolved  to  bear  in  silence. 
But  when  he  saw  that  a  party  had  been  formed  "  deliberately  bent 
upon  the  subversion  of  measures,  which,  in  its  consequences,  would 
subvert  the  government,"  then  he  had  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to 
defeat  the  nefarious  purpose  by  "drawing  aside  the  veil  from  the 
principal  actors." 


448  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Jefferson's  reply  was  long,  vehement,  and  powerful.  So  far  as  it 
was  exculpatory  of  himself,  it  was  perfectly  successful;  but,  at  such 
a  moment,  he  must  have  been  either  more  or  less  than  man  to  have 
been  just  to  his  antagonist.  Nor  is  there  any  one  now  alive  compe 
tent  to  say  precisely  how  far  he  was  unjust  to  him.  AVho  can  tell 
us  to  what  point  "treasury  influence"  may  have  influenced  legisla 
tion,  and  how  far  Colonel  Hamilton  may  have  deemed  it  right  and 
legitimate  to  enlist  the  interests  of  men  on  the  side  of  what  he 
railed  "government"?  One  thing  we  do  know:  the  rule  which 
Jefferson  prescribed  for  his  own  conduct  as  a  member  of  the  cabinet 
is  the  true  republican  rule.  "If,"  said  he,  "it  has  been  supposed 
that  I  have  ever  intrigued  among  the  members  of  the  legUhuure  to 
defeat  the  plans  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  it  is  contrary  to 
all  truth.  As  I  never  had  the  desire  to  influence  the  members,  so 
neither  had  I  any  other  means  than  my  friendships,  which  I  valued 
too  highly  to  risk  by  usurpations  on  their  freedom  of  judgment  and 
the  conscientious  pursuit  of  their  own  sense  of  duty." 

This  was  the  right  view  to  take  of  the  limits  prescribed  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution  to  his  place.  But,  though  we  know  Ham 
ilton  gloried  in  holding  an  opposite  opinion,  we  do  net  know  how 
far  he  carried  his  ideas  in  practice.  That  he  interfered  habitually 
in  legislation,  and  was  proud  of  his  success  in  so  doing,  his  letters 
plainly  reveal.  Jefferson  charges  him  with  using  his  power  as  min 
ister  of  finance  to  control  votes.  "That  I  have  utterly,"  writes  the 
secretary  of  state,  "  in  my  private  conversations,  disapproved  of  the 
sy>tem  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  I  acknowledge  and  avow; 
and  this  was  not  merely  a  speculative  difference.  His  system 
flowed  from  principles  adverse  to  liberty,  and  was  calculated  to 
undermine  and  demolish  the  republic,  by  creating  an  influence  of 
his  department  over  the  members  of  the  legislature.  I  saw  this 
influence  actually  produced,  and  its  first  fruits  to  be  the  establish 
ment  of  the  great  outlines  of  his  project  by  the  votes  of  the  very 
persons,  who,  having  BWallowed  his  bait,  were  laying  themselves  out 
to  profit  by  his  plans;  and  that  had  these  persons  withdrawn,  as 
those  interested  in  a  question  ever  should,  the  vote  of  the  disinter 
ested  majority  was  clearly  the  reverse  of  what  they  made  it."  Ho 
accused  his  colleague,  too,  of  defeating  the  system  of  favoring 
French  commerce  and  retaliating  British  restrictions,  by  cabals  with 
members  of  Congress. 


THE   QUARREL  OF  JEFFERSON  AND   HAMILTON.        449 

Another  retort  of  Jefferson's  gives  pause  to  the  modern  inquirer. 
Who  can  say  with  any  thing  like  certainty,  whether,  in  the  passage 
following,  Mr.  Jefferson  uttered  truth  pure  and  simple,  or  truth 
colored,  distorted^  and  exaggerated  by  antipathy? 

"  I  have  never  inquired,"  said  he,  "  what  number  of  sons,  relations, 
and  friends  of  senators,  representatives,  printers,  or  other  useful 
partisans,  Colonel  Hamilton  has  provided  for  among  the  hundred 
clerks  of  his  department,  the  thousand  excisemen,  custom-house  offi 
cers,  loan-officers,  appointed  by  him,  or  at  his  nod,  and  spread  over 
the  Union ;  nor  could  ever  have  imagined,  that  the  man  who  has 
the  shuffling  of  millions  backwards  and  forwards  from  paper  into 
money,  and  money  into  paper,  from  Europe  to  America,  and  Amer 
ica  to  Europe,  the  dealing  out  of  treasury  secrets  among  his  friends 
in  what  time  and  measure  he  pleases,  and  who  never  slips  an  occa 
sion  of  making  friends  with  his  means,  —  that  such  a  one,  I  say, 
would  have  brought  forward  a  charge  against  me  for  having 
appointed  the  poet  Freneau,  translating  clerk  to  my  office,  with  a 
salary  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year." 

A  passage  followed,  in  relation  to  this  appointment,  which  had  a 
wonderful  currency  years  ago,  and  is  still  occasionally  revived.  He 
declared,  that,  in  appointing  Freneau,  he  had  been  actuated  by  the 
motive  which  had  induced  him  to  recommend  to  the  president  for 
public  employment  such  characters  as  E-ittenhouse,  Barlow,  and 
Paine.  "  I  hold  it,"  he  added,  "  to  be  one  of  the  distinguishing 
excellences  of  an  elective  over  hereditary  succession,  that  the  talents 
which  Nature  has  provided  in  sufficient  proportion  should  be 
selected  by  the  society  for  the  government  of  their  affairs,  rather 
than  that  this  should  be  transmitted  through  the  loins  of  knaves 
and  fools,  passing  from  the  debauches  of  the  table  to  those  of  the 
bed." 

In  conclusion,  he  said,  that,  as  the  time  of  his  retirement  from 
office  was  so  near  (only  six  months  distant),  he  should  postpone  any 
public  reply  which  he  might  deem  it  best  to  make  to  the  Fenno 
articles  until  he  was  a  private  citizen,  —  a  period  to  which  he  looked 
"  with  the  longing  of  a  wave-worn  mariner,  who  has  at  length  the 
land  in  view,  and  shall  count  the  days  and  hours  which  still  lie 
between  me  and  it."  Then  he  would  be  free  to  defend  himself, 
without  disturbing  the  quiet  of  the  president ;  but,  if  he  did  break 
silence,  he  should  subscribe  his  name  to  whatever  he  wrote.  Con- 


450  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

scious,  he  said,  of  having  merited  the  esteem  of  his  countrymen,  which 
he  dearly  prized,  by  an  integrity  which  could  no£  be  reproached,  and 
by  an  enthusiastic  devotion  to  their  rights  and  to  liberty,  he  "  would 
not  suffer  his  retirement  to  be  clouded  by  the  slanders  of  a  man 
whose  history,  from  the  moment  at  which  history  could  stoop  to 
notice  him,  was  a  tissue  of  machinations  against  the  liberty  of  the 
country  which  had  not  only  received  and  given  him  bread,  but 
heaped  its  honors  upon  his  head."  But  during  the  short  time  he 
had  to  remain  in  office,  he  should  find  "  ample  employment  in  closing 
the  present  business  of  the  department. 

This  letter  was  written  at  Monticello.  On  his  way  to  Philadel 
phia  he  stopped,  as  usual,  a^  Mount  Vernon,  when  the  president 
renewed  the  subject  in  conversation!  and  urgpd  him  to  reconsider 
his  intention  to  resign;  for  he  "'thought  it  important  to  preserve 
the  check  of  his  opinions  in  the  administration  to  keep  things  in 
the  proper  channel  and  prevent  them  from  going  too  far."  The 
check  !  The  check  to  what  ?  ^The  president  said  he  did  not  believe 
there  were  ten  men,  worth  consideration,  in  the  country,  who  had  so 
much  as  a  thought  of  transforming  the  republic  into  a  monarchy. 
Mr.  Jefferson  replied  that  there  was  "  a-  numerous  sect  who  had 
monarchy  in  contemplation,  of  whom  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
wa>  one."  The  most  intimate  friend  Hamilton  ever  had  was  Gou- 
verneur  Morris,  who  pronounced  his  funeral  oration.  This  exquisite 
writer  stated  Hamilton's  opinions  at  much '-length  in  1811,  in  a 
letter  to  Robert  Walsh  of' Philadelphia.  jThe  following'are  some  of 
Morris's  expressions:  "General  Hamilton  disliked  the  Constitution, 
believing  all  republican  government  radically  defective.  .  .  .  He 
hated  republican  government.  .  .  .  He  trusted,  that,  in  the  changes 
and  chances  of  time,  \ve  should  be  involved  'in  'some  war,  which 
might  strengthen  our  union  and  nerve  the  executive.  .  .  .  He 
never  failed  on  every  occasion  to  advocate  the  excellence  of,  and 
avo\v  his  attachment  to,  monarchical  government."  The  other 
points  of  difference  were  gone  over,  but  without  lessening  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  passionate  de.-ire  to  retire  from  public  life.  l>ut,  on  reaching 
Philadelphia,  friends  in-Uted  oil  his  remaining  in  office  with  such 
pertinacity,  and  offered  reasons  so  cogent,  that  he  knew  not  how 
either  to  rebut  or  accept  them. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

CAUSES    OF  HIS    DESIRE    TO    RESIGN. 

No  language  can  overstate  his  longing  for  retreat.  Six  months 
before  the  Fenno  assaults  began,  this  had  been  the  burden  of  his 
letters  to  his  family  and  friends.  "  The  ensuing  year,"  he  wrote  to 
his  daughter,  in  March,  1792,  "will  be  the  longest  of  my  life,  and 
the  last  of  such  hateful  labors:  the  next  we  will  sow  our  cabbages 
together."  To  other  friends  he  said  that  the  4th  of  March,  1793, 
was  to  him  what  land  was  to  Columbus.  He  had  sent  to  Scotland 
for  one  of  the  new  threshing-machines,  and  a  plough  of  his  invention 
had  recently  won  a  medal  in  France.  He  had  engaged  mechanics 
in  Europe  to  work  upon  his  house,  and  upon  other  schemes  which  he 
had  formed.  He  was  packing  his  books  in  view  of  the  termination 
of  the  lease  of  his  house  in  Philadelphia,  and  had  arranged  for  one 
of  its  inmates,  "Jack  Eppes,"  to  enter  William  and  Mary  in  the 
spring.  Schemes  upon  schemes  were  forming  in  his  mind  for  extri 
cating  his  great  estate  from  encumbrance,  and  turning  its  latent 
resources  to  better  account  than  could  be  expected  from  overseers. 
But  the  attacks  in  the  newspapers  and  the  hostility  of  powerful 
classes,  though  they  intensified  his  desire  for  repose,  seemed  to 
interpose  a  barrier  which  he  could  not  pass.  He  was  torn  with  con 
tending  emotions.  "I  have  been,"  he  wrote  to  his  daughter  in 
Januar}^,  1793,  "  under  an  agitation  of  mind  which  I  scarcely  ever 
experienced  before,  produced  by  a  check  on  my  purpose  of  returning 
home  at  the  close  of  this  session  of  Congress."  Madison,  Monroe, 
Page,  Randolph,  all  friends  and  all  partisans,  united  in  the  opinion 
that  he  must  not  give  the  Federalists  the  triumph  of  being  able  to 
say,  with  an  appearance  of  truth,  that  Hamilton  had  driven  him 
from  office.  He  consented,  at  length,  to  remain  a  short  time  longer. 
He  sent  most  of  his  library  home,  sold  the  bulkier  articles  of  his  fur- 


452  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

niture,  gave  up  Ins  house,  took  three  rooms  in  the  suburbs,  and 
"  held  himself  in  readiness  to  take  his  departure  for  Monticello  the 
first  moment  he  could  do  it  with  due  respect  to  himself."  Thus  he 
wrote  to  the  father  of  "  Jack  Eppes,"  in  April,  1793. 

But  why  this  agonizing  desire  for  retirement  ?  Thereby  hangs  a 
tale.  If  we  give  ten  reasons  for  a  certain  course  of  conduct,  there  is 
often  an  eleventh  which  we  do  not  give ;  and  that  unspoken  one  is 
apt  to  be  the  reason.  He  could  no  longer  afford  to  serve  the  public 
on  the  terms  fixed  by  Congress.  It  was  not  merely  that  his  salary 
did  not  pay  the  cost  of  his  Philadelphia  establishment,  nor  that  his 
estate  \vas  ill-managed  by  overseers.  An  ancient  debt  hung,  as  he 
says,  "like  a  millstone  round  his  neck,"  —  a  debt  which  he  had 
twice  paid,  although  not  incurred  by  him.  Upon  the  death  of  his 
wife's  father,  twenty  years  before,  he  had  received  property  from  his 
estate  worth  forty  thousand  dollars,  but  subject  to  a  British  debt  of 
thirteen  thousand.  Impatient  of  debt,  he  sold  a  fine  farm  near  Mou- 
ticello  for  a  sum  sufficient  to  discharge  it;  but,  by  the  time  he 
received  the  money,  the  war  of  the  Kevolution  had  begun.  Vir 
ginia  invited  all  men  owing  money  to  Great  Britain  to  deposit  the 
same  in  her  treasury,  the  State  agreeing  to  pay  it  over  to  the  Brit 
ish  creditor  after  the  war.  The  identical  coin  which  Jefferson 
received  for  his  farm  he  himself  carried  to  the  treasury  in  Williams- 
burg,  where  it  was  immediately  expended  in  equipping  troops. 

The  legislature  of  Virginia,  however,  thought  better  of  this 
policy,  rescinded  the  resolution,  and  returned  the  sums  received 
under  it.  But  Jefferson  was  obliged  to  take  back  his  thirteen  thou 
sand  dollars  in  deprecifited  paper,  which  continued  to  depreciate 
until  it  was  worthless.  In  fact,  the  thirteen  thousand  dollars  just 
sufficed  to  buy  him  one  garment;  and  in  riding  by  that  farm,  in 
after  }rears,  he  would  sometimes  point  to  it,  and  say  laughing, 
"  That  farm  I  once  sold  for  an  overcoat."  At  the  end  of  the  war, 
during  which  Cornwallis  destroyed  more  than  enough  of  his  prop 
erty  to  pay  this  debt,  he  had,  as  he  remarked,  "to  lay  his  shoulders 
to  the  payment  of  it  a  third  time,"  in  addition  to  a  considerable 
debt  of  his  own,  incurred  just  before  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 
"What  the  laws  of  Virginia,"  he  wrote  to  his  creditor  in  Knghvnd, 
"are,  or  may  be,  will  in  no  wise  influence  my  conduct.  Substan 
tial  justice  is  my  object,  as  decided  by  reason,  not  by  authority  or 
cornuuLdoii."  Ever  since  the  war  closed,  he  had  been  struggling  to 


IS 

CAUSES  OF  IKS  DESIRE  TO  RESIGN.  453 

reduce  these  debts,  and  finally  made  an  arrangement  for  paying 
them  off  at  the  rate  of  four  hundred  pounds  sterling  a  year.  How 
easy  this  ought  to  have  been  to  a  person  owning  ten  thousand  acres 
of  excellent  land,  "one  hundred  and  fifty-four  slaves,  thirty-four 
horses,  five  mules,  two  hundred  and  forty-nine  cattle,  three  hundred 
and  ninety  hogs,  and  three  sheep  !  "  But  only  two  thousand  acres  of 
his  land  were  cultivated  ;  nine  of  his  horses  were  used  for  the  saddle ; 
and  the  labor  of  his  slaves  had  been  for  ten  years  directed  by  over 
seers.  In  1793  the  greater  part,  of  the  debt  remained  to  be  dis 
charged  ;  and  he  saw,  whenever  he  visited  Monticello,  such  evidences 
of  "  the  ravages  of  overseers  "  as  filled  him  with  alarm.  He  had 
now  .a  son-in-law  to  settle,  a  second  daughter  to  establish,  a  moun 
tainous  debt  to  pay,  a  high  office  to  live  up  to,  and  an  estate  going 
to  ruin.  Behold  his  eleventh,  unuttered  reason  for  the  frenzy  which 
possessed  him  to  live  at  home. 

He  might  well  desire  to  see  the  reign  of  overseers  brought  to  an 
end  on  his  estate.  Readers  remember,  perhaps,  General  Washing 
ton's  experience  with  them.  How,  when  he  owned  one  hundred  and 
one  cows,  he  was  compelled  to  buy  butter  for  his  own  table ;  and 
how,  after  building  one  of  the  best  barns  in  the  country,  where 
thirty  men  could  conveniently  wield  the  flail,  he  could  not  prevent 
his  manager  from  treading  out  the  grain  with  horses,  —  so  impossible 
was  it,  he  says,  "  to  put  the  overseers  of  this  country  out  of  the 
track  they  have  been  accustomed  to  walk  in."  He  reached  home  for 
his  annual  vacation  in  1793,  about  the  middle  of  September,  and 
caught  this  truly  conservative  gentleman  in  the  act.  "I  found  a 
treading-yard,"  wrote  the  president,  "  not  thirty  feet  from  the  barn 
door,  the  wheat  again  brought  out  of  the  barn,  and  horses  treading 
it  out  in  an  open  exposure,  liable  to  the  vicissitudes  of  weather." 
With  such  men  to  manage,  the  general  thought  the  new  threshing- 
machine  would  have  a  brief  existence.  What  need  there  was,  then, 
of  the  master's  eye  upon  an  encumbered  estate  ! 

Jefferson  settled  to  his  work  again  in  Philadelphia,  and  watched 
for  a  good  opportunity  to  resign.  Through  the  good  offices  of  the 
president,  a  truce  was  arranged  between  the  two  hostile  secretaries, 
who  tried  their  best  to  co-operate  in  peace,  not  without  success. 
Hamilton,  in  particular,  was  scrupulously  careful  to  avoid  the  error 
of  interfering,  or  seeming  to  interfere,  in  his  colleague's  department. 
At  heart  each  felt  the  sincerity  and  patriotic  intentions  of  the 


454  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

other,  and  Jefferson  had  even  an  exaggerated  idea  of  Hamilton's 
ability.  The  elections,  too,  of  1792,  had  strengthened  the  Republi 
cans  in  Congress,  who  gained  a  decisive  triumph  in  the  first  month 
of  the  session,  by. defeating  (thirty-five  to  eleven)  a  proposition  to 
allow  members  of  the  cabinet  to  attend  the  house  of  Represen 
tatives,  and  explain  "their  measures"  to  the  House.  This  made  it 
easier  for  Jefferson  to  continue.  And,  besides,  the  French  Revolu 
tion,  of  late,  had  turned  in  arms  upon  the  kings  banded  against  it, 
and  seemed  to  be  able,  contrary  to  all  expectation,  to  hold  its  own. 
As  yet  nearly  all  America  was  in  enthusiastic  sympathy  with 
Prance.  When  the  news  arrived  of  a  movement  favorable  to  the 
French,  the  "  monocrats,"  as  Jefferson  styled  the  O^Aercrats,  made 
wry  faces  ;  but  the  Republicans  set  the  bells  ringing,  illuminated 
their  houses,  and  wore  a  tri-colored  cockade  in  their  hats. 

The  time  was  at  hand  when  the  youngest  of  the  nations  would 
need  in  its  government  the  best  talent  it  could  command,  and, 
above  all,  in  the  department  which  directed  its  intercourse  with  for 
eign  nations.  The  French  king  had  been  dethroned,  and  was  about 
to  be  brought  to  trial,  all  the  world  looking  on  with  an  interest  diffi 
cult  now  to  conceive.  It  stirred  Jefferson's  indignation  sometimes, 
to  observe  that  mankind  were  mere  attentive  to  the  sufferings  of  the 
king  and  queen  than  to  the  welfare  of  the  people  of  France.  "  Such 
are  the  fruits,"  he  once  wrote,  "of  that  form  of  government  which 
heaps  importance  upon  idiots,  and  which  the  Tories  of  the  present 
day  arc  trying  to  preach  into  our  favor."  It  pleased  many  of  the 
Republicans,  however,  to  learn  that  Thomas  Paine,  one  of  themselves, 
was  exerting  himself  ably  to  save  the  king's  life.  Paine  said  in 
the  Convention,  that  "Louis  Capet,"  if  he  had  been  slightly 
favored  by  fortune,  —  if  he  had  been  born  in  a  private  station  in 
'•an  amialile  ami  respectable  neighborhood," —  would  have  been,  in 
all  probability,  a  virtuous  citizen  ;  but  cursed  from  the  dawn  of  his 
reason  with  ceaseless  adulation,  and  reared  in  "  brutal  luxury,"  he 
was  a  victim  of  monarchy,  as  well  as  the  agent  of  its  ill-working. 
England,  he  reminded  the  Convention,  had  cut  off  the  head  of  a 
very  bad  Charles  Stuart,  only  to  ho  plagued,  a  fi-w  year-  alter,  with  a 
worse;  but  when,  i'urty  years  later,  England  had  banished  the 
Stuarts,  there  was  an  end  to  their  doing  harm  in  the  world. 

"What  a  happy  stroke  was  this  in  a  Krene.li  Assembly!  He  followed 
it  up  by  offering  to  accompany  the  fallen  king  to  the  only  ally 


CAUSES   OF   HIS   DESIRE   TO  BESIGN.  455 

• 

France  then  had,  the  United  States,  where  the  people  regarded  him 
as  their  friend.  "His  execution,  I  assure  you,"  said  this  master  of 
effective  composition,  "  will  diffuse  among  them  a  general  grief.  I 
propose  to  you  to  conduct  Louis  to  the  United  States.  After  a  resi 
dence  of  two  years,  Mr.  Capet  will  find  himself  a  citizen  of  America. 
Miserable  in  this  country,  to  which  his  absence  will  be  a  benefit,  he 
will  be  furnished  the  means  .of  becoming  happy  in  another." 

There  was  a  passage  in  this  speech  to  which  the  bloody  scenes 
about  to  occur  in  Paris  give  a  singular  significance.  Part  of  the 
long  period  of  re-action  towards  barbaric  (i.e.  ancient)  ideas  and 
institutions,  which  began  with  the  French  guillotine,  and  from 
which  we  are  only  now  emerging,  might  have  been  spared  mankind 
if  Thomas  Paine  could  have  spoken  French  as  well  as  he  wrote 
English,  and  brought  this  warning  home  to  the  Convention  with  the 
oratorical  power  of  a  Mirabeau.  "Monarchical  governments,"  he 
said,  "have  trained  the  human  race,  and  inured  it  to  the  sangui 
nary  arts  and  refinements  of  punishment ;  and  it  is  exactly  the 
same  punishment  which  has  so  long  shocked  the  sight  and  tormented 
the  patience  of  the  people,  that  now,  in  their  turn,  they  practise  in 
revenge  upon  their  oppressors.  But  it  becomes  us  to  be  strictly  on 
our  guard  against  the  abomination  and  perversity  of  monarchical 
examples.  As  France  has  been  the  first  to  abolish  royalty,  let  her 
also  be  the  first  to  abolish  the  punishment  of  death."  In  these 
words  spoke  the  humane  spirit  in  which  the  French  Revolution 
originated. 

The  execution  of  the  king,  January  21,  1793,  saddened  every  well- 
constituted  mind  in  Europe  and  America.  It  lessened  the  sympathy 
of  a  vast  number  of  persons  with  the  revolution ;  and  all  but  the 
most  extreme  republicans  felt  in  some  degree  the  infinite  impolicy 
of  the  act.  From  that  time  the  good-will  of  mankind  for  unhappy 
France  would  have  more  sensibly  diminished,  but  that  the  world  in 
arms  seemed  gathering  for  her  destruction. 

It  was  a  mad  time.  The  manager  of  a  Philadelphia  theatre 
thought  it  opportune  to  revive  the  tragedy  of  Cato.  Before  the  play 
.began,  the  company  of  actors  sang  upon  the  stage  La  Marseillaise, 
when  the  whole  theatre  rose, 'and  joined  in  the  chorus.  At  the  end 
of  each  act  this  performance  was  repeated.  Every  evening  after 
wards,  as  soon  as  the  musicians  entered  the  orchestra,  a  cry  arose 
for  La  Marseillaise,  and  no  other  music  would  be  listened  to. 


456  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFEKSON. 

Usually  some  portion  of  the  audience  caught  the  fury  of  the  piece, 
ami  thundered  out  the  familiar  refrain.  But  as  the  guillotine  con 
tinued  its  ravages,  the  enthusiasm  decreased;  and,  instead  of  the 
universal  and  deafening  demand  for  the  French  hymn,  there  would 
be,  at  length,  only  a  score  or  two  of  voices  from  the  gallery,  all  the 
rest  of  the  house  sitting  in  grim  silence.  Finally,  on  a  night  long 
remembered  in  the  theatre,  one  defiant  soul  ventured  to  give  the 
usual  sign  of  disapproval.  Instantly  the  whole  house  burst  into  one 
overwhelming  hiss ;  and  never  was  the  terrible  piece  played  again. 
Soon  the  new  song  of  Hail  Columbia  took  its  place  in  popular  regard, 
and  was,  for  some  years,  played  at  every  theatre  just  before  the  ris 
ing  of  the  curtain. 

The  change  of  government  in  France  produced  political  complica 
tions  with  which  the  cabinet  of  General  Washington  had  to  deal  at 
once  and  practically.  Questions  of  law  and  of  finance,  as  well  as  of 
opinion  and  sentiment,  had  to  be,  not  only  discussed,  but  rightly 
decided  under  penalty  of  being  drawn  into  the  maelstrom  of  the  war. 
Our  two  "cocks,"  exasperated  by  previous  encounters,  were  now 
pitted  against  each  other  every  day  ;  but  they  were  under  bonds  to 
keep  the  peace,  and  each  was  farther  restrained  by  the  perils  of  the 
situation.  Hamilton,  by  himself,  might  have  involved  the  country 
in  an  entangling  alliance  with  the  powers  hostile  to  the  revolution. 
Jefferson  alone  might  have  found  it  difficult  to  avoid  a  too  helpful 
sympathy  with  beleaguered,  bewildered  France.  The  result  of  their 
antagonism  was  an  honorable  neutrality,  useful  to  France,  not 
injurious  to  the  allies,  and  exceedingly  profitable  to  the  United 
States. 

How  irreconcilable  they  were  in  their  feelings  respecting  the  great 
events  of  1793  !  "  Sir,"  said  Hamilton,  in  August,  to  Edmund  Kan- 
dolph,  "  if  all  the  people  in  America  were  now  assembled,  and  were 
to  call  on  me  to  say  whether  I  am  a  friend  to  the  French  Revolution, 
I  would  declare  that  I  have  it  in  abhorrence."  Jefferson,  on  the 
contrary,  wrote  thus  to  his  old  friend  Short,  just  before  the  execution 
of  the  king  :  "  Mjrown  affections  have  been  deeply  wounded  by  some 
of  the  martyrs  to  this  cause  ;  but  rather  than  it  should  have  failed,  I 
would  have  see:i  half  the  earth  desolated  !  Were  there  but  an  Adam 
and  an  Eve  left  in  every  country,  and  left  free,  it  would  be  better 
than  as  it  now  is." 

Gouverneur  Morris  was  then  American  minister  in  France,  —  a 


CAUSES   OF  HIS   DESIRE  TO  RESIGN.  457 

very  able  gentleman  and  honorably  frank  in  the  avowal  of  his  opin 
ions.  Mark  this  striking  sentence,  written  by  him  as  far  back  as 
1790 :  "  The  French  Assembly  have  taken  genius  instead  of  reason 
for  their  guide,  adopted  experiment  instead  of  experience,  and  wan 
der  in  the  dark  because  they  prefer  lightning  to  light."  He  meant 
Mirabeau.  But  a  few  weeks  after,  writing  to  General  Washington, 
he  gave  such  a  list  of  the  ancient  abuses  which  the  revolution  had 
abolished  as  amount  to  a  compensation  to  France  for  all  the  revolu 
tionary  miseries  she  has  suffered  from  Mirabeau  to  Thiers.  As  the. 
revolution  advanced,  though  Jefferson,  in  official  instructions,  had 
cautioned  him  to  avoid  the  utterance  of  opinions  hostile  to  the  revo 
lution,  he  gave  such  offence  to  the  revolutionary  leaders  that  Lafay 
ette  complained  of  it  to  the  president.  But,  in  1792,  he  redeemed 
himself  nobly.  Upon  the  dethronement  of  the  king,  when  all  the 
diplomatic  corps  left  Paris,  the  American  minister  alone,  rightly 
interpreting  his  mission,  remained.  "  The  position,"  as  he  truly 
wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  "is  not  without  danger;  but  I  presume,  that, 
when  the  president  did  me  the  honor  of  naming  me  to  this  embassy, 
it  was  not  for  my  personal  pleasure  or  safety,  but  to  promote  the  inter 
ests  of  my  country."  And  he  remained  at  his  post  all  through  the 
period  of  the  terror,  though  the  ministry  gave  him  pretext  enough 
for  abandoning  it,  and  though  even  the  sanctuary  of  his  abode  was 
violated  by  a  committee  in  search  of  arms.  The  fury  of  the  people, 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  was  such  as  to  render  them  capable  of  all 
excesses  without  being  accountable  for  them.  The  calm  courage 
and  utter  frankness  of  this  splendid  old  Tory  conciliate  the  modern 
reader.  The  French  ministry,  however,  abhorred  him  to  such  a 
point,  that  they  made  it  a  matter  of  formal  complaint  to  Mr.  Jeffer 
son,  that  this  representative  of  a  republic,  in  a  despatch  addressed  to 
the  government  of  a  republic  (a  few  days  old),  had  used  the  familiar 
expression,  "  Les  ordres  de  MA  coun." 

But  the  cabinet  question  was  this :  The  king  being  dethroned, 
who  was  authorized  to  give  a  valid  receipt  for  the  money  which  the 
United  States  was  paying  to  France  from  time  to  time  ?  Upon  this 
point,  the  orders  of  Gouverneur  Morris's  court  were  necessary ;  and 
the  real  secret  of  the  animosity  of  the  French  ministers  was,  that  he 
would  not  and  could  not  pay  over  to  them  the  sums  due  nominally  to 
the  king.  The  ministers  remonstrated  in  their  own  way,  and  sent 
complaints  across  the  sea.  Morris,  at  his  own  table,  and  in  the 


458  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

hearing  of  his  servants,  indulged  himself  in  calling  them  a  set  of 
damned  rascals,  and  in  predicting  (he  was  curiously  fond  of  prophe 
sying)  that  the  king  would  have  his  own  again.  Upon  the  pecu 
niary  question,  the  opinions  of  the  cabinet  were  divided. 

Jefferson's  opinion  :  Every  people  may  establish  what  form  of 
government  they  please,  and  change  it  as  often  as  they  please.  But 
the  National  Assembly  of  France,  to  which  all  power  had  fallen  by 
necessity  upon  the  removal  of  the  king,  had  not  been  elected  by  the 
people  of  France  as  an  executive  body.  For  the  moment,  therefore, 
the  French  government  was,  at  best,  incomplete.  But  a  national 
convention  had  been  elected  in  full  view  of  the  crisis,  and  for  the 
express  purpose  of  meeting  its  requirements.  That  convention 
would  be,  when  organized,  a  legitimate  government,  qualified  to  give 
a  valid  receipt  to  the  United  States. 

Hamilton's  opinion:  He  doubted  whether  the  convention  would 
be  a  legitimate  body.  In  case  the  monarchy  should  be  re-estab 
lished,  the  king  might  disallow  payments  made  to  it.  He  was  for 
stopping  payment  altogether  until  there  was  something  more  stable 
and  regular  established  in  France. 

On  this  occasion  General  Ivnox,  secretary  of  war,  ventured  to 
express  an  opinion.  "For  once/'  says  Jefferson,  "Knox  dared  to 
diller  from  Hamilton,  and  to  express  very  submissively  an  opinion 
that  a  convention  named  by  the  whole  body  of  the  nation  would  be 
competent  to  do  any  thing."  The  result  was,  that  the  secretary  of 
state  was  requested  to  write  to  Gouverneur  Morris,  directing  him  to 
suspend  payments  until  further  orders.  A  few  days  after  arrived  the 
despatches  in  which  the  French  ministry  complained  of  the  too  can 
did  Morris  and  of  his  insolent  contempt  of  a  sister  republic  in  speak 
ing  of  "  ma  cour"  Upon  this  delicate  subject  the  president 
conversed  with  the  secretary  of  state  in  a  manner  which  exhibits 
the  situation. 


Tin:  riiKsiDKXT.  The  extracts  from  Ternant  (French  plenipo 
tentiary  in  Philadelphia)  I  consider  very  serious,  in  short,  a>  decisive. 
I  see  that  Gouverneur  Morris  can  be  no  longer  continued  there  con 
sistently  with  the  public  good.  The  moment  is  critical  in  our  favor 
(that  is  for  p-ttin^  free-truth'  with  the  French  West  Indies  and  freer 
trude  with  France),  and  ought  not  to  be  lost.  -Yet  I  am  extremely 
at  a  loss  what  arrangement  to  make. 


CAUSES  OF   HIS   DESIRE  TO  RESIGN.  459 

JEFFERSON.  Might  not  Gouverneur  Morris  and  Pinckney 
American  minister  in  England)  change  places  ? 

THE  PRESIDENT.  That  would  be  a  sort  of  remedy,  but  not  a 
adical  one.  If  the  French  ministry  conceive  Gouverneur  Morris  to 
>e  hostile  to  them,  if  they  were  jealous  merely  on  his  proposing  to 
isit  London,  they  will  never  be  satisfied  with  us  at  placing  him  in 
jondon  permanently.  You  have  unfixed  the  day  on  which  you 
ntended  to  resign  ;  yet  you  appear  fixed  in  doing  it  at  no  great  dis- 
ance  of  time.  In  that  case,  I  cannot  but  wish  that  you  would  go 
o  Paris.  The  moment  is  important.  You  possess  the  confidence 
f  both  sides,  and  might  do  great  good.  I  wish  you  could  do  it, 
rere  it  only  to  stay  there  a  year  or  two. 

JEFFERSON.  My  mind  is  so  bent  on  retirement,  that  I  cannot 
link  of  launching  forth  again  on  a  new  business.  I  can  never 
gain  cross  the  Atlantic.  As  to  the  opportunity  of  doing  good,  this 
s  likely  to  be  the  scene  of  action,  as  Genet  is  bringing  powers  to  do 

e  business  here.     I  cannot  think  of  going  abroad. 

THE  PRESIDENT.  You  have  pressed  me  to  continue  in  the  public 
ervice,  and  refuse  to  do  the  same  yourself. 

JEFFERSON.  The  case  is  different.  You  unite  the  confidence  of 
11  America,  and  you  are  the  only  person  who  does  so.  Your  ser- 
ices,  therefore,  are  of  the  last  importance.  But,  for  myself,  my 
oing  out  would  not  be  noted  or  known.  A  thousand  others  can 
upply  my  place  to  equal  advantage ;  and,  therefore,  I  feel  myself 
ree. 

THE  PRESIDENT.  Consider  maturely,  then;  what  arrangement 
hall  be  made. 

Here  the  conversation  ended.  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  remind  the 
president  of  the  vast  difference  in  their  pecuniary  condition.  He 
did  not  remark  that  General  Washington  was  so  rich  a  man,  that 
not  even  the  ravages  of  Virginia  overseers  could  quite  ruin  him,  but 
that  Thomas  Jefferson  could  only  continue  to  serve  the  public  at  the 
imminent  risk  of  financial  destruction. 

Meanwhile  Genet  was  coming,  —  the  first  minister  sent  by  the 
Republic  of  France  to  the  Republic  of  the  United  States.  The 
Republicans  of  the  United  States  awaited  his  arrival  with  inexpressi 
ble  ardor,  and  were  prepared  to  give  him  one  of  those  "  receptions  " 
for  which  the  country  has  since  become  noted,  — receptions  which  are 


460  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

1 

so  amusing  and  agreeable  to  all  but  the  victim.  Colonel  Hamilton 
was  by  no  means  elevated  at  the  prospect  of  his  coming.  At  a 
cabinet  meeting  a  short  time  before  the  landing  of  the  expected 
minister,  he  had  dropped  this  remark:  "When  Mr.  Genet  arrives, 
whether  we  shall  receive  him  or  not  will  then  be  a  question  for 
discussion." 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

GENET    COMING. 

IT  seemed  an  odd  freak  of  destiny  that  sent  Edmond  Genet,  a 
woteye  of  Marie  Antoinette,  to  represent  the  Republic  of  France 
n  the  United  States.  Gouverneur  Morris,  in  his  neat,  uncom- 
>romising  manner,  sums  up  this  young  diplomatist,  aged  twenty- 
ight  in  1793,  as  "a  man  of  good  parts  and  very  good  education, 
Brother  to  the  queen's  first  woman,  from  whence  his  fortune  origi- 
lates."  Even  so.  He  was  a  brother  of  that  worthy  and  capable 
Madame  Campan,  first  femme  de  chambre  to  Marie  Antoinette,  and, 
tfter  the  queen's  death,  renowned  through  Europe  as  the  head  of  a 
eminary  for  young  ladies  in  Paris.  It  was  she  who  wrote  a  hun- 
.red  circulars  with  her  own  hand  because  she  had  not  money  to  get 
hem  printed,1  and  received  sixty  pupils  the  first  year,  —  Hortense, 
re  long,  from  Napoleon's  own  hand. 

The  father  of  this  respectable,  energetic  family  was,  nearly  all  his 
life,  under,  the  influence  of  English  and  American  ideas  and  persons. 
He  lived  in  England  many  years,  where  he  acquired  familiar  com 
mand  of  the  English  language,  and  a  fond,  wide  acquaintance  with 
English  literature.  Upon  returning  to  his  native  land  he  seems  — 
if  we  may  judge  from  the  long  catalogue  of  his  publications  —  to 
have  adopted  it  as  a  profession  to  make  England  known  to  France. 
Beginning  with  two  volumes  of  Pope's  best  letters  in  1753,  he  con 
tinued  to  publish  translations  from  the  English,  and  original  works 
relating  to  England,  until,  in  1765,  the  list  embraced  twenty-two 
volumes.  A  few  years  later,  when  he  held  the  post  of  chief  clerk 
to  the  department  of  foreign  affairs,  he  was  in  frequent  intercourse 
with  Dr.  Franklin,  Silas  Deane,  Beaumarchais,  and  all  the  American 
circle.  His  house,  too,  from  1765  to  1781,  when  he  died,  was  one 
of  those  agreeable  haunts  of  men  connected  with  literature  and  art 

461 


462  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

which  had,  at  that  period,  an  eclat  rivalling  that  of  the  great  houses, 
where  Power  in  its  cruder  forms  of  wealth  and  rank  was  represented. 
Prom  such  a  home,  it  was  natural  enough  that  Henrietta  Genet,  at 
fifteen,  should  be  invited  to  fill  the  place  of  reader  to  Mesdames  the 
sisters  of  Louis  XV.,  to  be  in  due  time  advanced  to  a  place  of  real 
importance  in  the  regime  of  the  period,  —  that  of  "  first  woman " 
to  the  young  queen. 

Nor  was  her  brother's  career  quite  such  a  caprice  of  fortune  as  it 
seemed.  If,  as  a  boy,  lie  was  noted  in  the  palace  for  the  warmth  of 
his  republican  sentiments,  it  was  only  that  he  was  in  the  mode. 
Did  not  the  queen  smile  benignantly  upon  Franklin,  and  chat  famil 
iarly  with  him  while  she  held  the  cards  waiting  her  turn  to  play  ? 
Who  more  distinguished  at  court  than  Lafayette,  the  stern  republi 
can  of  nineteen?  When  the  queen  desired  to  give  young  Genet  a 
start  in  the  diplomatic  career,  his  grand  republican  sentiments  wero 
rather  a  point  in  his  favor  than  otherwise ;  and,  at  twenty-four,  he 
hud  reached  a  position  in  the  diplomatic  service  to  which  only  court 
favor  of  the  most  irresistible  description  could  have  pushed  so  young 
a  man.  He  was  secretary  of  legation  at  St.  Petersburg ;  whence, 
according  to  Morris,  he  wrote  in  so  republican  a  style,  that  his 
despatches,  read  after  the  dethronement,  made  his  fortune  with  the 
chiefs  of  the  Gironde,  who  named  him  ambassador  to  Holland,  his 
appointment  bearing  date  November  14,  1792. 

Suddenly  the  programme  was  changed,  for  a  reason. never  conjec 
tured  till  within  these  few  months  past.  The  Holland  commission 
was  revoked  in  December,  and  M.  Genet  was  appointed  to  represent 
France  in  America.  Genet,  it  appears,  was  at  once  a  Girondist  and 
a  grateful  friend  to  his  royal  benefactors,  whom  he  was  now  in  the 
habit  of  styling  "Louis  and  Madame  Capet."  The  Girondists  had 
adopted  the  scheme  proposed  by  Thomas  Paine  of  sending  this 
hapless  pair  and  their  children  to  the  United  States;  and  Genet,  as 
we  are  now  assured,  was  selected  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the 
project.  A  well-known  writer,  who  has  made  a  particular  study  of 
that  period,  and  who  apparently  derived  his  information  from  the 
American  family  of  M.  Genet,  holds  this  language,  and  emphasizes 
it  by  the  use  of  italics  :  — 

"M.  Genet  was  selected  for  the  mission  to  America,  by  the  more 
moderate  republicans  in  France,  because  of  his  friendship  with 
the  deposed  monarch,  and  for  the  express  purpose  of  conducting  the 


GENET   COMING.       ,  463 

imprisoned  king  and  the  royal  family  secretly  to  America.  This 
arrangement  was  entered  into  at  a  meeting  of  the  leading  Girond 
ists,  at  which  our  own  Thomas  Paine  assisted;  and  it  was  at  that 
meeting  that  M.  Genet  was  tendered  the  mission,  and  accepted  it, 
playfully  describing,  in  response,  to  what  occupations  such  and  such 
of  the  royal  exiles  could  be  appropriated,  on  their  arrival  in  Ameri 
ca."  * 

But  it  was  no  longer  in  the  power  of  the  more  moderate  republi 
cans  to  control  the  course  of  events.  If  France  was  mad,  England 
was  not  sane;  and  the  man  in  England  whose  voice  was  mightiest, 
who  should  have  been  the  great  tranquillizing  influence  of  the  hour, 
was  the  maddest  public  man  in  Europe.  "  1  vote  for  this  (alien) 
bill,"  said  Burke  in  Parliament,  about  the  time  of  Genet's  appoint 
ment,  "  because  I  consider  it  as  the  means  of  saving  my  life  and  all 
our  lives  from  the  hands  of  assassins.  When  they  smile,  I  see 
blood  trickling  down  their  faces:  I  see  that  the  object  of  all  their 
cajoling  is  blood."  How  was  the  mighty  fallen  !  Here  was  genius 
stooping  to  clothe  in  powerful  language  the  imbecile  panic  of  igno 
rance.  The  raving  of  Burke,  by  infecting  the  policy  of  England, 
was  among  the  influences  in  the  French  Convention  that  decided  the 
king's  fate.'  Louis  was  exiled  to  the  other  world,  instead  of  going 
with  Genet  and  Paine  to  the  shores  of  the  peaceful  Delaware.  A 
few  hours  after  the  news  of  his  execution  reached,  London,  the 
British  government,  in  effect,  declared  war  against  France ;  and,  as 
soon  as  this  intelligence  reached  Paris,  February  1,  1793,  France 
declared  war,  in  form,  against  England. 

Thus  began  the  bloodiest  struggle  the  modern  world  has  known, 
which  only  ended  after  Waterloo.  There  was  no  pretext  for  the 
war  which  will  bear  the  light  of  to-day.  All  thrones,  it  is  true, 
were  menaced  in  the  fall  of  the  French  throne ;  and  no  king  felt  so 
sure  of  his  head  after  January  21, 1793,  as  he  had  before  that  mem 
orable  date.  Here  was  motive  enough  for  the  king  of.  England,  but 
not  for  the  realm  of  Britain.  The  reason  why  Great  Britain  struck 
France  in  1793  was,  as  the  world  is  now  informed,  because  France 
was  weak.  Such  is  the  explanation  given  of  the  origin  of  this 
infernal  war  by  a  work  that  speaks  to  foreign  nations  with  an 

*  New  York  Historical  Magazine  for  February,  1871,  p.  143.  Article  by  the 
editor,  II.  P.  Dawson. 


464  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

I 
I 

authority  semi-official.  France  was  sorely  afflicted,  distracted,  anar 
chic.  "  All  Europe  was  now  leagued  against  her.  Within  she  was 
divided  by  faction,  and  without  she  was  assailed  by  immense  hosts 
of  the  best  disciplined  soldiers  of  Europe,  conducted  by  the  most 
skilful  leaders,  to  whom  she  had  nothing  to  oppose  but  an  undisci 
plined  multitude,  led  on  by  inexperienced  chiefs.  In  this  state  of 
things  it  seemed  a  safe  measure  to  make  war  against  her.  To  do 
so  was  only  to  retaliate  the  conduct  she  had  herself  pursued  when 
she  effected  the  dismemberment  of  the  British  Empire  by  assisting 
our  revolted  Colonies."  *  Such  is  the  nature  of  dynastic  rule. 
Such  was  that  "  British  form/'  of  which  British  Hamilton  was  so 
enamoured. 

It  was  from  the  frenzy  and  delirium  of  all  this  that  Citizen  Genet 
sailed  in  the  frigate  L'Embuscade  for  the  United  States.  He  had, 
indeed,  been  ranked  with  the  more  moderate  republicans ;  but  in 
February,  1793,  moderation  was  a  quality  unknown  to  the  heart  of 
civilized  man.  He  was  a  Frenchman  ;  he  was  a  republican  ;  he  was 
twenty-eight;  he  was  bearing  to  America  the  news  that  England, 
too,  had  sided  in  arms  against  his  country.  Long  was  this  frigate 
tossed  upon  the  wintry  deep.  She  was  driven  far  to  the  south 
ward  of  her  course,  and  the  great  tidings  which  she  brought  reached 
Viv-idcnr  Washington  before  L'Embuscade  was  heard  of  at  the 
seat  of  government. 

The  genius  for  rectitude  which  General  Washington  possessed 
was  never  so  manifest  as  on  this  occasion.  Passion  spoke  but  one 
voice.  Here  was  our  ally  attacked  by  the  great  naval  power  of  the 
world  because  she  seemed  prostrate  and  helpless !  Here  was  France 
threatened  with  dismemberment  because  she  had  helped  us  in  the 
crisis  of  our  destiny!  Here  was  the  king  who  warred  upon  Ameri 
cans,  because  they  had  demanded  to  govern  America,  presuming  to 
deny  the  right  of  Frenchmen  to  govern  France  !  Generosity,  justice, 
gratitude,  pride,  and  even  policy,  appeared  to  call  upon  the  two 
republics  to  make  common  cause  against  the  common  foe.  Was  not 
England  the  common  fere?  Did  she  not  hold  the  United  States  by 
the  throat?  What  was  the  retention  of  the  seven  posts  but  sus 
pended  war  ?  Such  were  the  thoughts  that  naturally  rose  in  the 
minds  of  a  vast  majority  of  American  citizens  when  the  news  was 

*  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  vol.  v.  p.  547. 


GENET   COMING.  465 

circulated.  The  president  had  but  to  remain  passive,  he  had  but  to 
linger  another  month  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  every  vessel  that  could 
have  carried  half  a  dozen  guns  and  forty  men  would  have  been 
afloat  in  quest  of  British  prizes.  And  to  this  hour,  if  you  will 
imbue  yourself  with  the  spirit  of  that  time,  and  shut  out  all  those 
larger  and  nobler  considerations  which  alone  should  control  the 
decisions  of  a  government,  you  will  often  find  yourself  ready  to 
exclaim,  Oh  that  he  had  ! 

Then,  there  were  treaties  with  France  to  be  considered,  — treaties 
that  seemed  to  many  all  the  more  sacred  now  because  they  were 
made  when  France  was  powerful  and  we  were  weak.  Knotty  ques 
tions  started  up  as  men  in  1793  read  those  two  treaties  of  1778,  — 
one  of  "  Amity  and  Commerce,"  and  the  other  of  "  Alliance,"  both 
bearing  the  name  of  Franklin,  both  signed  by  dead  Louis.  By  the 
first,  French  men-of-war  and  French  privateers  might,  and  British 
might  not,  bring  their  prizes  into  American  ports.  By  the  second, 
the  United  States  guaranteed  "  to  his  Christian  Majesty  the  present 
possessions  of  the  crown  of  France  in  America." 

General  Washington  was  at  Mount  Vernon  when  Mr.  Jefferson's 
letter  reached  him,  announcing  the  declaration  of  war  between  France 
and  England.  All  the  peril  of  the  crisis  flashed  upon  his  mind. 
Its  difficulties,  too,  occurred  to  him  as  he  travelled  post-haste  to 
Philadelphia ;  and  on  his  arrival  he  drew  up,  for  the  instant  consid 
eration  of  the  cabinet,  a  list  of  questions  embracing  the  situation  : 
Shall  we  warn  our  citizens  not  to  interfere  in  this  contest  ?  Shall 
we  formally  proclaim  ourselves  neutral  ?  Ought  we  to  receive  the 
coming  Genet  ?  And,  if  we  ought,  how  ?  Do  our  treaties  with  the 
late  king  hold  ?  If  we  have  the  right  to  renounce  or  suspend  the 
treaties,  is  it  best  to  do  so  ?  Would  it  be  a  breach  of  neutrality  to 
consider  the  treaties  still  in  operation  ?  Supposing  the  treaties  in 
force,  what  precisely  are  the  rights  of  France,  and  what  precisely  are 
our  duties  to  France  ?  If  the  French  royal  family  should  send  us 
a  representative,  shall  we  receive  1dm  too  ?  Ought  Congress  to  be 
convened  ?  And,  if  it  ought,  on  what  grounds  should  the  call  be 
placed  ? 

The  cabinet  met  at  the  president's  house  on  the  following  day, 
April  19.  Upon  one  of  the  questions  there  was  a  substantial  una 
nimity  of  opinion  :  it  was  agreed  to  notify  American  citizens  that 
they  could  only  join  in  the  fight  at  their  own  peril.  Mr.  Jefferson, 


4G6  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

however,  prevailed  so  far  as  to  keep  the  word  "neutrality"  out  of 
the  proclamation.  He  preferred  that  his  country  should  not  need 
lessly  declare  itself  neutral  in  a  contest  concerning  which  its  heart 
knew  no  neutrality.  But  on  the  other  questions  there  was  a 
difference  of  opinion  in  the  cahinet  which  could  not  sufficiently 
argue  itself  in  words  spoken  across  the  table  of  the  president's  office. 
To  warm  debates,  long  written  papers  succeeded,  in  which  Hamilton 
displayed  more  of  his  fatal  ingenuity  than  usual,  and  Jefferson  all 
the  wisdom  that  conies  of  a  man's  central  principle  being  sound. 
The  president's  questions  relating  to  France  resolved  themselves,  it 
was  found,  into  one,  namely,  Does  the  decapitation  of  Louis  absolve 
the  United  States  from  obligation  contracted  nominally  with  him  ? 
In  other  words,  Are  the  treaties  still  valid?  Was  it  with  France,  or 
with  Louis,  that  we  made  them?  Here  is  3M.  Ternant,  the  resident 
French  plenipotentiary,  whose  commission  bears  the  king's  signa 
ture  ;  and  somewhere  on  the  ocean  is  Citizen  Genet,  coming  to 
supersede  him,  whose  commission  has  been  issued  neither  by  Louis 
nor  by  his  heir. 

Shall  we  receive  Genet?  Of  course,  said,  in  substance,  the  two 
Republican  members,  Jefferson  and  Randolph.  We  must,  reluc 
tantly  said  the  two  Federalists,  Hamilton  and  Knox.  But  how? 
As  plenipotentiaries  are  usually  received,  or  with  reserves  and 
qualifications?  It  was  in  discussing  this  question  that  the  two 
fighting-cocks  of  the  cabinet  joined  battle,  and  fought  out  their 
difference.  Hamilton's  opinion  was,  that,  before  M.  Genet  was 
admitted  to  an  audience  with  the  president,  the  government  should 
"  qualify "  that  reception  by  declaring  that  the  question  of  the 
validity  of  the  treaties  was  "reserved."  In  supporting  this  opinion, 
he  took  the  ground  which  George  III.  had  taken  in  making  war 
upon  France  :  he  presumed  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  acts  of  the 
French  people.  He  arraigned  the  revolution!  u]N"o  proof,"  said 
he,  "  has  yet  come  to  light  sufficient  to  establish  a  belief  that  the 
death  of  Louis  is  an  act  of  national  justice."  He  also  said,  "  It 
was  from  Louis  XVI.  that  the  United  States  received  those  succors 
which  were  so  important  in  the  establishment  of  their  independence 
and  liberty.  It  was  with  him,  his  heirs  and  successors,  that  they 
contracted  their  engagements,  by  which  they  obtained  those  precious 
succors."  Amplify  these  two  statements  to  a  vast  extent ;  support 
them  by  a  prodigious  number  of  curiously  subtle  and  remote  rea- 


GENET   COMING.  467 

sons ;  throw  in  the  usual  citations  from  Vattel,  Grotius,  Wolf,  and 
Puffendorf ;  add  some  remarks  upon  the  danger  of  guaranteeing  to 
France  islands  that  might  be  taken  by  the  English, — and  you  have 
;he  substance  of  Hamilton's  paper  upon  the  reception  of  Genet. 

Jefferson  replied  to  it  at  much  length.  Besides  giving  his  col- 
eague  an  ample  supply  of  Vattel,  Puffe;idorf,  Grotius,  and  Wolf, 
irranged  in  parallel  columns,  executed  with  singular  neatness,  he 
favored  him  with  some  passages  of  pure  Jefferson,  which  have  become 
•part  and  parcel  of  the  diplomatic  system  of  the  United  States. 

"If,"  said  Mr.  Jefferson,  "''I  do  not  subscribe  to  the  soundness  of 
che  secretary  of  the  treasury's  reasoning,  I  do  most  fully  to  its  inge 
nuity.  ...  I  consider  the  people  who  constitute  a  society  or  nation 
as  the  source  of  all  authority  in  that  nation  ;  as  free  to  transact  their 
common  concerns  by  any  agents  they  think  proper;  to  change  those 
agents  individually,  or  the  organization  of  them  in  form  or  function, 
whenever  they  please ;  that  all  the  acts  done  by  these  agents,  under 
;he  authority  of  the  nation,  are  the  acts  of  the  nation,  are  obligatory 
on  them,  and  inure  to  their  use,  and  can  in  no  wise  be  annulled  or 
affected  by  any  change  in  the  form  of  the  government  or  of  the 
?ersons  administering  it.  Consequently,  the  treaties  between  the 
[Jnited  States  and  France  were  not  treaties  between  the  United 
States  and  Louis  Capet,  but  between  the  two  nations  of  America 
and  France ;  and  the  nations  remaining  in  existence,  though  both 
of  them  have  since  changed  their  forms  of  government,  the  treaties 
are  not  a-nnulled  by  these  changes." 

He  admitted,  however,  that,  as  there  are  circumstances  which 
sometimes  excuse  the  non-performance  of  contracts  between  man 
and  man,  so  there  are  between  nation  and  nation.  "  When  perform 
ance,  for  instance,  becomes  impossible,  non-performance  is  not  im 
moral  ;  so,  if  performance  becomes  self-destructive  to  the  party,  the 
aw  of  self-preservation  overrules  the  law  of  obligation  to  others. 
For  the  reality  of  these  principles,  I  appeal  to  the  true  fountains  of 
evidence,  the  head  and  heart  of  every  rational  and  honest  man.  It 
is  there  Nature  has  written  her  moral  laws,  and  where  every  man 
may  read  them  for  himself.  He  will  never  read  there  the  permis 
sion  to  annul  his  obligations  for  a  time  or  forever,  whenever  they 
become  dangerous,  useless,  or  disagreeable." 

It  seems  strange  to  us  that  principles  like  these  could  ever  have 
been  subjects  of  debate  in  the  cabinet  of  a  president  of  the  United 


468  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

States.  The  president's  decision  was,  that  Genet  should  be  received 
without  qualification,  that  is,  without  insulting  the  authority  that 
commissioned  him.  As  to  the  treaties,  General  Washington  told 
Jefferson  that  he  had  never  had  a  doubt  of  their  validity ;  but,  since 
the  question  had  been  raised,  he  had  thought  it  best  to  have  it  con 
sidered. 


CHAPTER  L. 

EDMOND    GENET   IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

THE  proclamation  which  announced  to  mankind  that  the  duty 
iand  interest  of  the  United  States  required  that  they  should  "  pursue 

conduct  friendly  and  impartial  towards  the  belligerent  powers," 
and  warning  American  citizens  to  avoid  all  acts  inconsistent  with 
that  policy,  was  published  on  the  22d  of  April,  1793.  On  that  very 
day,  as  it  chanced,  news  reached  the  government  that  L'Embuscade, 
with  Genet  on  board,  had  put  into  the  port  of  Charleston,  and  that 
the  minister,,  wearied  of  his  long  voyage,  would  tempt  the  main  no 
more,  but  would  send  the  frigate  to  Philadelphia,  and  perform  the 
journey  himself  by  land. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  were  troubled  with  no  scruples 
in  regard  to  Genet's  commission.  They  gave  him  a  reception  like 
that  which,  in  recent  years,  astounded  and  deluded  the  Hungarian 
Kossuth.  It  was  on  the  8th  of  April  that  L'Embuscade,  of  forty 
guns  and  three  hundred  men,  "  Citizen  Bompard "  commanding, 
ast  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston,  forty-five  days  from  Roche- 
fort.  M.  Genet  was  so  little  identified  with  the  extremists  in 
France,  that,  on  his  way  to  join  his  ship,  he  had  been  arrested  on  a 
harge  of  being  concerned  in  a  plot  to  convey  the  Dauphin  to  the 
United  States.  The  ship,  on  the  contrary,  made  extravagant  profes 
sions  of  loyalty  to  the  Revolution.  Her  figure-head  was  a  liberty- 
cap.  On  her  stern  there  was  a  carved  representation  of  the  same. 
Her  foremast  was  also  converted  into  a  liberty-pole  by  being  crowned 
with  that  emblematic  artisle  of  attire.  Around  her  mizzen-top  was 
a  sentence  to  this  effect :  "  WE  ARE  AHMED  TO  DEFEND  THE  RIGHTS 
OF  MAN."  Her  main-top  bore  the  following:  "FREEMEN,  WP:  ARE 
YOUR  BROTHERS  AND  FRIENDS."  Her  fore-top  was  a  warning  to 
tyrants :  "  ENEMIES  OF  EQUALITY,  RELINQUISH  YOUR  PRINCIPLES, 


470  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

OR  TREMBLE  ! "  Besides  being  thus  decorated,  she  came  into 
Charleston  Harbor  with  a  British  prize  in  her  wake,  a  pleasing  fore 
taste  of  the  rich  pickings  to  which  the  ocean  invited  men  of  enter 
prise  who  were  also  lovers  of  liberty. 

Charleston  was  then  a  city  of  greater  commercial  importance  than 
it  has  been  within  living  memory.  Many  French  merchants  resided 
there.  Amid  the  fetes,  dinners,  balls,  receptions,  which  hospitable 
Charleston  exchanged  with  a  frigate  enthusiastic  for  liberty,  these 
French  merchants  thronged  about  Citizen  Genet,  full  of  zeal  for 
their  country,  and  extremely  desirous  to  display  that  zeal  in  the 
profitable  form  of  privateering.  They  were  willing  to  fit  out  vessels 
at  their  own  cxp-nse:  all  they  asked  of  Genet  was  authority.  Only 
give  us  commissions,  said  they,  and  we  will  do  the  rest.  Citizen 
Genet  consulted  Governor  Moultrie  on  the  subject.  The  governor, 
a  better  soldier  than  lawyer,  and  probably  not  uninfluenced  by  the 
prevalent  "exaltation,"  told  him  he  "knew  no  law  against  it,"  but 
begged,  that,  whatever  he  might  do  in  the  way  of  commissioning 
privateers,  he  would  do  without  consulting  farther  the  governor 
of  South  Carolina.  What  could  Genet  desire  more?  Two  vessels, 
bought  and  equipped  by  French  merchants,  manned  in  part  by 
Americans,  were  commissioned  by  Citizen  Genet ;  and  L'Embuscade 
used  also  to  leave  her  anchorage  in  the  morning,  cruise  off  the  har 
bor  all  day,  and  return  to  safety  in  the  evening.  Not  a  British 
vessel  dared  stir.  Citizen  Bompard  publicly  offered  a  lieutenancy 
in  the  French  navy  to  any  competent  American  who  would  engage 
to  pilot  the  frigate  along  the  coast.  Pie  obtained  a  pilot  on  these 
terms,  and  stood  out  to  sea,  returning  to  Charleston  no  more. 

On  her  short  passage  to  Philadelphia  she  captured  two  British 
prizes,  —  a  brig  named  the  Little  Sarah,  and  a  valuable  ship  called 
the  Grange.  Seldom  has  staid  Philadelphia  known  an  afternoon  of 
such  thrilling  excitement  as  when  these  vessels  cast  anchor  in  the 
Delaware,  opposite  one  of  the  principal  wharves.  The  frigate's 
thundering  salute  of  fifteen  guns  —  one  for  each  State  —  could  only 
be  returned  by  two  field-pieces  on  Market-street  Wharf,  and  these 
worked  by  volunteers  ;  but  the  cannonade  sufficed  to  summon  all  the 
movable  population  of  the  town  to  the  river-side.  The  shipping  was 
dressed  in  flags  and  streamers.  Cheers  from  the  spectators  saluted 
the  frigate  as  she  glided  past  each  dock,  answered  by  cheers  from  the 
ship ;  and  when  she  had  dropped  her  anchor,  her  crew  swarmed  up 


EDMOND   GENET   IN  THE   UNITED    STATES.  471 

into  the  rigging,  manned  the  tops  and  yards,  and  gave  what  a  reporter 
of  the  period  styled  "three  or  four  concurrent  cheers."  The  most 
rapturous  moment  of  all,  according  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  was  when  the 
Grange  was  descried  with  the  British  colors  upside-down  and  the 
flag  of  France  flying  above  them.  The  thousands  and  thousands  of 
the  yeomanry  of  the  cky,  he  tells  us,  who  crowded  the  wharves, 
"burst  into  peals  of  exultation."  It  was  about  live  in  the  afternoon 
when  L'Embuscade  cast  anchor.  Every  procurable  boat  put  off  to 
her  crowded  with  passengers,  until  there  were  as  many  Philadel- 
phians  on  board  as  Frenchmen.  Each  boat-load,  we  are  assured,  was 
welcomed  with  effusion.  Philadelphia  "fraternized"  with  L'Embus 
cade.  "I  wish,"  said  Jefferson,  in  a  confidential  letter  to  Monroe, 
"we  may  be  able  to  repress  the  people  within  the  limits  of  a  fair 
neutrality." 

Some  days  after  arrived  the  Citizen  Genet,  not  the  plenipoten 
tiary,  but  one  of  the  privateers  which  he  had  commissioned  at 
Charleston,  bringing  in  two  more  prizes,  both  British.  This  was 
cheering  indeed.  But  now  Citizen  Genet  himself  was  at  hand. 
Five  weeks  had  elapsed  since  his  landing  at  Charleston,  —  so  many 
dinners  had  he  been  compelled  to  eat,  and  so  many  ovations  to 
undergo,  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  From  Charleston  to  Philadelphia, 
wherever  there  were  people  to  make  a  demonstration,  the  people 
were  only  too  glad  to  demonstrate.  Nay,  more,  merchants  of  Alex 
andria  and  Baltimore  offered  to  sell  to  a  beleaguered  ally  provisions 
below  the  market  price.  Six  hundred  thousand  barrels  of  flour  were 
offered  Citizen  Genet  on  terms  more  favorable  than  those  granted  to 
the  most  favored  customer. 

On  the  16th  of  May  the  rumor  was  spread  abroad  in  Philadelphia, 
that  the  representative  of  the  French  Republic  was  approaching  the 
city  from  the  south.  The  bells  of  Christ  Church  rang  out  a  peal  of 
welcome.  By  every  road  crowds  hurried  towards  Gray's  Ferry ;  but 
they  were  too  late:  Genet  was  so  fortunate  as  to  get  over  the  river 
and  into  the  city,  even  to  the  City  Tavern,  before  any  great  number 
of  the  people  could  intercept  him.  A  committee  of  seven  distin 
guished  Republicans,  headed  by  the  venerated  Bittenhouse,  had 
been  appointed  to  address  the  plenipotentiary  on  his  arrival.  This 
committee,  preceded  by  their  chairman,  marched  toward  the  hotel, 
three  abreast,  joined  as  they  went  by  other  citizens,  who  also  walked 
in  threes ;  until  there  was  a  long  line  of  gentlemen  trailing  after  the 


472  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

committee.  These  entered  the  hotel,  and  were  presented  to  M. 
Genet,  while  a  prodigious  crowd  filled  the  street,  and  rent  the  air 
with  cheers.  The  address  was  read.  It  was  fortunate  the  min 
ister  was  familiar  with  the  English  language;  for,  being  unpre 
pared  for  such  a  reception,  he  was  obliged  to  reply  extempore. 
His  youthful  appearance,  his  bearing,  at  once  affable  and  distin 
guished,  the  responsive  warmth  of  his  demeanor,  and  even  the 
French  accent  with  which  he  spoke,  all  served  to  heighten  the 
enthusiasm. 

"  I  am  no  orator,"  he  began  with  faltering  tongue,  "and  I  should 
not  at  any  time  affect  the  language  of  eloquence.  But  even  in 
uttering  the  genuine  and  spontaneous  sentiments  of  my  heart,  on  an 
occasion  so  interesting  and  so  flattering,  I  experience  some  embar- 
ra»ments,  arising  from  my  defective  acquaintance  with  the  language 
in  which  I  am  about  to  speak.  But  this  defect,  I  am  certain,  free 
men  will  readily  excuse,  if  they  are  convinced  of  the  sincerity  of  the 
sentiments  which  I  shall  deliver.  I  cannot  tell  you,  gentlemen,  how 
penetrated  I  am  by  the  language  of  the  address  to  which  I  have 
listened,  nor  how  deeply  gratified  my  fellow-citizens  will  be  in  read 
ing  so  noble  an  avowal  of  the  principles  of  the  Revolution  of  France, 
and  on  learning  that  so  cordial  an  esteem  for  her  citizens  exists  in  a 
country  for  which  they  have  shed  their  blood  and  disbursed  their 
treasures,  and  to  which  they  are  allied  by  the  dearest  fraternal  senti 
ments  and  the  most  important  political  interests.  France  is  sur 
rounded  with  difficulties:  but  her  cause  is  meritorious;  it  is  the 
cause  of  mankind,  and  must  prevail./  With  regard  to  you,  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  I  wjll  declare  openly  and  freely  (for  the  minis 
ters  of  republics  should  have  no  secrets,  no  intrigues),  that,  from  the 
remote  situation  of  America,  and  other  circumstances,  France  does 
expect  that  you  should  become  a  party  in  the  war;  but,  remember 
ing  that  she  has  already  combated  for  your  liberties  (and  if  it  were 
jirce.-.-ary,  and  she  had  the  power,  would  cheerfully  again  enlist  in 
your  cause),  we  hope  (and  every  tiling  I  hear  and  see  assures  me 
our  hope  will  be  reali/ed)  that  her  citizens  will  be  treated  as  brothers 
in  danger  and  distress.  Under  this  impression,  my  feelings  at  this 
moment  are  inexpressible;  and  when  I  transmit  your  address  to  my 
fell" \v-ritixens  in  France,  they  will  consider  this  day  as  one  of  the 
happiest  of  their  infant  republic." 

When  M.  Genet  ceased  to  speak,  the  feelings  of  the  auditors,  if 


EDMOND   GENET   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  473 

we  may  believe  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  were  such  as  could  not 
be  adequately  expressed  by  shouts.  Some  natural  tears  were  shed. 
In  response  to  the  cheers  from  the  street,  M.  Genet  turned  to  a  win 
dow,  and  delivered  a  short  but  most  moving  speech  to  the  concourse 
below.  The  committee  then  took  "  an  affectionate  leave,"  and  all 
the  company  withdrew  "in  peace  and  order;"  "  every  man,"  adds  a 
reporter,  "  departing  with  this  virtuous  and  patriotic  satisfaction, 
that  he  had,  at  once,  testified  his  gratitude  to  a  faithful  ally  in  the 
hour  of  her  distress,  and  demonstrated  his  attachment  to  those 
republican  principles  which  are  the  basis  of  the  American  govern 
ment," 

The  next  day  Citizen  Genet  issued  a  general  thanksgiving  to  the 
people  who  had  greeted  him  so  cordially  on  his  journey.  He  sent 
also  a  formal  reply  to  the  citizens'  address. of  the  day  before.  "  My 
conduct,"  he  said  in  this  reply,  "  shall  be  to  the  height  of  our 
national  political  principles.  An  unbounded  openness  shall  be  the 
constant  rule  of  my  intercourse  with  those  wise  and  virtuous  men 
into  whose  hands  you  have  intrusted  the  management  of  your  public 
affairs.  I  will  expose  candidly  to  them  the  great  objects  on  which 
it  will  be  our  business  to  deliberate ;  and  the  common  interest  of 
both  nations  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  be  the  compass  of  our  direction; 
for,  without  such  a  guide,  what  would  become  of  both  nations, 
exposed,  as  we  mutually  are,  to  the  resentment,  the  hatred,  and  the 
treachery  of  all  the  tyrants  of  the  earth,  who,  you  may  rest  assured,  are 
at  this  moment  armed,  not  only  against  France,  but  against  liberty 
itself?" 

This  was  but  the  beginning  of  Philadelphia's  entertainment  of 
the  plenipotentiary.  Deputation  succeeded  deputation  ;  dinner  fol 
lowed  dinner.  First,  the  officers  of  the  French  frigate  were  invited 
to  a  grand  banquet,  at  which  one  hundred  gentlemen  assisted.  The 
Marseillaise  was  sung,  of  course,  all  standing,  and  all  joining  in  the 
chorus.  In  the  midst  of  the  effusive  toast-giving,  a  delegation  of 
the  "mariners  of  L'Embuscade "  entered  the  dining-room;  for  at 
this  happy  epoch  sailors,  too,  were  citizens  and  even  fellow-citizens. 
Such  was  the  "effusion"  of  the  hour,  that  Philadelphians  were  seen 
"  embracing"  the  mariners;  and  then  again  the  whole  company 
burst  into  a  patriotic  song.  A  few  days  after,  Citizen  Bompard 
entertained  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  and  a  distinguished  com 
pany  on  board  the  frigate,  with  the  usual  "  hymns  to  liberty  "  and 


474  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

toasts.     Again    the  mariners  bore   a  part,   which   a  reporter  thus 
describes :  — 

"  As  the  American  citizens  were  preparing  to  leave  the  frigate, 
Citizen  Dupont,  the  boatswain,  addressed  them  in  the  name  of  his 
messmates,  in  a  short  speech  replete  with  feeling,  and  nearly  as  fol 
lows  :  '  You  see  before  you  your  friends  the  French.  Several  of  us 
have  shed  their  blood  to  establish  your  liberty  and  independence. 
We  are  willing,  if  necessary,  to  shed  to  the  last  drop  of  what 
remains  for  the  maintaining  of  that  freedom,  which,  like  you,  we 
have  conquered.  We  are  still  your  good  friends  and  brethren;  and, 
if  you  should  again  want  our  assistance,  we  shall  always  be  ready  to 
give  you  proofs  of  our  attachment.'  The  governor  answered  this 
artless  and  energetic  address  by  expressing  his  most  sincere  wishes 
for  the  happiness  of  the  French  nation,  and  the  success  of  the  frigate 
1/Kinl.iisoade." 

Then  came  the  grandest  festival  of  all,  —  a  banquet  to  M.  Genet, 
attended  by  two  hundred  gentlemen,  tickets  four  dollars!  The 
3,  »n  this  occasion,  betray  the  touch  of  abler  hands  than  those 
which  had  penned  the  sentiments  given  at  the  other  feasts.  If  Mr. 
JetVerson  did  not  indite  some  of  these  sentences  for  an  anxious  com 
mittee,  they  certainly  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  some  that  occur 
in  his  writings.  The  toasts  contain  the  Republican  code  of  the 
period :  —  •.-,'<?, 

1.  The 'people  and  the  law.  2.  The  people  of  France  :  may  they 
have  one  head,  one  heart,  and  one  arm  in  the  support  of  the  right 
eous  cause  of  liberty !  3.  The  people  of  the  United  States :  may 
liberty  only  be  their  idol,  and  freemen  only -be  their  brethren! 
4.  The  IN  publics  of  France  and  America:  may  they  be  forever 
united  in  the  cause  of  liberty  !  5.  May  principles,  and  not  men.  l>e 
the  objects  <>f  republican  attachment!  0.  May  France  give  an  exam 
ple  to  the  world,  that  the  balances  of  a  government  depend  more 
upon  knowledge  ami  vigilance  than  upon  a  multifarious  combination 
of  its  power  !  7.  Jn  complaining  of  the  temporary  evils  of  revolu 
tions,  may  we  never  forget  that  the  greater  evils  of  monarch}"  and 
aristocracy  are  perpetual  1  8.  The  spirit  of  seventy-six  and  of  iiinetj"- 
two  :  may  the  citizens  of  America  and  France,  as  they  are  equal  in 
virtue,  be  equal  in  success!  9.  May  true  republican  simplicity  be  the 


EDMOND   GENET  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  475 

only  ornament  of  the  magistrate  in  every  elective  government ! 
10.  Confusion  to  the  councils  of  the  confederated  despots,  and  dismay 
to  their  hosts  :  may  they  never  be  able  to  form  a  centre  of  union  or 
of  action  !  11.  May  France  prove  a  political  Hercules,  and  exter 
minate  the  Hydrse  of  despotism  from  the  earth  !  12.  Peace,  liberty, 
and  independence:  may  the  tyrants  and  traitors  of  all  countries  be 
punished  by  the  establishment  of  the  happiness  which  they  wish  to 
betray  or  destroy !  13.  May  the  systems  of  the  United  States  be 
entirely  their  own,  and  no  corrupt  exotic  be  ingrafted  upon  the  tree 
of  liberty  !  14.  May  the  defects  of  individuals  teach  us  to  place  our 
hopes  of  the  safety  and  perpetuity  of  freedom  on  the  whole  body  of 
the  people !  15.  May  the  clarion  of  freedom,  sounded  by  France, 
awaken  the  people  of  the  world  to  their  own  happiness,  and  the 
tyrants  of  the  earth  be  prostrated  by  its  triumphant  sounds  ! 

The  reader  observes  that  the  toasts  are  fifteen  in  number ;  the 
recent  admission  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  to  the  Union  having 
broken  the  spell  long  attached  to  the  number  thirteen.  He  also 
remarks  that  principles  are  toasted,  not  men.  The  birthday  of 
George  III.  occurring  during  the  same  week,  there  was  a  banquet 
on  that  occasion  too,  the  toasts  of  which  seem  to  have  been  designed 
as  a  reply  to  this  remarkable  series.  This  feast  derived  additional 
eclat  from  the  recent  marriage  of  the  English  minister,  George 
Hammond,  to  a  young  lady  of  Philadelphia.  Four  Georges  were 
toasted, — George  III.,  George,  Prince  of  Wales,  George  Wash 
ington,  and  George  Hammond;  and,  to  mark  the  contrast,  a  neat 
sentiment  was  offered,  more  human  and  more  wise  than  the  repub 
lican  toast  at  which  it  was  aimed :  "  Men  and  principles :  may 
neither  be  forgotten,  if  deserving  remembrance  ! "  The  other  toasts 
were  less  brilliant  than  characteristic.  One  of  them  was  as  much 
designed  to  single  out  Alexander  Hamilton  for  honor  as  though  he 
had  been  mentioned  by  name  :  "  The  proclamation  of  neutrality : 
may  the  heart  that  dictated  and  the  head  that  proposed  it  live  long 
to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  all  true  friends  to  humanity  ! "  Other 
toasts  were  these  :  "  All  good  Americans  :  may  moderation  be  their 
principle,  neutrality  their  resolution,  and  industry  their  motto ! " 
"  The  cap  of  liberty ;  but  may  those  who  wear  it  know  there  is 
another  for  licentiousness  ! " 

In  the  mere  matter  of  toasts,  it  must  be  owned,  the  republicans 
of  1793  succeeded  somewhat  better  than  "  the  monocrats."  For  the 


470  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

moment  it  seemed  as  if  all  petty  distinctions  had  melted  away  in 
the  fiery  heat  of  the  popular  sympathy  with  France,  encompassed, 
as  she  was,  by  the  armies  of  conspiring  kings.  And  interesting  it 
is  to  note,  that  the  events,  which  had  united  the  American  people 
in  S3rmpathy  with  France,  had  rallied  the  people  of  England  to 
their  king's  support.  The  declaration  of  war  following  instantly  the 
execution  of  Louis,  appeared  to  destroy  the  prestige  of  the  opposi 
tion,  and  to  -give  the  Tories  the  command  of  a  congenial  mob. 
Thomas  Paine,  notwithstanding  his  adroit  and  courageous  effort  to 
rescue  France  and  the  republican  cause  from  the  dishonor  of  putting 
the  king  to  death,  became  odious  in  England.  It  was  a  kind  of  fash 
ion  in  country  towns  to  burn  him  in  effigy,  —  a  ceremony  in  which 
the  county  magnates  and  municipal  officers  joined  with  Sunday 
schools  and  parish  clergy.  At  Bristol,  for  example,  in  February, 
17(.>-"),  there  was  a  performance  of  this  kind  that  is  worthy  of  remem 
brance  as  a  curiosity  of  human  folly. 

"The  cavalcade,"  as  the  Bristol  Journal  exultingly  relates,  "pro 
ceeded  through  our  principal  streets  in  the  following  order  :  Four 
constables  headed  about  one  hundred  of  the  biggest  boys  from  their 
Sunday  schools,  with  colors  and  banners,  having  different  mottoes, 
as,  'God  save  the  King,'  'Church  and  King,'  'King  and  Constitu 
tion,'  '  Sunday  Schools,'  etc.,  decorated  with  blue  and  orange-colored 
ribbons,  and  white  staves  in  their  hands.  Then  followed  on  foot 
many  hundreds  of  colliers,  etc.,  belonging  to  several  friendly  socie 
ties  or  clubs,  with  blue  cockades  in  their  hats,  large,  elegant  .silk 
colors,  with  their  respective  devices  and  mottoes  in  letters  of  gold. 
i-  them  followed  twelve  javelin-men,  and  the  under  and  high 
sheriffs  on  horseback,  the  horses  richly  caparisoned.  Next  came 
the  prisoner,  seated  in  a  chair,  drawn  in  a  coal-cart  guarded  by 
twenty-four  constables,  and  dressed  in  a  black-trimmed  coat,  white 
wai.-'roaf,  Florentine  breeches,  white  stockings,  cocked  hat,  with  a 
French  cockade,  bag  wig,  etc.  On  his  right  hand  stood  the  1) — 1, 
a  well-made  figure,  about  six  feet  high,  with  his  left  hand  on  Paine's 
shoulder,  and  under  his  right  arm  a  real  fox.  On  Paine's  left  hand 
sat  a  person  in  a  clergyman's  habit.  The  hangman  followed  on 
horseback  with  his  black  axe,  amidst  the  acclamation  of  such  a 
concourse  of  nobility  to  bring  up  the  rear  as,  we  believe,  was  never 
before  seen  on  the  like  occasion.  They  made  a  stand  at  the 
Exchange  and  Custom  House,  and  sung  God  save  the  King,  then 


EDMOND   GENET   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES,  477 

proceeded  to  a  place  called  Truebody's  Hill,  in  their  own  parish, 
where  the  figures  were  first  hung  on  a  gallows  near  thirty  feet  high, 
and  then  burnt." 

All  of  which  was  done,  the  editor  states,  without  eliciting  a  dis 
sentient  manifestation  of  any  kind.  Dr.  Priestley,  whose  house 
had  been  destroyed,  and  his  library  scattered  over  the  land,  by  a 
Tory  mob  the  year  before,  now  shared  with  his  friend  Paine  the 
honors  of  many  a  scene  like  that  of  Bristol,  ^e  wae  discovering 
that  England  was  not  a  comfortable  dwelling-place  for  a  republican. 

All  went  well  with  Citizen  Genet  as  long  as  there  was  nothing  to 
be  done  but  receive  enthusiastic  deputations,  and  assist  at  effusive 
banquets.  •  Those  British  prizes,  too,  did  not  come  amiss.  Waging 
war  in  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty  is  not  arduous  so  long  as  the  sea 
swarms  with  unwarned  prizes,  and  there  are  no  hard  knocks  to  risk 
in  taking  them.  It  was  not  until  M.  Genet  read  the  president's 
proclamation  of  neutrality,  that  he  experienced  a  premonitory 
chill.  He  thought  the  president  should  have  waited  to  hear  what 
he  had  to  communicate  before  taking  a  step  so  decisive.  It  was  at 
Richmond  that  he  read  the  proclamation;  and  Governor  Henry  Lee 
endeavored  to  convince  him,  that,  in  adopting  the  policy  of  neutral 
ity;  the  president  had  served  France.  Genet  seemed  to  acquiesce  ; 
but  he  thought  the  safety  of  the  United  States  depended  on  the 
success  of  France  in  the  war.  If,  said  he,  the  Bourbons  are  restored, 
the  kings  of  Europe  will  unite  to  crush  liberty  in  the  United  States. 
On  his  arrival  at  Philadelphia  he  heard  that  the  president  of  the 
United  States,  a  few  days  before,  had  gone  to  the  length  of  admit 
ting  to  a  private  audience  two  emigres  of  the  most  pronounced  quali 
ty,  the  Vicomte  de  Noailles  and  M.  Talon.  M.  de  Noailles  had 
served  in  the  American  war,  by  the  side  of  Lafa}^ette,  under  Wash 
ington's  own  eye,  and  had  been  among  the  most  decided  republicans 
in  France,  until  terror  had  precipitated  the  Revolution  into  chaos 
and  massacre.  Then  he  had  resigned  his  rank  in  the  army,  and 
became  an  emigre.  M.  Talon  had  actually  assisted  the  king's 
flight,  and  escaped  to  America  only  after  lying  in  close  concealment 
for  many  weeks.  And  these  men  had  been  admitted  to  a  private 
audience  !  M.  Genet  was  losing  his  head  ;  else  he  would  have  felt 
how  particularly  welcome  both  these  gentlemen  must  have  been 
to  General  Washington,  and  what  a  claim  one  of  them  had  to 
cordial  recognition  from  a  president  of  the  United  States. 


478  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Citizen  Genet  stood  at  length  in  the  impassive,  and  perhaps 
slightly  austere,  presence  of  General  Washington.  He  observed 
that  the  room  was  decorated  with  what  he  was  pleased  to  style 
"medallions  of  Capet  and  his  family,"  then  regarded  in  France  as 
emblematic  of  the  most  extreme  "  re-action."  M.  Genet,  who  owed 
his  advancement  to  the  favor  of  tl  Madame  Capet,"  had  reached  such 
a  pitch  of  exaltation  as  to  be,  as  he  said  afterwards,  "  extremely 
wounded"  at  this  exhibition.  Controlling  his  feelings,  however,  the 
plenipotentiary  made  his  bow,  and  delivered  a  speech,  conceived  in  a 
style  of  magnanimity  which  is  inexpensive,  indeed,  but  congenial  to 
the  u  Latin  "  mind.  "  We  know,"  said  he  in  substance,  "  that,  under 
present  circumstances,  we  have  a  right  to  call  upon  the  United  States 
for  the  guaranty  of  our  West  India  islands.  But  we  do  not  desire 
it.  We  wish  you  to  do  nothing  but  what  is  for  your  own  good,  and 
we  will  do  all  in  our  power  to  promote  it.  Cherish  your  own  peace 
and  prosperity.  You  have  expressed  a  willingness  to  enter  into  a 
more  liberal  treaty  of  commerce  with  us.  I  bring  full  powers  to  form 
such  a  treaty,  and  a  preliminary  decree  of  the  National  Convention 
to  lay  open  our  country  and  its  colonies  to  you  for  every  purpose  of 
utility,  without  your  participating  in  the  burden  of  maintaining  and 
defending  them.  We  see  in  you  the  only  people  on  earth  who  can 
love  us  sincerely,  and  merit  to  be  by  us  sincerely  loved." 

In  short,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  remarked  at  the  time,  "  he  offers  every 
thing,  and  asks  nothing*"  The  president  responded  to  this  effusion 
in  a  manner  which  was  not  pleasing  to  M.  Genet.  Warmly  as  he 
spoke  of  the  friendship  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  for  France, 
he  said  nothing  of  the  Revolution.  Not  a  revolutionary  sentiment, 
as  M.  Genet  complained,  escaped  his  lips,  "while  all  the  towns  from 
Charleston  to  Philadelphia  had  made  the  air  resound  with  their  most 
ardi-nt  wishes  for  the  French  Republic." 

The  president  may  well  have  been  somewhat  graver  than  usual 
during  this  interview.  The  spectacle  of  the  British  ship  Grange, 
with  the  British  colors  reversed,  and  the  glorious  flag  of  France  flying 
over  them,  was  thrilling  to  the  republican*  of  Philadelphia;  but  Mr. 
Hammond*  the  British  minister,  did  not  find  it  agreeable.  Several 
days  before  Genet's  arrival  he  had  sent  in  a  remonstrance.  Many  of 
the  sweet  hours  of  his  honeymoon  he  was  obliged  to  spend  in  writing 
memorials  and  despatches,  and  in  toying  with  Vattel,  Wolf,  Grotius, 
and  ruffendorf.  He  was  a  polite  but  urgent  and  strenuous  diplo- 


EDMOND   GENET  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  479 

matist ;  who,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  remarked,  "  if  he  did  not  get  an 
answer  in  three  days  or  a  week,  would  goad  a  secretary  of  state  with 
another  letter.'5  He  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  Grange  to  her 
owners.  He  ohjected  to  the  proceedings  of  M.  Genet,  and  required 
the  surrender  of  all  the  prizes  taken  in  consequence  of  those  proceed 
ings.  He  complained  that  a  French  agent  was  buying  arms  for 
France  in  the  United  States.  These  demands  had  been  most  anx 
iously  considered  by  the  president,  and  debated  in  the  cabinet  by 
Hamilton  and  Jefferson  with  a  warmth  and  pertinacity  worthy  of 
the  importance  of  the  crisis.  A  crisis  we  may  well  style  it ;  for,  in 
truth,  the  independence  of  an  infant  nation  was  never  so  menaced 
as  that  of  the  United  States  was  then,  and  the  moral  questions 
involved  presented  real  difficulties.  The  passion  of  the  country  was 
to  help  France  ;  but  that  involved  war  with  two  powers,  each  of 
which  had  the  United  States  at  a  disadvantage.  England  retained 
the  seven  posts,  and  was  mistress  of  the  sea.  Spain  held  Florida 
and  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  which  gave  her  ascendency  over 
the  Creek  Indians,  the  most  numerous,  powerful,  and  warlike  system 
of  tribes  in  North  America.  As  the  ancient  alliance  between  France 
and  Spain  had  been  dynastic  only,  not  national,  the  J^e^olution  had 
dissolved  it,  and  thrown  Spain  into  the  coalition  of  kings.  The 
Creeks  were  already  threatening  the  frontiers.  The  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi,  never  too  wide  open  for  the  convenience  of  Kentuckians, 
showed  symptoms  of  closing  tight  to  American  commerce ;  and  the 
tone  of  the  Spanish  government  in  its  intercourse  with  that  of  the 
United  States  was  such  as  usually  precedes  the  invention  of  a  pre 
text  for  open  hostility. 

In  these  circumstances  President  Washington  could  see  but  one 
course,  which  was  sanctioned  both  by  prudence  and  morality,  — 
absolute  neutrality.  The  country  was  shut  up  to  that  policy.  The 
government  could  not  be  said  to  have  a  choice ;  because,  even  if  it 
had  been  shown  that  the  United  States  were  morally  bound  to  help 
France  in  her  dire  and  pitiable  extremity,  it  was  manifest  that  the 
United  States  were  powerless  to  do  so  by  arms.  ~No  man  saw  this 
more  clearly  than  Jefferson.  The  difference  between  him  and  Ham 
ilton  wras  this  :  Hamilton's  sympathies  were  wholly  and  warmly  with 
the  coalition  of  kings,  and  Jefferson's  with  the  French  people.  Both 
accepted  neutrality  as  a  necessity  of  the  case,  and  both  with  reluc 
tance  :  Hamilton  because  he  longed  to  help  England  j  arid  Jefferson, 


480  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

because  lie  yearned  to  help  France.  In  every  question  that  came  up, 
therefore,  Jefferson  desired  to  do  as  much,  and  Hamilton  as  little,  to 
oblige  and  gratify  France,  as  Vattel,  the  treaties,  and  eternal  justice 
would  permit.  Between  them  sat  Washington,  a  just  man,  who 
"because  his  inclination  was  toward  France,  was  all  the  more  on  his 
guard  against  any  influence  favoring  that  side. 

FIRST  QUESTION. —  Shall  we  give  up  the  ship  Grange?  Yes; 
because  she  was  taken  when  lying  at  anchor  off  Cape  Henlopen, 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States.  Genet  was  requested 
to  surrender  her  accordingly. 

SECOND  QUESTION.  —  Is  it  right  and  lawful  for  our  citizens  to  sell 
arms  to  agents  of  France  ?  It  is.  They  may  sell  to  either  power. 
"Our  citizens,"  wrote . Jefferson  to  Hammond,  "have  always  been 
free  to  make,  vend,  and  export  arms.  It  is  the  constant  occupation 
and  livelihood  of  some  of  them.  To  suppress  their  callings,  the  only 
means  perhaps  of  their  subsistence,  because  there  is  a  war  existing 
in  foreign  and  distant  countries,  in  which  we  have  no  concern,  would 
scarcely  be  expected.  It  would  be  hard  in  principle  and  impossible 
in  practice."  But  if  any  of  these  American  arms  are  taken  on  their 
way  to  a  belligerent  port,  the  American  vender  has  no  redress. 

THIRD  QUESTION.  —  May  privateers  be  fitted  out,  manned,  or 
commissioned  in  American  ports?  Decidedly  not.  No  citizen  of 
the  United  States  may  enlist  under  either  flag.  Besides  the  duty 
we  owe  to  other  nations,  uour  wish  to  preserve  the  morals  of  our  citi 
zens  from  being  vitiated  by  courses  of  lawless  plunder  and  murder" 
would  induce  us  to  use  all  proper  means  to  prevent  this  "  with  good 
faith,  fervor,  and  vigilance." 

FOURTH  QUESTION. — Well,  then,  ought  we  to  surrender  the 
prizes  which  Genet's  Charleston  privateers  have  brought  in  ?  On 
this  point  the  difference  between  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  was  irrecon 
cilable.  Hamilton  thought  that  the  commissioning  of  those  vessels 
by  Genet  was  an  affront  and  a  wrong  to  the  United  States,  fur  whirl) 
apology  and  reparation  should  be  demanded  from  France.  It  was  his 
opinion  al><>.  that,  since  the  privateers  were  unlawfully  commissioned, 
the  captures  were  unlawful,  and  should  be  restored  by  the  United 
States.  Jefferson  contended,  that,  although  Genet's  conduct  toward 
the  United  States  was  improper,  yet  he  had  a  right  to  issue  coin  mis 
sions  to  privateers.  Genet  had  done  a  right  thing  in  a  wrong  place. 


EDMOND   GENET   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES.  481 


482  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

shriek  of  insulting  defiance  which  alone  would  have  justified  the 
president  in  asking  his  recall. 

"If,"  wrote  Genet,  "our  merchant  vessels  or  others  are  not 
allowed  to  arm  themselves,  when  the  French  alone  are  resisting  the 
league  of  tyrants  against  the  liberty  of  the  people,  they  will  be 
exposed  to  inevitable  ruin  in  going  out  of  the  ports  of  the  United 
States,  which  is  certainly  not  the  intention  of  the  people  of  Ameri 
ca.  Their  fraternal  voice  has  resounded  from  every  quarter  around 
me,  and  their  accents  are  not  equivocal ;  they  are  as  pure  as  the 
liearts  by  whom  the}"  are  expressed;  and  the  more  they  have 
touched  my  sensibility,  the  more  I  wish,  sir,  that  the  Federal  gov 
ernment  should  observe  as  far  as  in  their  power  the  public  engage 
ments  contracted  by  both  nations ;  and  that  by  this  conduct,  they 
will  give,  at  least  to  the  world,  the  example  of  a  true  neutrality, 
which  does  not  consist  in  the  cowardly  abandonment  of  their 
friend*  in  the  moment  when  danger  menaces  them,  but  in  adhering 
strictly,  if  they  can  do  no  better,  to  the  obligations  they  have  con 
tracted  with  them." 

And  soon  after,  when  he  learned  that  two  Americans  who  had 
gone  privateering  in  the  Citizen  Genet  were  in  prison  awaiting 
trial  for  the  offence,  he  shrieked  again.  The  crime  laid  to  their 
charge,  he  said,  was  one  which  his  pen  almost  refused  to  state,  nnd 
which  the  mind  could  not  conceive.  Their  crime  was  serving 
F/ance,  and  "defending  with  her  children  the  common  glorious 
cause  of  liberty."  With  both  treaties  open  before  him,  he  declared, 
and  kept  declaring,  that  the  United  States  were  bound  by  treaty  to 
permit  the  equipping  of  privateers  in  American  ports,  and  to  allow 
all  citizens  who  chose  to  take  service  in  them.  There  is  not  a 
word  in  either  treaty  which  gives  support  to  the  position. 

This  was  bad  diplomacy,  even  for  a  tyro;  nor  did  it  promote  any 
of  M.  Genet's  objects.  Mr.  Hammond  might  well  congratulate 
himself  upon  having  such  a  competitor.  The  president's  conduct, 
on  this  occasion,  would  have  been  exquisite  art,  if  it  had  not  been 
simple  truth  and  fidelity.  After  listening  to  many  a  hot  discussion 
in  the  cabinet  between  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  on  the  questions  of 
international  law  at  issue,  he  resolved  to  refer  the  whole  subject  of  ; 
the  rights  and  duties  of  neutrals,  and  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
French  treaties,  to  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  summoned 
expressly  for  that  purpose.  Twenty-nine  questions  were  drawn  up 


EDMOND   GENET   IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  483 

r  their  consideration,  which  covered  the  whole  field  of  inquiry, 
ut,  as  the  solution  of  so  many  problems  would  take  time,  the 
ntire  fleet  of  privateers  and  prizes,  seven  vessels  in  all,  were 
tiered  not  to  depart,  "till  the  further  order  of  the  president." 
'..  Genet  would  have  done  better  to  sell  his  prizes  while  he  could. 
"Xever,  in  my  opinion,"  wrote  Jefferson  to  Madison,  July  3, 


484  LIFE  OP   THOMAS  JEFFERSOK. 

Dallas  was  requested  to  try  the  effect  of  argument  and  persuasion 
upon  the  mind  of  the  plenipotentiary. 

M.  Genet  and  Mr.  Dallas  met  at  eleven  o'clock  on  Saturday  even 
ing,  at  M.  Genet's  house.  They  talked  till  midnight,  or,  rather, 
M.  Genet  stormed  till  midnight.  He  utterly  refused  to  detain  the 
vessel,  ending  with  these  words:  "I  hope  no  attempt  to  seize  her 
will  be  made  ;  for,  as  she  belongs  to  the  republic,  she  must  defend 
the  honor  of  her  flag,  and  will  certainly  repel  force  by  force." 

Early  on  Sunday  morning  Mr.  Jefferson,  at  his  house  on  the 
Schuylkill,  received  a  despatch  from  the  governor  to  the  effect  that 
the  vessel  was  to  sail  that  day,  and  requesting  him  to  detain  her  at 
least  until  the  president's  return,  which  was  expected  on  Wednes 
day.  An  hour  or  two  later  Mr.  Jefferson  was  at  Genet's  house, 
listening  to  a  repetition  of  the  tempest  with  which  Mr.  Dallas  had 
been  favored  the  night  before.  But  Jefferson  knew  his  man.  "I 
found  it  necessary,"  he  records,  "  to  let  him  go  on,  and,  in  fact, 
could  do  no  otherwise ;  for  the  few  efforts  which  I  made  to  take  some 
part  in  the  conversation  were  quite  ineffectual."  The  storm  showed, 
at  last,  some  signs  of  abating,  when  the  angry  diplomatist  said  that 
as  soon  as  the  president  arrived  lie  meant  to  ask  him  to  convene 
Congress.  Mr.  Jefferson  availed  himself  of  the  lull  to  give  him  a 
little  elementary  instruction  in  the  nature  of  constitutional  govern 
ment,  lie  explained  to  him  how  it  was  that  Congress  could  have 
no  voice  in  the  questions  which  had  arisen,  since  they  belonged  to 
the  executive  department  of  the  government.  "  If  Congress  were 
sitting/'  said  the  secretary  of  state,  "  they  would  take  no  notice  of 
them."  "Is  not  Congress  the  sovereign?"  asked  Genet.  "No," 
replied  Jefferson  :  "Congress  is  sovereign  in  making  laws  only;  the 
executive  is  sovereign  in  executing  them,  and' the  judiciary  in  con 
struing  them  when  they  relate  to  their  department."  "  But,"  said 
Genet,  "at  least  Congress  is  bound  to  see  that  the  treaties  are 
observed."  Again  Mr.  Jefferson  set  him  right.  No,  said  he,  the 
president  is  to  see  that  treaties  are  observed.  "  If,"  asked  Genet, 
"he  decides  against  a  treaty,  to  whom  is  a  nation  to  appeal?" 
"The  Constitution,"  replied  Jefferson,  "has  made  the  president  the 
last  appeal." 

This  idea,  which  was  new  to  the  plenipotentiary,  seemed  to  him 
utterly  preposterous.  He  bowed  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  said  that  he 
"would  not  make  him  his  compliments  upon  such  a  Constitution !" 


EDMOND  GENET  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  485 


486  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

The  Dext  day  there  was  a  cabinet  meeting  on  the  subject  at  tin 
State  House,  the  governor  having  asked  advice  as  to  the  steps  h 
should  take  in  the  absence  of  the  president.  The  governor  informec 
the  secretaries  that  two  of  the  Little  Democrat's  new  cannon  hac 
been,  as  he  had  good  ground  for  believing,  bought  in  Philadelphia 
Colonel  Hamilton  and  General  Knox  advised  that  a  battery  should 
be  thrown  up  on  Mud  Island,  and  manned  by  militia;  and,  if  the 
yessel  should  attempt  to  leave  before  the  pleasure  of  the  president 
should  be  known,  she  should  be  prevented  by  force.  Jefferson  dis-; 
sented.  He  dissented  strongly  ;  and  he  has  left  us  the  reasons  of  his 
dissent,  expressed  with  a  blending  of  dignity  and  passion,  of  lawyer- 
like  coolness  and  philanthropic  fire,  which  speak  to  us  both  of  the 
man  and  the  time.  He  was  satisfied,  he  said,  that  the  vessel  would 
not  sail  until  the  arrival  of  the  president,  who  was  known  to  be  but 
forty-eight  hours  distant ;  and  it  was  not  respectful  to  him  to  resort 
to  a  measure  so  unusual  and  so  extreme,  when  he  was  so  near  at 
hand.  The  erection  of  the  battery,  too,  would  probably  auixe  the 
departure  it  would  be  designed  to  prevent;  and  the  vessel  would 
sail,  after  having  added  blood  to  the  other  causes  of  exasperation. 
Blood  usually  closed  the  hearts  of  men  and  nations  to  peace. 
Besides,  a  French  fleet  of  twenty  men-of-war  and  a  hundred  and 
fifty  merchant  vessels  was  hourly  expected  in  the  Delaware  :  it  might 
arrive  at  the  scene  of  blood  in  time  to  join  in  it.  And  if  the  Little 
Democrat  should  sail  to-day,  how  easily  we  could  explain  the  matter 
to  the  belligerents  !  How  capable  of  demonstration  our  innocence  ! 
And  suppose  there  are  fifteen  or  twenty  Americans  on  board  of  her : 
are  there  not  ten  times  as  many  Americans  on  board  English  vessels, 
impressed  in  foreign  ports?  Are  we  as  ready  and  disposed  to  sink 
British  ships  in  our  harbors  as  we  are  to  fire  upon  this  French  vessel 
for  a  breach  of  neutrality  far  less  atrocious?  How  inconsistent  for 
a  nation,  which  has  been  patiently  bearing  for  ten  years  the  grossest 
insults  and  injuries  from  their  late  enemies,  to  rise  at  a  feather 
against  their  friends  and  benefactors  ;  and  that,  too,  at  a  moment 
when  circumstances  have  knit  their  hearts  together  in  a  bond  of  the 
most  ardent  affection  !  And  how  monstrous  to  beyin  a  quarrel  by 
an  act  of  war!  England  wrongs  us  deeply  and  essentially;  wo 
negotiate  ;  we  submit  to  the  outrage  of  her  insolent  silence  ;  but  let 
one  excited  Frenchman  do  us  an  injury  which  his  government  would 
instantly  disavow,  and  we  arc  ready  to  precipitate  a  war ! 


EDMOND   GENET  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  487 

"  I  would  not,"  said  Jefferson,  "  gratify  the  combination  of  kings 
with  the  spectacle  of  the  only  two  republics  on  earth  destroying 
each  other  for  t\vo  cannon  ;  nor  would  I,  for  infinitely  greater  cause, 
add  this  country  to  that  combination,  turn  the  scale  of  contest,  and 
let  it  be  from  our  hands  that  the  hopes  of  man  received  their  last 
stab." 

The  battery  was  not  erected  upon  Mud  Island.  The  Little  Dem 
ocrat  dropped  down  the  river  as  far  as  Chester,  where  she  lay  at 
anchor  until  the  president's  return  to  the  seat  of  government.  As 
soon  as  the  president  could  master  the  facts  of  the  situation,  he 
caused  M.  Genet  to  be  informed,  that,  since  all  the  questions  in  dis 
pute  were  referred  to  the  judges,  "it  was  expected"  that  the  Little 
Democrat,  as  well  as  the  other  prizes  and  privateers,  would  remain 
where  they  were  until  further  notice.  Within* three  days  after  the 
date  of  this  communication  Le  Petit  Democrate  put  to  sea.  It  was 
then  that  the  administration,  formally  and  distinctly  assuming  the 
responsibility  of  all  the  damage  she  might  do  the  belligerents, 
adopted  the  doctrine  of  international  obligation  which  has  recently 
been  applied,  with  such  happy  and  hopeful  results,  to  the  case  of  the 
Alabama.  Mr.  Jefferson  officially  notified  M.  Genet,  that,  in  case 
the  Little  Democrat  made  any  prizes,  the  government  of  the  United 
States  held  itself  bound  to  restore  the  same  or  to  compensate  the 
owners,  "the  indemnification  to  be  reimbursed  by  the  French 
nation." 

M.  Genet  behaved  like  a  man  who~4ms— erossed-4he  Rubicon,  and 
means  to  press  on  to  mastery  or  destruction.  It  was  evident  that 
be  was  bent  upon  fully  executing  his  threat  of  appealing  to  the 
people.  Besides  assisting  to  form  Jacobin  clubs  in  the  Atlantic 
dties,  distributing  considerable  sums  of  money  for  the  purpose  j—- 
besides  organizing  a  troop  of  mounted  Frenchmen  with  whom  he 
paraded  Philadelphia  on  festive  days ;  besides  playing  other  pranks 
of  the  same  histrionic  nature,  —  he  continued  to  defy  and  frustrate 
the  government  in  its  resolve  to  hold  the  balance  even  between  the 
warring  powers.  Other  vessels,  in  New  York  and  Baltimore,  he 
was  getting  ready  for  cruising  in  quest  of  British  prizes.  He  was 
still  intent  upon  organizing  an  expedition  in  Kentucky  for  an 
attempt  upon  New  Orleans ;  and  this  in  the  teeth  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
emphatic  notification,  that  "  his  enticing  men  and  officers  in  Ken 
tucky  to  go  against  Spain  was  putting  a  halter  around  their  necks.7' 


488  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

This  Kentucky  scheme  of  Genet's  was  set  on  foot  at  the  very 
moment  when  it  seemed  as  if  Spain  was  only  waiting  for  a  pretext 
to  declare  war  against  the  United  States.  Jefferson's  famous 
dopatrh  to  Madrid,  the  most  energetic  of  all  his  official  papers,  in 
which  he  warned  Spain  to  let  the  Creeks  alone,  was  crossing  the 
ocean  at  the  time.  Never  before,  never  since,  has  the  government 
of  the  United  States  taken  a  firmer  or  loftier  tone  than  at  this 
threatening  crisis.  "We  confide  in  our  strength,"  wrote  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  "without  boasting  of  it;  we  respect  that  of  others  without 
fearing  it.  If  we  cannot  otherwise -prevail  on  the  Creeks  to  dis 
continue  their  depredations,  we  will  attack  them  in  force.  If  Spain 
chooses  to  consider  our  defence  against  savage  butchery  as  a  cause 
of  war  to  her,  we  must  meet  her  also  in  war,  with  regret,  but  with 
out  fear;  and  we  shall  be  happier,  10  the  last  moment,  to  repair 
with  her  to  the  tribunal  of  peace  and  reason."  What  a  time  was 
this  for  Citizen  Genet  to  be,  not  merely  fomenting  war  with  Spain, 
but  preparing  to  wage  war  by  attacking  a  Spanish  post! 

All  cabinet  questions  were  now  merged  into  one,  —  What  shall 
we  do  with  Genet?  "Send  him  out  of  the  country,"  said  robust 
Knox  at  the  cabinet  meeting  of  August  1,  when  this  dreadful 
question  was  first  discussed.  "  Publish  the  whole  correspondence," 
said  Hamilton,  "  with  a  statement  of  his  proceedings,  thus  anticipat 
ing  him  in  his  threatened  appeal  to  the  people."  Jefferson's  advice, 
supported  warmly  by  Randolph,  was  this :  To  send  a  history  of  his 
doings  in  America,  with  copies  of  the  letters  between  Genet  and 
himself,  to  the  French  government,  and  request,  with  all  the  delicacy 
possible,  the  recall  of  Genet.  For  two  days  the  subject  was  de 
bated  with  a  heat  and  passion  unexampled;  Hamilton  twice  harang 
uing  his  audience  of  four  individuals  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour, 
in  ;>.  manner,  as  Jefferson  reports,  "as  inflammatory  and  declamatory 
as  if  he  had  been  speaking  to  a  jury."  He  dwelt  upon  the  new 
Jacobin  Society  just  formed  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  model  of  the 
dread  club  to  which  Robespierre  owed  his  power.  The  publication 
of  Genet's  letters,  Hamilton  thought,  would  crush  this  terrible 
organization.  Jefferson,  on  the  contrary,  thought  that  the  club 
would  die  out  of  itself  if  it  were  only  let  alone :  opposition  alone 
could  give  it  undue  importance. 

The  president  was,  like  Othello,  "perplexed  in  the  extreme."     If 
we  may  believe  the  exaggerating  memory  of  Mr.  John  Adams,  a 


EDMOND   GENET  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  489 

rast  multitude  of  the  noisier  part  of  the  population  of  Philadelphia 
dded  with  Genet  at  this  moment.  Years  after  we  find  him  writing 
,o  Jefferson  of  the  terror  of  1793,  when  "  ten  thousand  people  in 
he  streets  of  Philadelphia,  day  after  day,  threatened  to  drag  Wash- 
ngton  out  of  his  house,  and  effect  a  revolution  in  the  government, 
>r  compel  it  to  declare  war  in  favor  of  the  French  Eevolution  and 

igainst  England."     The  Republican  newspapers,  too,  were  all  that 

Genet  could  have  wished.  The  president  was  no  longer  spared, 
;ither  in  prose  or  verse ;  and  there  was  even  a  burlesque  poem  in 

which  he  was  represented  as  being  brought  to  the  guillotine.  At 
>ne  of  these  cabinet  meetings,  irritated  by  Knox  reminding  him 
f  this  pasquinade,  he  lost  his  self-control  for  a  moment.  Voltaire 

wickedly  remarks  that  Newton  "consoled"  mankind  for  his  unap- 
>roachable  supremacy  in  the  realm  of  science  by  coming  at  last  to 

write  on  the  Prophecies.  George  Washington  occasionally  solaced 
he  self-love  of  his  admiring  friends  by  getting  into  a  good  honest 
)assion,  like  an  ordinary  mortal.  Bursting  into  speech,  he  defied 

any  man  to  produce  a  single  act  of  his  since  he  had  been  in  the 
government  which  was  not  done  from  the  purest  motives.  He 
leclared  that  he  had  never  repented  but  once  of  having  slipped  the 

moment  of  resigning  his  office,  and  that  was  every  moment  since. 
'By  God!"  he  exclaimed,  using  the  familiar  oath  of  the  period,  "I 

would  rather  be  in  my  grave  than  in  my  present  situation  !  I  would 
•ather  be  on  my  farm  than  be  made  emperor  of  the  world ;  and  yet 
hey  are  charging  me  with  wanting  to  be  a  king!"  That  rascal 
?reneau,  he  continued,  sent  him  three  of  his  papers  every  day,  as 
f  he  would  become  their  distributor ;  and  he  could  see  nothing  in 
his  but  an  impudent  design  to  insult  him. 

Happy  the  mortal  who  has  no  worse  fault  than  a  rare  outburst  of 
egitiraate  and  harmless  anger !  It  was  embarrassing  to  get  back 
;o  the  question  after  this  explosion.  The  subject  was,  however, 

resumed ;  and  the  president  decided  to  follow  Mr.  Jefferson's  advice, 
>f  appealing  to  the  French  government;  and  asking  Genet's  recall, 

reserving  the  expedient  of  appealing  to  the  American  people  to  a 
ater  day.  With  all  the  discretion  conceivable,  and  with  a  most 
mppy  mixture  of  frankness,  friendliness,  and  decision,  the  secretary 
>f  state  performed  this  difficult  duty.  In  due  time  M.  Genet  was 

recalled,  and  his  proceedings  were  disavowed;  but  France  was  a  long 
way  off  in  1793;  and  some  months  elapsed  before  the  letter  of  recall 


490  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

reached  the  plenipotentiary.  In  the  mean  time  he  continued  hit 
course  of  reckless  defiance.  He  executed  his  threat  of  appealing  to 
the  people,  by  publishing  a  portion  of  his  official  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Jefferson ;  and  the  people,  with  a  near  approach  to  unani 
mity,  condemned  him. 

This  summer  of  delirium  at  Philadelphia  ended  in  the  panic  and 
desolation  of  the  yellow  fever,  from  which  every  member  of  the 
government  fled,  Jefferson  last  of  all.  In  New  York,  where  M. 
Genet  then  resided,  love  softened  his  heart,  and  assisted  to  restore 
serenity  to  his  mind.  Miss  Cornelia  Clinton,  the  daughter  of  that 
stanch  Republican  chief,  George  Clinton,  governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  was  the  young  lady  to  whom  he  paid  his  court;  and 
paid  it  with  such  success,  that,  when  he  received  his  recall,  he 
married  her,  and  settled  in  the  State.  He  spent  there  the  rest  of 
his  days,  a  good  citizen,  a  worthy  gentleman,  though  never  quite 
able  to  understand  how  it  was  that  the  American  people  cherished 
such  veneration  for  the  character  of  their  first  president.  Every 
thing  would  have  gone  well  with  his  mission,  he  thought,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  invincible  resolution  of  President  Washington.  He 
died  lit  Jamaica,  Long  Island,  in  1834,  after  contributing  much  to 
agricultural  improvement  and  the  progress  of  science.  His  virtues 
were  his  own ;  his  errors  were  those  of  the  time  in  which  he  was 
called  upon  to  act. 


CHAPTER  LI. 

JEFFERSON    RESIGNS,    AND    RETIRES    TO    MONTICELLO. 

MEANWHILE  Jefferson  was  longing  for  retreat  with  ever-growing 
desire.  Hamilton,  too,  wearied  of  the  vain  effort  to  maintain  two 
families  upon  his  little  salary,  had  made  up  his  mind  to  return  to 
the  New  York  bar,  and  only  remained  for  a  while  longer,  like  Jef 
ferson,  in  compliance  with  Washington's  earnest  entreaty.  Hamil 
ton,  however,  was  not  so  painfully  situated  as  his  colleague,  for  he  had 
society  on  his  side.  The  people  he  oftenest  met  approved  his  course 
and  valued  his  character.  Jefferson  had  few  adherents  among  the 
rich  and  the  educated.  It  is  only  the  human  race  in  general  that  is 
the  gainer  by  the  ideas  of  which  he  was  the  exponent.  Classes  may 
be  benefited,  or  may  think  themselves  benefited,  by  abuses,  by 
privilege,  by  "  protection,"  by  "  caste ; "  and  those  classes  often 
know  enough  to  natter  and  retain  the  occasional  gifted  men, — the 
Cannings,  the  Peels,  the  Hamiltons,  —  whom  birth,  breeding,  or 
circumstances  throw  in  their  way.  Fair  play  and  equal  rights  are 
the  common  and  eternal  interest  of  human  nature.  No  man  has 
ever  been  so  loved  in  the  United  States,  or  loved  so  long,  as 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  by  those  who  had  no  interest  apart  from  this 
common  interest,  and  no  hope  or  desire  except  to  share  the  common 
lot  of  man.  But  the  elegant  class  of  Philadelphia  in  1793  held 
him  in  aversion  ;  for  the  commerce  of  the  United  States,  by  which 
they  were  chiefly  sustained,  was  in  British  hands.  Genet  was  war 
ring  upon  that  commerce,  and  Jefferson  had  to  share  the  odium  of 
his  irrepressible  zeal.  His  letters  to  Madison  and  Monroe  of  this 
year  show  us  that  he  felt  acutely  the  alienation  of  the  people  around 
him,  and  saw,  too,  how  powerless  he  was  to  stem  the  tide  of  re 
action  which  the  guillotine  in  France  and  Genet  in  America  had 
caused. 

HI 


492  LIFE  OP  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

"The  motion  of  my  blood,"  he  wrote  to  Madison  in  June,  1793, 
"  no  longer  keeps  time  with  the  tumult  of  the  world.  It  leads  me 
to  seek  for  happiness  in  the  lap  and  love  of  my  family,  in  the  society 
of  my  neighbors  and  my  books,  in  the  wholesome  occupations  of  my 
farm  and  my  affairs,  in  an  interest  or  affection  in  every  bud  that 
opens,  in  every  breath  that  blows  around  me,  in  an  entire  freedom 
of  rest,  of  motion,  of  thought,  owing  account  to  myself  alone  of  my 
hours  and  actions.  What  must  be  the  principle  of  that  calculation 
which  should  balance  against  these  the  circumstances  of  my  present 
existence,  —  worn  down  with  labors  from  morning  to  night,  and  day 
to  day,  knowing  them  as  fruitless  to  others  as  they  are  vexatious  to 
myself;  committed  singly  in  desperate  and  eternal  contest  against  a 
host  who  are  systematically  undermining  the  public  liberty  and 
prosperity ;  even  the  rare  hours  of  relaxation  sacrificed  to  the  society 
of  persons  in  the  same  intentions,  of  whose  hatred  I  am  conscious 
even  in  those  moments  of  conviviality  when  the  heart  wishes  most 
to  open  itself  to  the  effusions  of  friendship  and  confidence;  cut  off 
from  my  family  and  friends,  my  affairs  abandoned  to  chaos  and 
derangement;  in  short,  giving  everything  I  love  in  exchange  for 
every  thing  I  hate,  and  all  this  without  a  single  gratification  in 
possession  or  prospect,  in  present  enjoyment  or  future  wish." 

All  his  confidential  letters  of  1793  are  in  this  tone.  But,  as  often 
as  he  alluded  to  the  necessity  under  which  he  rested  of  retiring, 
General  Washington  urged  him  to  remain  with  such  importunity 
that  he  knew  not  how  to  resist.  When  the  president  discovered 
that  he  could  not  prevail,  he  begged  him  at  least  to  defer  his  resig 
nation  ;  for,  said  he,  "like  a  man  going  to  the  gallows,  I  am  willing 
to  put  it  off  as  long  as  I  can."  Jefferson  remained  in  office  through 
the  j'car.  "  Yesterday,"  he  wrote  to  his  daughter,  December  22, 
1  7 '.».'>,  "  the  president  made  what  I  hope  will  be  the  last  set  at  me  to 
continue;  but  in  this  I  am  now  immovable  by  any  considerations 
whatever."  So,  indeed,  it  proved.  He  could  not  continue  without 
ruin;  and  such  was  the  urgency  of  the  case,  that  his  going  home 
did  but  postpone  the  catastrophe.  The  president  accepted  his  resig 
nation  January  1,  1794.  "The  opinion,"  wrote  General  Washing 
ton  on  this  occasion,  "which  I  had  formed  of  your  integrity  and 
talents,  and  which  dictated  your  original  nomination,  has  been  con 
firmed  by  the  fullest  experience,  and  both  have  been  eminently  dis- 


JEFFERSON  RETIRES  TO  MONTICELLO.  493 

played  in  the  discharge  of  your  duty."  Five  days  after  he  was  on 
his  way  to  Monticello,  having  held  the  post  of  secretary  of  state 
I  two  months  less  than  four  years. 

Strange  to  relate,  he  went  out  of  office  in  a  blaze  of  glory,  to 
which  even  the  fine  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  "Republican  court" 
were  not  wholly  insensible.  When  Congress  met,  the  correspond 
ence  between  Thomas  Jefferson  and  the  two  plenipotentiaries, 
George  Hammond  and  Edmond  Genet,  was  published  in  a  massive 
pamphlet.  The  intense  interest  of  the  public  in  the  recent  trans 
actions,  now  fully  disclosed  for  the  first  time,*  caused  this  collection 
to  be  widely  disseminated  and  most  eagerly  scanned.  What  candid 
person  has  ever  read  that  correspondence  without  enjoying  Jeffer 
son's  part  of  it?  It  shows  him  at  his  best.  His  singular  diligence 
and  skill  in  gathering  information  were  happily  displayed;  and  all 
men  saw  that  he  had  never  —  not  in  a  single  phrase  —  gratified  his 
feelings  as  a  man  at  the  expense  of  his  duty  as  a  public  officer.  It 
was  evident  that  he  distinguished  between  France  and  her  plenipo 
tentiary,  and  that  he  did  not  withdraw  his  sympathy  from  that  dis 
tracted  nation  at  the  moment  of  her  extremest  need.  And  whatever 
wrath  may  have  swelled  within  him  at  the  conduct  of  the  English 
government  toward  his  country,  he  preserved  always  the  conciliatory 
tone  which  renders  easy  the  adoption  of  a  worthier  policy.  The 
people  of  the  United  States  appreciated  the  merit  of  his  despatches, 
and  many  of  them  recognized  the  difficulties  which  so  warm  a  parti 
san  as  he  must  have  overcome  in  producing  them.  His  opponents, 
as  we  are  informed  by  the  most  respectable  of  them  all,  Chief  Jus 
tice  Marshall,  were  conciliated  for  the  moment.  Their  prejudices 
were  "  dissipated."  They  even  flattered  themselves,  while  under  the 
spell  of  his  benign  and  large  intelligence,  that  the  sentiments  which 
Hamilton,  their  idol,  had  contested  and  reviled  in  the  cabinet  were 
their  oivn !  "  The  partiality  for  France,"  says  Marshall,  in  his 
Life  of  Washington,  "  that  was  conspicuous  through  the  whole  of 
the  correspondence,  detracted  nothing  from  its  merit  in  the  opinion 
of  the  friends  of  the  administration,  because,  however  decided  their 
determination  to  support  their  own  government  in  a  controversy 
with  any  nation  whatever,  they  felt  all  the  partialities  for  that 
republic  which  the  correspondence  expressed.  The  hostility  of  his 
enemies,  therefore,  was,  for  a  time,  considerably  lessened,  without  a 
corresponding  diminution  of  the  attachment  of  his  friends." 


404  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Genet  might  have  destroyed  the  Republican  party,  if  the  Repub 
lican  chief  had  not,  with  so  much  tact  and  right  feeling,  repudiated 
the  plenipotentiary  while  conciliating  France.  The  re-action  of  the 
following  years  no  man  could  have  prevented.  The  re-action  was 
necessary.  France  had  torn  down,  without  having  acquired  the 
ability  to  construct.  Not  a  community  on  earth  was  yet  ripe  for 
the  republican  system,  except  that  of  the  American  States,  wherein 
a  majority  of  the  people  were  accessible  through  their  understand 
ings.  It  was  necessary  for  Christendom  to  wait  another  century 
before  resuming  revolution  at  the  point  where  the  Terror  inter 
rupted  it  in  1792. 

In  reading  the  records  of  those  years,  we  discover  in  Jefferson 
some  human  foibles,  some  morbidness,  some  impatience  with  virtu 
ous  stupidity,  some  misinterpretation  of  men  and  events.  Pie  did 
not,  indeed,  misconceive  the  Federalists  as  grossly  as  they  misrepre 
sented  him  ;  and  yet  he  did  misconceive  them.  On  one  occasion, 
when  he  was  attributing  to  some  of  them  an  intention  to  avail  them 
selves  of  the  first  opportunity  to  convert  the  government  into  some 
thing  like  monarchy,  Washington  set  him  right  in  half  a  dozen 
words:  Desires  there  may  be,  but  not  designs.  This  we  now  know 
was  the  truth  ;  but  we  know,  also,,  how  easily  desires  become  designs  ; 
and  we  know  the  contempt  and  utter  distrust  in  which  the  leading 
Federalists  of  the  day  held  the  republican  system  which  Jefferson 
loved,  and  which  is  evidently  destined  to  govern  the  world.  We 
know  that  Hamilton  passed  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  await 
ing  the  crisis  which  should  call  him  to  contend  in  arms  for  the  ideas 
which  he  vainly  struggled  for  in  the  cabinet  and  the  Convention. 

Jefferson  was  clear  in  his  great  office,  and  he  lived  up  to  his  great 
principles.  Being  asked  by  a  neighbor  to  write  something  that 
should  help  him  into  Congress,  Jefferson  said,  "  From  a  very  early 
moment  of  my  life,  I  determined  never  to  intermeddle  with  elections 
by  the  people,  and  have  invariably  adhered  to  this  determination.7' 
Much  as  he  loved  his  old  friend  and  secretary,  William  Short,  he 
would  not  assist  him  to  sell  the  little  public  stock  which  he  possessed, 
saying,  "I  would  do  any  thing  my  duty  would  permit ;  but  were  I 
to  advise  your  agent  (who  is  himself  a  stock-dealer)  to  sell  out  yours 
at  this  or  that  moment,  it  would  be  used  as  a  signal  to  guide  specu 
lation."  Invited  to  share  in  a  promising  speculation,  he  declined,  on 
the  ground  that  a  public  man  should  preserve  his  mind  free  from  all 


JEFFERSON  EETIKES  TO  MONTICELLO.  495 

•ossible  bias  of  interest.  When  the  fugitives  from  the  St.  Domingo 
nassacre  arrived  in  1793,  destitute  and  miserable,  he  wrote  to  Mori- 
oe  :  "Never  was  so  de-ep  a  tragedy  presented  to  the  feelings  of 
nan.  I  deny  the  power  of  the  general  government  to  apply  money 
o  such  a  purpose,  but  I  deny  it  with  a  bleeding  heart.  It  belongs 
o  the  State  governments.  Pray  urge  ours  to  be  liberal."  In  his 
French  package  came  one  day  a  letter  from  the  wife  of  a  groom  in 
he  stables  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  in  Paris,  addressed  to  her  sister, 

poor  woman  who  lived  fifteen  miles  from  Monticello.     He  was  care- 
ul  to  enjoin  it  upon  his  daughter,  not  merely  to  forward  the  letter, 

ut  to  send  it  to  the  woman's  house  by  a  special  messenger. 

We  observe,  too,  that  he  still  looked  wistfully  to  the  unexplored 
Vest.  As  a  member  of  the  Philosophical  Society,  he  took  the  lead 
n  1792  in  raising  a  thousand  guineas  to  send  Andrew  Michaud  to 
Tope  his  way  across  the  continent,  and  find  out  all  he  could  of  the 
Teat  plains  and  rivers,  the  Indians  and  the  animals,  the  bones  of 
lie  mammoth,  and  whatever  else  a  Philosophical  Society  and  an 
American  people  might  care  to  know.  Andrew  Michaud  did  not 
md  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  and  the  task  remained  undone  till  Jefferson, 
en  years  later,  found  the  predestined  man  in  Meriwether  Lewis,  a 
on  of  one  of  his  Albemarle  neighbors. 


CHAPTER  LII. 

ARRIVAL    OF    DR.    PRIESTLEY    IX    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

TIME  brings  its  revenges.  I  read,  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Lon 
don  Athenaeum,  a  quiet  advertisement  informing  the  public  that  "  it 
is  proposed  to  honor  the  memory  of  Dr.  Priestley,  and  to  commem 
orate  his  discoveries,  and  his  services  to  the  scientific  world,  by  the 
erection  of  a  statue  in  Birmingham,  where  he  lived  so  many  years." 

The  advertisement  goes  on  to  say,  that,  as  no  other  public  metno- 
rial  of  Dr.  Priestley  exists,  it  is  believed  that  a  large  number  of  per 
sons  interested  in  science  will  be  glad  to  contribute  something  to 
perpetuate  the  memory  "of  the  father  of  Pneumatic  Chemistry,  the 
discoverer  of  oxygen,  and  one  of  the  most  illustrious  men  of  science 
whom  the  last  century  produced."  Then  follows  a  list  of  sixty-six 
subscriptions,  varying  in  amount  from  fifty  pounds  to  ten  shillings. 
Among  the  names  we  recognize  those  of  Professor  Huxle}?,  Mr. 
Martineau,  Dr.  Russell,  Sir  Rowland  Hill,  and  several  other  members 
of  the  Royal  Society. 

A  statue  to  Priestley  in  Birmingham  !  Does  the  reader  happen 
to  remember  how  Dr.  Priestley  left  Birmingham  eighty  years 
ago?  July  the  14th,  1791,  some  of  the  liberal  people  of  that  city 
proposed  to  celebrate  by  a  public  dinner  the  anniversary  of  the 
destruction  of  the  Bastille,  which  had  taken  place  two  years  before. 
But  two  years  in  revolutionary  times  is  equal  to  a  century.  When 
the  Bastille  was  destroyed,  in  1789,  the  event  was  hailed  with  joy 
throughout  the  world  ;  but,  during  the  two  years  following,  the  revo 
lutionists  of  Paris  had  committed  excesses  which  had  repelled  and 
disheartened  all  but  the  stanchest  friends  of  liberty, — all  but  such 
as  Priestley,  wno  was  recognized  in  Birmingham  as  a  chief  and  rep 
resentative  of  the  liberal  party.  Priestley  had  published  a  reply  to 
the  Reflections  of  Edmund  Burke.  He  had  been  named  a  citi- 

490 


ARRIVAL  OF  DR.   PRIESTLEY.  497 

zen  of  the  French  Republic.  He  had  defended  the  Revolution  in 
the  local  press. 

The  aristocratic  faction  of  Birmingham,  whose  instinct  was  then, 
and  is  now,  to  advance  their  cause  by  violence,  determined  to  prevent 
the  celebration.  It  is  easy  to  stir  up  a  riot  in  times  of  popular 
excitement,  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  limit  or  check  its  ravages.  After 
breaking  up  the  banquet,  and  destroying  the  tavern  in  which  it  was 
given,  the  mob  rushed  to  the  house  of  Priestley,  who  had  not 
attended  the  dinner,  broke  it  open,  and  compelled  the  family  to  seek 
safety  in  flight.  The  rioters  took  out  his  books  in  armfuls,  —  those 
precious  books,  the  solace  of  his  life,  which  he  had  been  fifty  years 
in  gathering,  for  he  was  a  hoarder  of  books  from  his  infancy.  His 
library  was  scattered  over  the  road  for  half  a  mile,  and  his  torn  man 
uscripts  covered  the  floors  of  his  house.  His  apparatus  was  broken  to 
pieces  ;  and,  when  the  destruction  of  the  interior  was  complete,  the 
house  was  set  on  fire.  The  fire,  however,  was  extinguished  before 
further  harm  was  done. 

This  disaster,  strange  to  relate,  made  the  philosopher's  fortune  ;  for 
although  the  jury,  after  a  trial  of  nine  years,  awarded  him  but 
twenty-five  hundred  pounds  damages,  of  his  claim  of  more  than 
four  thousand,  the  liberal  portion  of  the  public  .subscribed  handsome 
ly  jto  make  good  his  loss.  His  own  brother-in-law,  as  Lord  Brough 
am  tells  us,  gave  him  ten  thousand  pounds,  besides  settling  upon 
him  an  annuity  of  two  hundred  pounds  for  life.  As  he  already  had 
a  pension  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  a  year  from  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  whose  librarian  he  had  formerly  been,  he  was  now  in  very 
liberal  circumstances  for  a  philosopher.  In  Pennsylvania,  where  he 
spent  the  residue  of  his  life,  such  an  income,  at  that  period,  was  even 
superabundant. 

There  is  an  error  in  the  advertisement  quoted  above.  It  is  not 
true,  that  no  "  public  memorial  "  of  Dr.  Priestley  has  been  erected. 
Every  soda-fountain  is  his  monument ;  and  we  all  know  how  nu 
merous  and  how  splendid  they  are.  Every  fountain,  too,  whence  flows 
the  home-made  water  of  Vichy  and  Kissingen  is  a  monument  to 
Priestley  ;  for  it  was  he  who  discovered  the  essential  portions  of  the 
process  by  which  all  such  waters  are  made.  The  misfortune  is,  how 
ever,  that,  of  the  millions  of  human  beings  who  quaff  the  cool  and 
sparkling  soda,  not  one  in  a  thousand  would  know  what  name  to 
pronounce,  if  he  were  called  upon  to  drink  to  the  memory  of  the 


498  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

inventor.  And  really  his  invention  of  soda-water  is  a  reason  why 
Americans  should  join  in  the  scheme  to  honor  his  memory.  He 
npt  only  did  all  he  could  to  assist  the  birth  of  the  nation,  but  he 
invented  the  national  beverage. 

Yet  he  always  protested  that  he  was  very  little  of  a  chemist;  and 
often  said'that  his  making  chemical  experiments  at  all  was  a  kind  of 
accident.  A  Yorkshireman  by  birth,  the  son  of  a  cloth-finisher,  ho 
was  <me  of  those  boys  who  take  to  learning  as  a  duck  takes  to  the 
water,  lie  was  an  eager,  precipitate  student  from  his  childhood  up. 
Not  content  with  the  Latin  and  Greek  of  his  school,  he  must  needs 
learn  Hebrew  in  the  vacations,  and  push  on  into  other  ancient  lan 
guages  of  the  East,  —  Chaldaic,  8yriac,  Arabic,  —  not  neglecting  such 
trifles  as  French,  Italian,  and  German.  This  way  of  passing  youth 
never  fails  to  do  lasting  injury.  He  had  an  aversion  to  the  glorious 
sports  of  the  play-ground,  and  to  all  the  lighter  literature.  Need  I 
say,  then,  that,  before  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  his  health  had 
completely  broken  down,  and  he  was  obliged  to  lay  aside  his  books 
for  months. 

r-e;_M  nning  life  as  a  Calvinist  minister,  he  gradually  adopted  a 
milder  theology,  —  became,  in  fact,  a  Unitarian,  and  abandoned  the 
pulpit  fur  a  time.  Then  he  set  up  a  school.  He  spent  many  years 
in  teaching  and  writing  school-books  ;  his  first  publication  being  an 
Engli>h  grammar  for  children.  At  one  school,  where  he  taught  for 
a  while,  a  course  of  lectures  was  given  upon  chemistry,  a  science  of 
which  he  knew  nothing,  not  even  its  object  or  nature.  Attending 
these  lectures,  his  curiosity  was  awakened,  and  he  began  to  experi 
ment. 

It  was  Dr.  Franklin's  influence,  however,  that  weaned  him  from 
other  subjects,  and  caused  him  to  devote  his  main  strength  to  sci 
ence.  In  17G1,  when  Dr.  Franklin  was  in  London,  Priestley,  who 
was  in  the  habit  of  visiting  the  city  once  a  year,  sought  the  acquaint 
ance  of  Franklin,  and  became  intimate  with  him.  Franklin  related 
to  him  the  history  of  those  delightful  six  winters,  during  which  lie 
and  his  Philadelphia  friends  were  experimenting  in  electricity.  The 
young  schoolmaster,  who  had  already  some  success  in  book-making, 
now  offered  to  write  a  history  of  electricity,  if  Franklin  would  put 
him  in  the  way  of  getting  the  material.  Twelve  months  after, 
Franklin  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  from  his  industrious  friend  a 
copy  of  the  work,  one  of  those  square,  massive  quartos,  in  which  the 


ARRIVAL  OF   DR.   PRIESTLEY.  499 

science  of  that  age  was  usually  given  to  the  world.  In  this  work 
was  printed,  for  the  first  time,  the  narrative  of  Franklin's  immortal 
experiment  with  the  kite,  which  Priestley  received  from  the  experi 
menter's  own  lips.  It  is  a  curious  fact  in  the  history  of  science,  that 
Dr.  Franklin  himself  never  took  the  trouble  to  write  out  an  account 
of  this  experiment, — the  most  daring,  ingenious,  and  celebrated 
which  science  records.  The  work  was  remarkably  successful,  passing 
through  three  editions  in  nine  years.  From  this  time  onward, 
Priestley  was  almost  wholly  a  man  of  science,  and  no  year  passed 
without  his  adding  something  to  human  knowledge.  He  very 
greatly  increased  our  knowledge  of  the  air  we  breathe,  and  its  con 
stituent  gases. 

Pie  would  have  been  even  more  successful,  if  he  had  been  earlier 
favored  by  fortune.  Being  compelled,  through  his  poverty,  to  spend 
a  large  portion  of  his  time  and  strength  in  earning  his  livelihood, 
he  could  not  follow  out  his  discoveries,  nor  pursue  them  with  that 
watchful  calm  so  necessary  for  avoiding  error  and  perfecting  truth. 
His  zeal,  however,  made  up  in  some  degree  for  his  lack  of  means  j 
and  the  list  of  his  discoveries  will  always  invest  his  name  with  dis 
tinction. 

During  the  whole  period  of  Franklin's  residence  in  England, 
Priestley  aided  him  by  his  pen  and  influence  in  opening  the  eyes  of 
the  public  to  the  folly  of  the  ministry  in  estranging  the  American  col 
onies.  The  last  day  of  Franklin's  stay  in  London,  Priestley  spent 
with  him  from  morning  to  night,  without  interruption,  looking  over 
American  newspapers  just  arrived.  Franklin  was  completely  over 
come  with  the  prospect  of  a  civil  war,  and  the  dismemberment  of  the 
empire.  , 

"  A  great  part  of  the  day,"  says  Dr.  Priestley,  "  he  was  looking 
over  a  number  of  American  newspapers,  directing  me  what  to 
extract  from  them  for  the  English  ones  ;  and  in  reading  them  he  was 
frequently  not  able  to  proceed  for  the  tears  literally  running  down 
his  cheeks." 

The  two  friends  never  met  again  ;  for  it  was  not  until  1794,  when 
Franklin  had  been  dead  four  years,  that  the  English  philosopher 
landed  in  New  York.  He  had  a  distinguished  public  reception  in 
the  city ;  and,  proceeding  to  Philadelphia,  he  was  invited  to  become 
Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He 
declined,  on  the  ground  that  he  did  not  know  enough  of  the  subject. 


500  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

He  refused  also  an  offer,  most  munificent  for  that  day,  of  a  thousand 
dollars  for  a  course  of  scientific  lectures  in  Philadelphia.  His  labors 
in  America  were  chiefly  theological;  and  he  resided  usually  on  his 
son's  farm  in  Northumberland  County,  Pennsylvania.  He  was  an 
immense  personage  in  his  day.  The  public  were  constantly 
reminded  of  his  existence  by  some  publication  bearing  his  name. 
According  to  Allibone,  he  gave  the  public  one  hundred  and  forty-one 
separate  works. 

In  those  days  people  attached  much  more  importance  than  we  do 
to  a  man's  religious  opinions;  and  consequently  Dr.  Priestley,  though 
an  exquisite  Christian  in  temper  and  practice,  incurred  odium  for  his 
heterodoxy.  The  famous  Robert  Hall,  a  great  admirer  of  Priestley, 
hearing  one  day  that  he  had  been  ill  spoken  of  on  account  of  his 
regard  for  Priestley,  broke  out  in  this  magnificent  manner :  — 

'•  Are  we  suddenly  fallen  back  into  the  darkness  and  ignorance  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  during  which  the  spell  of  a  stupid  and  unfeeling 
uniformity  bound  the  nations  in  iron  slumber,  that  it  is  become  a 
crime  to  praise  a  man  for  talents  which  the  whole  world  admire,  and 
for  virtues  which  his  enemies  confess,  merely  because  his  religious 
rrci.-d  is  erroneous?  If  anything  could  sink  orthodoxy  into  con 
tempt,  it  would  be  its  association  with  such  Gothic  barbarity  of 
sentiment,  such  reptile  manners." 

Thus  spoke  an  English  dissenter.  But  Dr.  Priestley,  after  escap 
ing  the  violence  of  re-action  in  England,  crossed  the  ocean  at  a  time 
when  re-action  was  about  to  resume  power  in  America.  Even  the 
honors  paid  him  on  his  arrival  had  something  of  a  partisan  charac 
ter;  and  Republicans  made  it  as  much  a  point  to  pay  him  attention 
as  Federalists  to  avoid  doing  so.  All  the  Franklin  circle  of  Phila 
delphia  gathered  round  him  ;  and  the  Philosophical  Society,  founded 
by  Franklin,  gavo  him  cordial  welcome.  Jefferson,  during  the  com 
ing  years,  found  solace  in  his  society  and  correspondence,  and  went 
to  hear  him  as  often  as  he  preached  in  the  Unitarian  chapel. 

It  stirred  Jefferson's  indignation,  that  a  man  of  science  so  amiable 
as  Priestley,  who,  he  thought,  honored  his  country  by  selecting  it  as 
an  asylum,  should  have  been  made  the  object  of  party  vituperation. 


CHAPTER  LIII. 

JEFFERSON    AS    A    FARMER. 

• 

EIGHT  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre  is  not  brilliant  agriculture; 
nor  could  the  production  of  eighteen  bushels  of  Indian  corn  to  the 
acre,  at  the  present  time,  be  thrown  in  the  face  of  a  rival  farmer 
with  any  reasonable  hope  of  abasing  his  pride.  But  in  1796,  when 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  two  years  at  home  after  retiring  from  the 
office  of  secretary  of  state,  and  was  showing  his  home-farm  to  an 
old  French  friend,  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  these  were  the 
figures  he  gave  as  the  utmost  he  could  then  extract  from  his  lands 
in  the  garden  of  Virginia.  The  land  was  cheap  enough,  however, 
—  four  or  five  dollars  an  acre;  and  wheat  sold  in  Richmond  at  two 
dollars  and  a  half  a  bushel.  Mr.  Jefferson  boasted  that  the  wheat 
grown  upon  his  mountain  slopes  was  whiter  than  the  low-country 
wheat,  and  averaged  five  or  six  pounds  heavier  to  the  bushel. 

Overseers,  during  his  ten  years'  absence  in  the  public  service,  had 
ravaged  his  farms  in  the  fine  old  fashion  of  old  Virginia.  The 
usual  routine  was  this :  When  the  forest  was  first  cleared,  laying 
bare  the  rich,  deep,  black,  virgin  soil,  the  slow  accumulation  of  ages 
of  growth  and  decay,  tobacco  was  grown  for  five  successive  years. 
That  broke  the  heart  of  the  land,  and  it  was  allowed  to  rest  a  while. 
Then  tobacco  was  raised  again,  until  the  crop  ceased  to  be  remunera 
tive  ;  and  then  the  fields  were  abandoned  to  the  crops  sown  by  the 
methods  of  Nature;  and  she  made  haste  to  cover  up  with  a  growth 
of  evergreens  the  outraged  nakedness  of  the  soil.  But  Jefferson 
had,  long  before,  abandoned  the  culture  of  the  exacting  weed  on  his 
Albemarle  estate.  His  overseers,  therefore,  had  another  rotation, 
which  exhausted  the  soil  more  completely,  if  less  rapidly.  They 
sowed  wheat  in  the  virgin  soil  among  the  stumps ;  next  year,  corn ; 
then  wheat  again ;  then  corn  again ;  and  maintained  this  rotation 

501 


502  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

as  long  as  they  could  gather  a  harvest  of  five  bushels  of  wheat  or 
ten  buaJMJp  of  corn  to  the  acre;  after  which  Nature  was  permitted  to 
have  liCTway  with  the  soil  again,  and  new  lands  were  cleared  for 
spoliation.  There  was  then  no  lack  of  land  for  the  application  of 
this  method  of  exhaustion.  Out  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  five  thousand 
five  hundred  and  ninety-one  acres  and  two-thirds  in  Albemarle,  less 
than  twelve  hundred  were  under  cultivation.  His  estate  of  Poplar 
Forest  was  nearly  as  large,  but  only  eight  hundred  acres  were 
cleared.  The  land  upon  which  the  Natural  Bridge  was  situated, 
one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  acres  in  extent,  was  a  wilderness; 
though  he  always  hoped  to  build  a  hut  there  for  retirement  and 
repose,  amid  a  scene  which  awoke  all  his  enthusiasm. 

This  system  of  agriculture  wasted  something  more  costly  tha.n 
Virginia  land,  namely,  African  muscle.  One  hundred  and  fifty-four 
persons  called  Thomas  Jefferson  master;  equivalent,  perhaps,  to  a 
work  ing- force  of  eighty  efficient  field-hands.  Give  an  Illinois  or 
Ohio  farmer  of  ability  the  command  of  such  a  force,  on  the  simple 
condition  of  maintaining  it  in  the  style  of  old  Virginia,  and  in  fif 
teen  years  he  could  be  a  millionnaire.  But,  on  the  system  practised 
in  AlWmarle  in  1795,  the  slaves  had  two  years'  work  to  do  in  one. 
No  sooner  was  the  wretched  crop  of  the  summer  gathered  in,  and 
the  grain  trodden  out  with  horses,  and  the  pitiful  result  set  afloat  in 
barges  bound  for  Richmond,  than  the  slaves  were  formed  into  chop- 
ping-gangs,  who  made  the  woods  melodious  with  the  music  of  the 
axe  during  the  long  fall  and  winter.  All  the  arts  by  which  the 
good  farmer  contrives  to  give  back  to  his  fields  a  little  more  than  ho 
takes  from  them  were  of  necessity  neglected;  and  the  strenuous 
force  of  the  eighty  hands  was  squandered  in  an  endless  endeavor  to 
make  good  the  ravage  of  the  fields  by  the  ravage  of  the  woods. 
Mr.  Jefferson's  eight  bushels  of  wheat,  his  eighteen  of  corn,  and  his 
scant  ton  of  clover  to  the  acre,  was  the  beginning  of  victory,  instead 
of  the  continuation  of  defeat. 

It  was  on  the  IGth  of  January,  1794,  that  he  surveyed  once  more 
his  Albemarle  otate  from  the  summit  of  Monticello.  Every  object 
upon  which  he  looked  Let  rayed  the  ten  years'  absence  of  the  master: 
the  house  unfinished,  and  its  incompleteness  made  conspicuous  by 
the  rude  way  in  which  it  was  covered  up;  the  grounds  and  gardens 
not  advanced  beyond  their  condition  when  he  had  last  rambled  over 
them  by  the  side  of  the  mother  of  his  children ;  his  fields  all  lying 


JEFFERSON  AS  A  FARMER.  503 

distinct  before  him  like  a  map,  irregular  in  shape,  separated  by 
zigzag  fences  and  a  dense  growth  of  bushes ;  outhouses  dilapidated  ; 
roads  in  ill-repair;  the  whole  scene  demanding  the  inrolligent 
regard  which  he  was  burning  to  bestow  upon  it.  Neve^plrffcP  there 
a  Yankee  in  whom  the  instinct  to  improve  was  more  insatiable;  and 
seldom,  out  of  old  Ireland,  has  there  been  an  estate  that  furnished 
such  an  opportunity  for  its  gratification  as  this  one  in  old  Virginia. 
"  Ten  years'  abandonment  of  my  lands,"  he  wrote  to  General  Wash 
ington,  "has  brought  on  them  a  degree  of  degradation  far  beyond 
what  I  had  expected." 

After  the  lapse  of  two  years  and  a  half,  the  Duke  de  la  Roche 
foucauld  saw  a  different  prospect  from  the  portico  of  Monticello. 
The  summit,  indeed,  was  disfigured  with  the  litter  of  building;  for, 
as  the  exile  informs  us,  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  had  formerly  studied 
architecture  and  landscape-gardening  in  books  only,  had  since  seen 
in  Europe  the  noblest  triumphs  of  both,  and  was  endeavoring  now 
to  improve  upon  his  original  designs.  Monticello,  the  duke 
remarks,  had  been  infinitely  superior  before  to  all  other  homes  in 
America;  but  in  the  course  of  another  year  he  thought,  when  the 
central  dome  would  be  finished,  and  the  new  designs  happily 
blended  with  the  old,  the  house  would  rank  with  the  most  pleasant 
mansions  in  France  and  England.  And  how  enchanting  the  pano 
rama!  Nothing  to  break  the  view  to  the  ocean,  from  which,  though 
it  was  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  distant,  the  cooling  breeze  reached 
the  mountain  on  a  summer  day  about  two  in  the  afternoon.  The 
traveller  thought  the  prospect  faultless  except  in  two  particulars,  — 
too  much  forest  and  too  little  water.  His  European  eye  craved  a 
cultivated  expanse,  —  craved  castle-crowned  heights,  the  spire  pier 
cing  the  distant  grove,  the  farm-house,  the  cottage,  and  the  village 
clustering  in  the  vale ;  and  without  a  mass  of  water,  he  thought, 
the  grandest  view  lacks  the  last- charm. 

In  the  whole  world  it  had  been  difficult  to  find  men  who  had 
more  in  common  than  these  two, — the  exile  from  distracted  France, 
and  the  American  who  never  loved  France  so  much  as  wlien  the 
banded  despotisms  of  Europe  had  driven  her  mad.  Jefferson  had 
last  seen  the  duke,  when,  as  president  of  the  National  Assembly  of 
1789,  he  was  striving,  with  Jefferson's  cordial  sympathy,  to  save 
kingship  and  establish  liberty.  It  was  La  Rochefoucauld  who 
sought  the  king's  presence  at  Versailles  on  a  memorable  occasion 


504  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFEKSON. 

in  July,  1789,  and  laid  before  that  bewildered  locksmith  the  real 
state  C|L  things  at  Paris.  "But  this  is  a  revolt,  then!  "said  the 
king.^PSire,"  replied  the  duke,  "  it  is  a  revolution  !  "  Two  days 
after  .^JMj^astillo  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  Besides  the 
]K.li:ica^afcord  between  Jefferson  and  his  guest,  they  were  both 
improvers  by  nature,  and  both  most  zealous  agriculturists.  For 
years  the  French  nobleman  had  hud  upon  his  estate  a  model  farm 
fur  the  purpose  of  introducing  into  his  neighborhood  English  meth 
ods  of  tillage  and  improved  utensils.  He  had  maintained  also  an 
industrial  school,  and  endeavored  to  plant  in  France  the  cotton  man 
ufacture  which  was  beginning  to  make  the  world  tributary  to 
England.  In.  a  word,  he  was  a  citizen  after  the  best  American 
pattern,  which  is  another  way  of  saying  that  he  was  a  man  after 
Jefferson's  own  heart. 

We  can  easily  imagine  the  family  group  as  they  would  gather 
on  the  portico  to  see  the  master  of  the  house  and  his  guest  mount 
for  a  morning's  ride  over  the  farms.  Jefferson  was  now  approaeh- 
ii»£  fifty-three,  and  his  light  hair  was  touched  with  gray  ;  but  his 
face  was  as  ruddy,  his  tall  form  as  erect,  his  tread  as  elastic,  his 
in  the  saddle  as  easy,  as  when  at  twenty-one  he  had  galloped 
from  Shadwell  with  Dabney  Carr.  From  his  youth  temperate  and 
cha.-to,  keeping  faith  with  man  and  woman,  occupied  always  with 
pursuits  worthy  of  a  man,  neither  narrowed  by  a  small  ambition, 
nor  perverted  by  malignant  passions,  nor  degraded  by  vulgar  appe 
tites,  reliable,  cheery,  and  affectionate,  he  only  reached  his  prime  at 
sixty,  and  shone  with  mellowing  lustre  twenty  years  longer,  giving 
the  world  assurance  of  an  unwasted  manhood.  The  noble  exile  was 
forty-nine,  with  thirty-one  years  of  vigorous  life  before  him.  The 
eldest  daughter  of  the  house,  at  home  now  because  her  father  was 
at  home,  the  mother  of  three  fine  children,  had  assumed  something 
of  matronly  dignity  during  her  six  years  of  married  life  ;  and  her 
husband  had  become  a  perfect  Randolph,  —  tall,  gaunt,  restless,  dif 
ficult  to  manage,  and  not  very  capable  of  managing  himself.  He 
tented  •superfluous  energy,  Mr.  Randall  tells  us,  in  riding  eighty 
miles  a  day  through  Virginia  mud,  and,  rather  than  take  the  trouble 
of  riding  another  mile  or  two  to  a  bridge,  woukl  swim  his  foaming 
steed  across  a  river  in  full  flood.  If  making  cavalry  charges  were 
the  chief  end  of  man,  he  had  been  an  admirable  specimen  of  our 
race}  but,  for  life  as  it  is  in  piping  times  of  peuce/e  was  not 


peuce/^e  was 

< 


JEFFERSON   AS   A   FARMER.  505 

ways  a  desirable  inmate,  despite  his  hereditary  love  of  botany,  and 
is  genuine  regard  for  his  father-in-law.  ^^ 

Maria  Jefferson,  now  seventeen  years  of  age,  attracted  theTPfench 
-aveller;  and  he  easily  read  the  open  secret  of  her 
Miss  Maria,"  he  observes,  "constantly  resides  with 
ut  as  she  is  seventeen  years  old,  and  is  remarkably  fia'n/some,  she 
ill  doubtless  soon  find  that  there  are  duties  which  it  is 
erforni  than  those  of  a  daughter."  "  Jack  Eppes  "  may  have  been 
ne  of  the  Monticello  circle  during  those  pleasant  June  days  of 
T96,  when  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld  surprised  Mr.  Jefferson 
a  the  harvest-field  under  a  scorching  sun.  Perhaps  the  guest  of 
house  may  have  said  to  the  young  college-student  what  he 
jcorded  in  his  narrative.  He  may  even  have  accompanied  the 
mark  with  the  nearest  thing  to  a  wink  which  the  politeness  of  the 
ncien  regime  permitted.  "Mr.  Jefferson's  philosophic  mind," 
^serves  the  exile,  "his  love  of  study,  his  excellent  library,  which 
ipplies  him  with  the  means  of  satisfying  it,  and  his  friends,  will 
ndoubtedly  help  him  to  endure  this  loss ;  which,  moreover,  is  not 
icly  to  become  an  absolute  privation,  as  the  second  son-in-law  of 
.r.  Jefferson  may,  like  Mr.  Randolph,  reside  in  the  vicinity  of 
lonticello,  and,  if  he  be  worthy  of  Miss  Maria,  will  not  be  able  to 

d  any  company  more  desirable  than  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson." 

But*,, the  horses  await  their  riders.  We  may  be  sure  that  both 
mtlemen  were  well  mounted.  Virginia  took  the  lead  of  all  the 
lirteen  colonies  in  breeding  horses;  and  Jefferson,  though  he  dif- 
red  from  his  countrymen  in  things  more  important,  .surpassed 
lem  in  his  love  of  fine  horses.  And,  curiously  enough,  it  was  only 
n  dealing  with  horses  that  he  was  ever  known  to  show  any  thing 

that  spirit  of  domination  which  marks  some  varieties  of  common 
len.  With  a  pilfering  negro,  an  uncomfortable  neighbor,  a  refrac- 
>ry  child,  or  a  perverse  colleague,  his  patience  seemed  inexhausti- 
.e ;  but  let  a  horse  rebel,  and  the  lash  instantly  descended,  and  the 
attle  never  ceased  until  the  animal  had  discovered  which  of  the 
vo  held  the  reins.  He  always  loved  the  exhilaration  of  a  race,  and 
id  not  permit  false  ideas  of  official  decorum  to  prevent  his  attend- 
ig  races  near  the  seat  of  government,  no  matter  what  office  he  may 
ave  held.  The  saddle  alone  was  his  test  of  the  quality  of  a  horse, 
trotting-wagon  being  unknown  in  the  land  of  corduroy  roads. 
refferson  and  the  horsemen  of  that  age  liked  to  share  the  labor  and 


506  '    LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

peril  of  the  ride  with  the  horse,  seeking  no  vantage-ground  of 
om  which  to  exercise  mastery  over  him.      He  liked  a  horse 
sure-footed,  that  could  gallop  down  his  mountain  on  a  dark) 
carry  him  through  flood  and  mire  safe  to  the  next  village,] 
while  anegro  would  be  fumbling  over  the  broken  bridle  of  his  mule. 

On  this  occasion,  however,  there  was  no  need  of  haste,  and  thoj 
two  gentlemen  descended  at  their  ease  the  winding  road  to  thej 
country  below.  The  French  agriculturist  was  too  polite  to  hint  that 
his  American  brother's  methods  were  defective ;  and  yet  he  appears 
to  have  thought  so.  Mr.  Jefferson,  he  intimates,  was  a  book-farmer. 
''Knowledge  thus  acquired  often  misleads,"  the  exile  remarks,  and 
"  yet  it  is  preferable  to  mere  practical  knowledge."  In  arranging 
his  new  system,  Mr.  Jefferson  had  betrayed  a  mathematical  taste. 
All  the  old,  unsightly  fences,  with  their  masses  of  bushes  and  bram 
bles,  having  been  swept  away,  he  had  divided  his  cultivated  land 
into  four  farms  of  two  hundred  and  eighty  acres  each,  and  divided 
each  farm  into  seven  fields  of  forty  acres,  marking  the  boundaries 
by  a  ro\v  of  peach-trees,  of  which  he  set  out  eleven  hundred  and 
fifty-one  during  his  first  year  at  home.  The  seven  fields  indicated 
his  new  system  of  rotation,  which  embraced  seven  years:  first  year, 
wheat ;  second,  corn  ;  third,  pease  or  potatoes ;  fourth,  vetches  ;  tilth, 
wheat  again ;  sixth  and  seventh,  clover.  Each  of  the  four  farms, 
under  its  own  overseer,  was  cultivated  by  four  negroes,  fouu 
negresses,  four  horses,  and  four  oxen ;  but  at  harvest  and  other  busy 
times  the  whole  working-force  was  concentrated.  Upon  each  farm 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  caused  to  be  built  a  great  log-barn,  at  little  cost 
except  the  labor  of  the  slaves. 

He  did  not  fail  to  show  his  guest  the  new  threshing-machine 
imported  from  Scotland,  where  it  was  invented,  —  the  first  specimen 
ever  seen  in  Virginia.  It  answered  its  purpose  so  well,  that  several 
planters  of  the  State  had  sent  for  machines,  or  were  trying  to  get 
llu-m  made  at  home.  "This  machine,"  records  the  traveller,  ''.the 
whole  of  which  does  not  weigh  two  thousand  pounds,  is  conveud 
from  one  farm  to  another  in  a  wagon,  and  thrc.-hes  from  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  bushels  a  day."  Mr.  Jef 
ferson  v,l,o\v»-d  him,  also,  a  drilling-machine  for  sowing  seed  in  mws, 
invented  in  the  neighborhood,  with  the  performance  of  which  the 
master  of  Monticello  was  well  pleased.  Doubtless  the  two  farmers 
discussed  again  that  plough  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  invention  fur  which 


JEFFERSON  AS   A  FAEMER. 


507 


had  received,  in  1790,  a  gold  medal  from  France.     During  his 
>pean  tours  he  had  been  struck  with  the  waste  of  power  oijuied 
the  bad  construction  of  the  ploughs  in  common  use.     Thepart 
the  plough    called  then   the   mould-board,   which   is   above   tho 
isjire,  and  turns  over  the  earth,  seemed  to  him  the  chief  seat  of 
and  he  spent  many  of  the  leisure  hours  of  his  last  two  years 
France  in  evolving  from  Euclid  the  mould-board  which  should 
3r  the  minimum  of  resistance.     Nothing  is  more  likely  than  that 
had  discussed  the  subject  nfany  a  time  in  Paris  with  so  ardent 
agriculturist   as  the   Duke   de   la  Rochefoucauld.     Satisfied,  at 
igth,  that  he  had  discovered  precisely  the  best  form  of  mould- 
ard,  he  sent  a  plough  provided  with  one  to  the  Royal  Agricultural 
ciety  of  the  Seine,  of  which  the  duke  was  a  member.     The  medal 
lich  they  awarded  it  followed  the  inventor  to  New  York  j  and, 
rhteen  years  after,  the  society  sent  President  Jefferson  a  superb 
Dugh  containing  his  improvement. 

An  agreeable  incident  in  connection  with  that  plough  invention 
been  reported.  Among  the  many  young  Virginians  who  were 
ucated  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  late  William 
Hives,  born  almost  in  the  shadow  of  Monticello.  In  1853,  when, 
the  second  time,  Mr.  Rives  was  American  Minister  at  Paris,  he 
is  elected  a  member  of  the  Agricultural  Society,  then  temporarily 
shonored  by  the  prefix  "  Imperial "  to  its  name.  In  his  address  at 
s  public  reception,  Mr.  Rives  alluded  to  the  prize  bestowed  by  . 
;e  society  half  a  century  before  upon  one  of  his  predecessors. 
Yes,"  said  the  president.' "we  still  have,  and  will  show  you,  the 
rize  plough  of  Thomas  Jefferson." 

The  French  traveller  was  interested  in  seeing  at  Monticello  a 
dncipality  of  two  hundred  inhabitants  almost  independent  of  the 
orld  without;  for  Mr.  Jefferson  showed  him  a  cluster  of  little  shops 
herein  his  own  negroes  carried  on  all  the  necessary  trades,  sucli  as 
irpentry,  cabinet-making,  shoe-making,  tailoring,  weaving!  The 
lasonry  of  the  rising  mansion  was  also  executed  by  slaves.  There 
as  a  mill  upon  the  estate  for  the  accommodation  of  the  neighhor- 
ood.  For  many  years  the  making  of  nails  had  been  one  of  the 
/-inter  industries  of  American  farmers,  all  nails  being  then  of 
he  wrought  description  ;  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  too,  had  his  nail-forge, 
herein  a  foreman  and  half  a  dozen  men  and  boys  hammered  out 
lails  for  the  country  round  about.  When  James  Monroe  built  his 


508  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


bouse  near  by,  it  was  from  bis  former  instructor  that  be  bought  h 
nail&  At  times  Jefferson  bad  as  many  as  ten  nailers  at  work, - 
twHres,  and  five  bands  at  each  fire ;  and  be  supplied  the  count! 
stores  far  and  near  with  nails,  at  an  excellent  rate  of  profit.  H 
weaving-house  grew,  also,  into  a  little  factory  of  sixty  spindles,  pr 
ducing  cotton  cloth  enough  for  all  bis  plantations,  as  well  as 
redundancy  for  the  village  stores.  Some  of  the  black  mechanic 
whom  the  exile  saw  on  bis  friend's  estate  were  among  the  bei 
workmen  in  Virginia.  One  man  is  spoken  of  as  being  a  univers^ 
genius  in  handiwork.  He  painted  the  mansion,  made  some  of  ij 
best  furniture,  repaired  the  mill,  and  lent  a  band  in  that  prodi 
gious  structure  of  the  olden  time,  a  family  coach,  planned  by  th 
master.  • 

The  duke  bears  testimony  to  the  kind,  considerate  way  in  whic 
the  slaves  were  treated.  They  bad  not  only  substantial  justice,  h 
tells  us,  but  received  special  reward  for  special  excellence.  In  th 
distribution  of  clothes,  Mr.  Randall  adds,  it  was  a  system  at  Mont' 
cello  to  give  better  and  handsomer  garments  to  those  who  live 
decently  together  in  families  than  to  the  unmarried,  —  an  expedier 
which  bad  obvious  good  results.  This  was  not  freedom  ;  but,  in  til 
Virginia  of  that  period,  there  was  room  and  chance  of  welfare  fc 
every  kind  of  creature,  excepting  a  free  negro. 

The  exile  remained  a  week  at  Monticello  in  June,  1796,  and  the 
left  bis  brother  farmer  to  pursue  bis  labors.  "  On  several  oca 
sions,''  the  duke  records,  "I  heard  him  speak  with  great  respect  o 
the  virtues  of  the  president, 'and  in  terms  of  esteem  of  his  sound  an 
unerring  judgment."  He  adds  these  remarks:  u  In  private  life,  M: 
Jefferson  displays  a  mild,  easy,  and  obliging  temper,  though  he  : 
somewhat  cold  ami  reserved.  His  conversation  is  of  the  most  ugre< 
able  kind,  and  be  possesses  a  stock  of  information  not  inferior  t 
that  of  any  other  man.  In  Europe  be  would  bold  a  distinguish^ 
rank  among  men  of  letters,  and  as  such  be  has  already  nppeare 
there:  [at  present  be  is  employed  with  activity  and  perseverance  i 
the  management  of  his  farms  and  buildings;  and  be  orders,  direct; 
and  pursues,  in  the  minutest  detail,  every  branch  of  business  ivlativ 
to  them.  I  found  him  in  the  midst  of  the  harvest,  from  which  th 
scorching  heat  of  the  sun  does  not  prevent  bis  attendance. 


CHAPTER  LIV. 


CANDIDATE    FOR    THE    PRESIDENCY. 

AD  he,  then,  really  accepted  this  plantation  life  as  a  career  for 
e  remainder  of  his  clays  ?. 

In  the  first  exultation  at  his  recovered  ease  and  liberty,  in  1704, 
thought  he  had.     "I  return   to  farming/*'  he  wrote  to  his  old 
end  and  colleague,  John  Adams,  in  the  midst  of  the  joyous  April 
)rk  of  that  year,  "  with  an  ardor  which  I  scarcely  knew  in   my 
uth,  and  which  has  got  the  better  entirely  of  my  love  of  study, 
istead  of  writing  ten  or  twelve  letters  a  day,  —  which  I  have  been 
the  habit  of  doing  as  a  thing  in  course,  —  I  put  off  answering  niy 
tters  now,  farmer-like,  till  a  rainy  day,  and  then  find  them  some- 
mes  postponed  by  other  necessary  occupations."     At  first,  too,  he 
as  even  indifferent   to   the   newspapers.     Young   Buonaparte    (he 
ad  not  yet  dropped  the  u  from  his  Italian  name)  had  cannonaded 
ic  English  out  of  Toulon  Harbor  a  few  weeks  before  ;  and,  though 
is  name  was  still  unknown,  his  genius  was  making  itself  felt  in  the 
rganization  of  the  French  armies.     The  great  Toulon  news,  which 
Bached  Monticello  by  private  letters  a  month   after  the   master's 
eturn,  recalled  him  to  his  old  self  for  a  moment.     He  even  indulged 
a  little  sanguine  prophecy.     "Over  the  foreign  powers,"  he  wrote 
n  April,  1794,  "  I  am   convinced  the   French   will  triumph   com- 
letely."     The  French,  led  by  ISTapoleone  di  Buonaparte,  a  general 
>f  alien  race,  did  triumph  over  the  foreign  powers ;  but  the  rest  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  anticipation,  happily,  was  not  realized :  "  I  cannot 
)ut  hope  that  that  triumph,  and  the  consequent   disgrace  of  the 
nvading  tyrants,  is  destined,  in  the  order  of  events,  to  kindle  the 
ivrath  of  the  people  of  Europe  against  those  who  have   dared  to 
imbroil  them  in  such  wickedness,  and  to  bring,   at  length,  kings, 
lobles,  and  priests  to  the  scaffolds  which  they  have  been  so  long 

609 


510  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

deluding  with  human  blood.  I  am  still  warm  whenever  I  think  o 
these  scoundrels ;  though  I  do  it  as  seldom  as  I  can,  preferring  inf 
nitely  to  contemplate  the  tranquil  growth  of  my  lucerne  and  pota 

tO€ 

Nor  did  the  lapse  of  a  long  summer  change  his   mind.     Genera 
Washington  naturally  concluded,  that  the  coming    retirement 
Hamilton  from  the  cabinet  would  remove  the  cause  of  Jefferson's  avei 
sion  to  a  cabinet  office  ;  but  it  did  not.    In  September,  1794,  when  a 
express  from  Philadelphia  dismounted  at  his  door,  bearing  an  invita 
tion  from  the  president  to  resume  the  office  of  secretary  of  state,  h 
replied  that  no  circumstances  would  ever  more  tempt  him  to  engag 
in  any  thing  public.  .  .  .  "I  thought  myself  perfectly  fixed  in  th 
determination  when  I  left  Philadelphia;   but  every  day  and  hou 
since  has  added   to    its    inflexibility."     The   president  was   sorely 
embarrassed.     The  aristocratical  sentiment  which  had  fixed  the  sala 
ries  of  the  higher  offices  at  such  a  point  that  only  rich  men  could! 
accept  them  with  safety  to  their  affairs  and   their  honor,  made  it 
always  difficult  to  fill  them  aright,  and  sometimes  impossible.     Jef-> 
ferson  sympathized  with  him,  but  felt  himself  justified  in  refusing. 
"After  twenty-five  years' continual  employment  in  the  service  of 
our  country.''1  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "I  trust  it  will  be  thought  I  have 
fulfilled  my  tour,  like   a  punctual   soldier,  and  may  claim  my  dis 
charge." 

Tlii-M?  words  were  written  in  November,  1705.  In  June,  1700, 
when  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld  discovered  him  in  the  scorching 
harvest-field,  he  was  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party  for  the 
presidency.  It  was  the  year  of  the  presidential  election,  and  the 
noise  of  that  quadrennial  uproar  was  beginning  to  resound  in  every 
village.  General  \Vashington  was  going  out  of  office  in  March,  1707. 
Where  was  the  American  citizen  indifferent  to  the  mighty  question, 
Who  s-hould  succeed  him?  In  1706,  for  the  first  lime,  there  was  a 
contest  for  the  first  office,  —  for  Washington  never  had  a  competitor; 
and  we  can  all  imagine  —  we  who  are  familiar  with  such  scenes  — 
with  what  ardor  a  young  republic,  in  peril  between  two  such  power 
ful  belligerents  as  France  and  England,  would  spring  to  a  contest  so 
novel,  so  interesting,  so  momentous. 

Ilouarewc  to  reconcile  the  habitual  language  of  Jefferson  in  1704 
and  1705  with  his  position  before  the  country  in  170G  ?  Jt  is  not 
necessary  to  reconcile  it,  since  it  is  permitted  to  every  man  to  change 


CANDIDATE  FOB  THE   PEESIDENCY.  511 

5  mind ;  and  considering  the  limits  and  defects  of  that  portion  of 
r  organization,  what  can  we  do  better  with  our  minds  than  change 
em  ?     But  the  discrepancy  was  much  more  apparent  than  real, 
predicting  the  future,  Jefferson's  hopeful  disposition  frequently 
1  him  astray  ;  but  his  judgment  concerning  the  issue  of  a  contested 
action  was  remarkably  sound.     His  conviction  was,  that  the  time 
xl  not  yet  come  for  a  national  triumph  of  the  Republicans.     The 
y  lapse  of  the  French  Revolution  was  too  recent,  the  tide  of 
-action  too  strong,  vis  inertia  of  ancient  habit  too  general,  Hamil- 
n  too  active,  Bonaparte  too  young  (he  was  in  Italy  now,  and  had 
•opped  the  Italian  u  from  his  name),  the  French  Directory  was  too 
uchy,  and  the  French  marine  too  indiscriminate  in  the  matter  of 
ize-taking  on  the  ocean,  to  afford  a  Republican  calculator  ground  for 
ipecting  an  immediate  triumph  of  his  half-organized  party  in  the 
nited  States.     Nor  had  the  Federalists  yet  filled  up  the  measure 
their  errors,  nor  attained  that  advanced  degree  of  madness  which 
^mediately  precedes  destruction.     The   country,  too,  was  getting 
ch  by  supplying  the  belligerents  with  flour,  beef,  pork,  fish,  fruit, 
)tatoes,  and  rum.     Those  square,  spacious,  handsome  houses,  which 
ill  give  an  air  of  mingled  comfort  and  grandeur  to  the  old  towns 
i   the   New  England   coast,  —  Newburyport,  Portsmouth,   Salem, 
ortland,  —  and  others,  were  beginning  to  be  built.     As  President 
Washington  remarked  in  March,  1796,  in  a  letter  to  Gouverneur 
lorris,  "  No  city,  town,  village,   or  even   farm,  but   what  exhibits 
vidence  of  increasing  wealth  and  prosperity,  while  taxes  are  hardly 
nown  but  in  name." 

Jefferson,  therefore,  felt  that  he  was  in  small  danger  of  being 
3rn  from  Monticello  by  an  election  to  the  presidency.  Vice-presi- 
.ent,  indee^,.he  might  be,  through  that  absurd  relic  of  Hamilton's 
aischievous  ingenuity,  the  electoral  college,  which  even  now,  in 
874,  waits  to  be  swept  into  oblivion.  By  the  system  as  then  estab- 
ished,  the  candidate  receiving  the  next  to  the  highest  number  of 
Sectoral  votes  was  declared  to  be  vice-president ;  so  that  there  was 
ilways  a  probabilitj'-  that  the  presidential  candidate  of  the  party 
lefeated  would  be  elected  to  the  second  office.  That  office,  however, 
happened  to  be  the  only  one,  in  the  gift  of  the  people  or  of  the  presi- 
lent,  which  Jefferson  thought  desirable  in  itself:  first,  because  the 
salary  paid  the  cost  of  four  months'  residence  at  the  seat  of  govern 
ment  j  secondly,  because  it  gave  the  occupant  eight  months'  leisure  j 


512  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

and,  thirdly,  because  it  enhanced   a   man's    power  to   disseminat< 
and  recommend  principles,  without  his  joining  in  the  conflict  o 
parties. 

I!. 'hold  him,  then,  in  a  new  character,  one  of  the  most  trying  t 
human  virtue,  digestion,  nerve,  and  dignity  ever  contrived  by  mor 
tals  for  a  mortal,  —  candidate  for  the  presidency  !     To  him,  parti 
because  he  was  a  Democrat,  partly  because  he  was  Jefferson,  it  wa 
less  trying  than  to  any  other  man  that  ever  was  subjected  to  it.     A 
once,  without  effort,  without  a  precedent  to  guide  him,  without  con 
sultation  with  friends,  he  comprehended  the  morality  of  the  situa 
tion,  and   assumed    the   proper  attitude  toward  it.     His  tone,  his' 
demeanor,  his  feelings,  his  conduct,  were  all  simply  right ;  and,  since 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  expect 
one  day  to  stand  in  the  same  bewildering  relation  to  the  universe,  it 
may  be  useful  to  some  of  them  to  know  how  he  comported  himself. 

His  grand  advantage  was,  that  he  did  not  want  the  office.  He  was 
in  the  position  of  a  belle  who  is  wooed,  not  in  that  of  the  pale  and 
anxious  lover  who  trembles  with  desire  and  fear. '  It  is  an  immense 
thing,  if  you  have  property  to  dispose  of,  to  be  able  to  stand  serene 
in  the  market,  not  caring  whether  you  sell  it  this  year  or  next,  or 
never.  Nor  was  this  any  thing  so  very  meritorious  in  such  a  man. 
All  men,  it  is  true,  love  power,  who  are  capable  of  wielding  power ; 
but  there  are  grades  and  kinds  of  power.  All  men  love  ;  but  each 
man's  love  takes  the  quality  of  his  nature.  The  noble  love  nobly ; 
the  base,  basely  ;  the  common,  commonly.  The  feeling  that  bound 
together  in  sweet  and  sublime  accord  Goethe  and  Schiller,  the, 
noblest  pair  of  lovers  since  Socrates  and  Plato,  was  only  called 
love ;  and  the  instinct  that  originally  drew  Bill  Sikes  to  the  side  of 
Nancy  was  also  love,  of  the  Sikes  quality,  the  best  he  had  to  bestow. 
In  like  manner,  power  is  of  as  many  grades  as  there  are  grades  of 
men.  Rude  physical  strength  is  power  in  the  dawn  of  civilization. 
In  a  commercial  city,  to  possess  five  million  dollars  is  power.  A 
refinement  upon  this  crude  form  was  that  mystical  device  of  former 
.  now  no  longer  potent,  styled  Rank.  Great  ministers  like 
Richelieu  were  an  advance  upon  the  men  of  mere  pedigree,  as  the 
Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons  is  an  advance  upon  them.  Latest 
and  hi-heM  is  that  power  which  Jefferson  craved,  —  that  of  govern 
ing  men  and  moulding  institutions  by  the  promulgation  of  heartfelt 
truth. 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY.  513 


514  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

is  sometimes  an  accidental  and  extreme  inequality  of  force  between 
a  spoiler  and  his  victim  which  suspends  the  operation  of  some  moral 
laws  in  favor  of  the  victim,  and  makes  a  device  justifiable,  which,  in 
ordinary  circumstances,  would  be  dastardly. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  the  weakness  of  the  country  oveir 
which  George  Washington  presided.  If  its  four  millions  of  people 
had  all  been  cast  in  the  heroic  mould,  capable  of  Spartan  discipline, 
like-minded,  demanding  for  their  country,  with  unanimous  voice, 
only  untarnished  honor,  with  or  without  prosperity,  even  in  that 
case  it  had  been  a  doubtful  question  ;  for  there  would  still  have  been 
a  hand  in  the  lion's  mouth,  —  Detroit  and  the  chain  of  lake-posts 
occupied  by  British  garrisons,  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  held  by 
tlui  Spanish,  and  no  single  port  of  the  coast  capable  of  keeping  out 
an  armed  sloop.  But  the  people  of  the  United  States  had  only 
their  fair  share  of  heroic  souls;  and  there  was  the  most  honest  and 
irreconcilable  difference  of  opinion  among  them  as  to  which  of  the ' 
belligerents  was  really  fighting  the  battle  of  mankind  and  civiliza 
tion.  President  Washington  was  as  right  in  sending  Mr.  Jay  to 
London  as  the  Republicans  were  right  in  opposing  it.  The  presi 
dent,  surveying  the  whole  scene  from  the  watch-tower  of  his  office, 
weighing  all  the  circumstances,  hearing  all  opinions,  considering  all 
interests,  felt  it  admissible  to  court  a  power  he  could  not  crush. 
Hi -publicans,  considering  only  the  obvious  facts  of  the  situation, 
longing  to  see  their  country  joining  heart  and  hand  with  France  in 
her  unequal  strife,  yet  willing  to  be  neutral,  could  not  but  lament  a 
policy  which  looked  like  abasement  to  a  powerful  foe,  and  abandon 
ment  of  a  prostrate  friend.  The  modern  student  of  those  mad 
times  finds  himself  at  this  conclusion:  "If  I  had  been  Washing 
ton,  I  should  have  made  the  treaty  :  if  I  had  been  Jefferson,  I  bhould 
have  held  it  in  execration." 

What  a  struggle  it  cost  the  president  to  choke  down  this  huge 
bolus  of  humiliation  is  revealed  in  his  letfrs.  If  he  had  put  off  the 
departure  of  the  envoy  a  few  weeks,  he  would,  perhaps,  have  put  it 
off  forever,  and. the  course  of  events  in  the  United  States  had  gone 
otherwise.  While  Mr.  Jay  was  upon  the  ocean,  Colonel  Simcoe,  the 
Governor  of  Upper  Canada,  published  a  protest  which  claimed  juris 
diction  over  a  wide  oxpan>e  <.f  irrrltory  of  the  United  States  which 
the  posts  commanded.  The  president,  during  the  whole  of  his 
administration,  never  wrote  an  official  letter  showing  such  warmth 


CANDIDATE  FOR   THE  PRESIDENCY.  515 

of  indignation  as  the  one  which  he  instantly  penned  to  Mr.  Jay, 
hoping  to  send  it  by  a  vessel  on  the  point  of  sailing  from  New  York. 
The  best  of  Washington's  letters  are  those  which  we  know  he  must 
have  written  with  his  own  hand  ;  and  this  is  one  of  them.  It  is  the 
letter  of  a  man,  not  of  a  secretary.  Smooth  and  polished  it  is  not ; 
but  it  has  the  eloquence  of  deep  emotion  struggling  in  vain  for  ade 
quate  expression.  He  begins  by  saying,  that,  on  this  irregular  and 
high-handed  proceeding,  he  would  rather  hear  what  the  ministry  of 
Great  Britain  will  say  than  pronounce  his  own  sentiments.  Never 
theless,  he  does  tell  Mr.  Jay,  that,  although  this  amazing  claim  of 
Colonel  Simcoe  is  the  most  audacious  thing  yet  done  by  British 
agents  in  America,  it  is  by  no  means  the  most  cruel.  To  this  the 
president  adds  a  paragraph  which  contains  ten  years  of  bloody  his 
tory  :  — 

"There  does  not  remain  a  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  well-informed 
person  in  this  country,  not  shut  against  conviction,  that  all  the  diffi 
culties  we  encounter  with  the  Indians,  their  hostilities,  the  murders 
of  helpless  women  and  innocent  children  along  our  frontiers,  result 
from  the  conduct  of  the  agents  of  Great  Britain  in  this  country.  In 
vain  is  it,  then,  for  its  administration  in  Britain  to  disavow  having 
given  orders  which  will  warrant  such  conduct,  whilst  their  agents 
go  unpunished  ;  whilst  we  have  a  thousand  corroborating  circum 
stances,  and,  indeed,  almost  as  many  evidences,  some  of  which  can 
not  be  brought  forward,  to  prove  that  they  are  seducing  from  our 
alliance,  and  endeavoring  to  remove  over  the  line,  tribes  that  have 
hitherto  been  kept  in  peace  and  friendship  with  us  at  a  heavy 
expense,  and  who  have  no  cause  of  complaint,  except  pretended  ones 
of  their  creating;  whilst  they  keep  in  a  state  of  irritation  the  tribes 
who  are  hostile  to  us,  and  are  instigating  those  who  know  little  of 
us  or  we  of  them,  to  unite  in  the  war  against  us ;  and  whilst  it  is 
an  undeniable  fact,  that  they  are  furnishing  the  whole  with  arms, 
ammunition,  clothing,  and  even  provisions,  to  carry  on  the  war ;  I 
might  go  farther,  and,  if  they  are  not  much  belied,  add  men,  also, 
in  disguise." 

Thus  General  Washington,  in  August,  1794.  Mr.  Wendell 
Phillips  was  much  censured  some  time  ago  for  expressing  a  similar 
opinion  on  the  platform.  The  president  proceeded  to  declare  that 


LIFE  OP  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

nothing  short  of  a  surrender  of  the  posts  could  prevent  war  between 
the  two  countries  ;  ami  Mr.  Jay  was  to  say  to  the  ministry,  "Give 
up  tlic  posts,  —  peace  !  Keep  the  posts,  —  war !  " 

Contrary  to  expectation,  the  amiable  and  virtuous  envoy  found 
court,  parliament,  ministry,  people,  king,  all  desirous  of  a  better 
understanding.  And  who  could  have  been  better  chosen  for  such 
an  embassy  to  such  a  country  than  John  Jay,  a  devoted  member  of 
the  English  Church,  a  friend  of  Wilberforce,  a  gentleman  whose 
virtu'--,  tastes,  foibles,  and  limitations  were  as  English  as  if  he  had 
lire  a  born  and  reared  in  a  rural  parish  of  Sussex?  The  king  smiled 
beoignantly  upon  him,  and  told  him  he  thought  he  would  succeed 
in  his  mi>sion.  After  five  months'  negotiation,  a  treaty  was  con 
cluded  which  Mr.  Jay  was  willing  to  sign  ;  not  because  he  thought 
it  good  and  sufficient,  but  because  he  knew  it  to  be  the  least  bad 
then  possihle,  and,  upon  the  whole,  better  than  none,  — better  than 
drifting  into  war.  The  posts  were  to  be  surrendered.  Coinmission- 

ere  to  be  appointed  —  two  by  the  king,  two  by  the  president, 
and  one  by  these  four  —  to  award  damages  to  the  owners  of  Ameri 
can  ships  illegally  captured.  Other  commissioners  were  to  settle  the 
claims  of  the  English  creditors  of  American  merchants.  American 

la  of  seventy  tons'  burden  could  trade  between  the  West  Indies 
and  the  United  States,  but  not  carry  West  India  produce  to  any 
other  country.  American  ships  could  trade  with  the  East  Indies 
and  other  distant  British  possessions,  on  possible  terms.  But  what 
ever  could  feed  a  French  soldier,  or  equip  a  French  ship,  was 
declared  contraband;  and  an  American  captain  obtained  from  the 
treaty  neither  any  limitation  of  the  right  of  search,  nor  the  slight 
est  additional  protection  against  the  press-gang.  No  compensation 
wa-  made  for  the  loss  of  millions  of  dollars  and  many  hundreds  of 
lives  through  the  eleven  years'  lawless  retention  of  the  posts,  and 
none  for  the  negroes  carried  off  from  New  York  and  Virginia  after 
the  peace  of  1783. 

In  the  innocence  of  his  heart,  Mr.  Jay  supposed  at  first  that  the 
D8  of  the  treaty  were  due  to  a  revival  of  friendly  feeling  on 
the  part  of  the  English  people.  On  the  eve  of  his  departure,  for 
America,  the  merchants  concerned  in  American  commerce  gave  him 
a  dinner,  at  which  the  leading  cabinet  ministers  and  two  hundred 
merchants  MMtttqcL  When  the  health  of  the  president  was  proposed, 
the  company  could  not  express  all  their  enthusiasm  in  the  "  three 


CANDIDATE  FOB  THE  PRESIDENCY.  517 

cheers "  prescribed  by  the  chairman,  but  prolonged  them  to  six. 
Every  toast,  Mr.  Jay  reports,  which  referred  in  a  friendly  manner 
to  America,  was  received  with  "  general  and  strong  marks  of  appro 
bation."  At  length  an  incident  occurred  which  threw  light  upon 
the  unconscious  motive  of  the  cheerers.  "Toward  the  conclusion 
of  the  feast/'  Mr.  Jay  relates,  "  I  was  asked  for  a  toast.  I  gave  a 
neutral  one,  namely, '  A  safe  and  honorable  peace  to  all  the  belliger 
ent  powers.'  You  cannot  conceive  how  coldly  it  was  received  ;  and 
though  civility  induced  them_  to  give  it  three  cheers,  yet  they  were 
so  faint  and  single,  as  most  decidedly  to  show  that  peace  was  not 
the  thing  they  wished.  These  were  merchants."  If  Mr.  Jay  had 
desired  to  hear  thunders  of  applause,  and  see  the  glasses  dance  on 
the  thumped  mahogany,  he  should  have  given,  War  eternal,  and 
British  bottoms  forever ! 

The  treaty  was  received  in  the  United  States  with  what  must 
have  seemed,  at  the  time,  universal  execration.  Even  Hamilton, 
though  he  favored  ratification,  pronounced  it,  and  justly  pronounced 
it,  "  execrable  ;  "  nor  was  he  entirely  wrong  in  saying  that  Mr.  Jay 
was  "  an  old  woman  for  making  it."  It  ivas  because  Mr.  Jay 
possessed  some  of  the  traits  which  we  revere  in  our  grandmothers, 
that  he  was  able  to  make  the  treaty.  Posterity's  verdict  on  this 
matter  is  one  in  which  each  successive  student  of  the  period  will 
finally  acquiesce  :  that  a  president  of  the  United  States  has  seldom 
done  an  act  more  difficult,  more  wise,  or  more  right  than  the  ratifi 
cation  of  the  Jay  treaty  of  1794,  which  procured  the  surrender  of 
the  posts,  inaugurated  the  policy  that  naturally  issued  in  arbitration, 
made  some  slight  beginnings  of  reciprocity  and  free  trade,  and 
postponed  inevitable  war  for  eighteen  years.  If  ever  there  was 
a  case  in  which  half  a  loaf  was  better  than  no  bread,  surely  it  was 
this. 

But  the  agonizing  want  of  the  other  half  of  the  loaf  justifies  the 
opposition.  That  was  the  time  when  collections  were  still  made  in 
churches  for  the  ransom  of  American  mariners  in  captivity  among 
the  Algerines;  when  the  whole  crew  of  an  American  vessel  was  fre 
quently  impressed  by  a  British  man-of-war  at  out-of-the-way  places, 
like  the  Barbadoes ;  when  a  neutral  vessel  had  no  rights  which  a 
"  dashing  "  British  captain  would  allow  to  stand  between  himself  and 
his  object ;  when  a  suspicion  that  a  schooner  containing  provisions 
was  bound  for  a  French  port  often  sufficed  to  condemn  her.  A 


518  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

search  in  the  old  garrets  of  Salem,  Gloucester,  Newburyport,  New 
London,  or  any  other  old  town  on  the  coast,  would  discover  hundreds 
of  letters  like  those  given  by  Mrs.  E.  Vale  Smith  in  her  History  of 
Newburyport.  One  captain  of  a  schooner  writes  home,  in  1794, 
from  Martinico  :  "We  are  continually  insulted  and  abused  by  the 
British.  The  commodore  says,  'All  American  property  here  will 
be  confiscated.'  My  schooner  is  unloaded,  stripped,  and  plundered 
of  everything.  Nineteen  American  sail  here  have  been  libelled; 
seven  of  them  were  lashed  together,  and  drifted  ashore,  and  stove  to 
pieces."  Worse  outrages  occurred  in  1796,  when  the  Republicans 
were  concentrating  all  their  forces  upon  defeating  the  appropriation 
needful  for  the  execution  of  the  Jay  treaty.  How  grand  in  Wash 
ington  to  ratify  it!  How  pardonable  the  execrations  that  form  a 
great  part  of  the  glory  of  the  act ! 

It  was  in  April,  1796,  that  the  battle  of  the  treaty  was  fought  in 
the  House  of  Representatives.  The  man  that  saved  it  was,  as  tradi 
tion  reports,  Fisher  Ames  of  Massachusetts,  whose  speech  in  its 
defence,  delivered  to  a  concourse  of  people,  lived  in  the  memory  of 
that  generation  as  the  greatest  achievement  of  eloquence  which  the 
American  parliament  had  yet  exhibited.  He  was  just  the  man  to 
plead  for  such  a  treaty  ;  for  he  was  a  conservative  by  the  nature  of 
his  mind,  and  the  pulmonary  disease  which  was  to  terminate  his 
existence  twelve  years  after  had  already  overspread  his  face  with 
pallor  and  tinged  his  mind  with  gloom.  A  man  so  gifted  as  he 
was,  if  in  robust  and  joyous  health,  might  have  been  brought  to 
vote  for  the  treaty,  but  he  could  not  have  defended  it  with  such 
warmth  and  pathos.  His  appearance,  as  he  rose  to  speak,  was  that 
of  a  man  with  one  foot  in  the  grave;  and  his  first  words  gave  the 
impression  to  the  audience  that  they  were  assisting  at  a  scene  like 
tlio-e  in  which  Chatham,  swathed  in  flannel,  had  risen  in  the 
House  of  Lords  to  speak  for  the  rights  of  Englishmen  violated  in 
America,  or  to  rebuke  the  employment  of  savages  in  a  war  upon 
brethren.  "  I  entertain  the  hope,"  he  faltered,  "perhaps  a  rash  one, 
that  my  strength  will  hold  me  out  to  speak  a  few  minutes."  He 
not.  however,  as  near  death  as  he  looked;  and  as  he  went  on, 
speaking  in  a  peculiar,  reserved  tone,  low,  but  solemn,  weighty,  and 
penetrating,  he  gathered  strength,  and  spoke  for  an  hour  in  a  man 
ner  which  inthralled  every  hearer.  Toward  the  close  occurred  the 
famous  lomakawk  passage,  in  which  he  foretold  the  consequences 


CANDIDATE  FOE  THE  PRESIDENCY.  519 

to  the  frontiers  of  a  longer  retention  of  the  posts  by  the  English. 
On  reaching  this  subject,  the  orator  was  no  longer  an  invalid.  He 
was  transfigured.  His  words  seemed  fraught  with  passionate  appre 
hension,  and  drew  tears  from  the  eyes,  not  of  women  only,  but  of 
judges  grown  gray  on  the  bench.  Such  poor  sentences  as  these 
fell  from  his  lips  in  tones  that  disguised  their  poverty  and 
irrelevancy :  — 

"By  rejecting  the  posts,  we  light  the  savage  fires,  we  bind  the 
victims.  This  day  we  undertake  to  render  account  to  the  widows 
and  orphans  whom  our  decision  may  make,  to  the  wretches  that  will 
be  roasted  at  the  stake,  to  our  country,  and,  I  do  not  deem  it  too 
serious  to  say,  to  conscience  and  to  God.  The  voice  of  humanity 
issues  from  the  shade  of  the  wilderness.  It  exclaims,  that,  while 
one  hand  is  held  up  to  reject  this  treaty,  the  other  grasps  a  toma 
hawk.  I  can  fancy  that  I  listen  to  the  yells  of  savage  vengeance 
and  the  shrieks  of  torture ;  already  they  seem  to  sigh  in  the  western 
wind;  already  they  mingle  with  every  echo  from  the  mountains. 
This  treaty,  like  a  rainbow  on  the  edge  of  the  cloud,  marked  to  our 
eyes  the  space  where  the  storm  was  raging,  and  afforded  at  the 
same  time  the  sure  prognostic  of  fair  weather.  If  we  reject  it,  the 
vivid  colors  will  grow  pale :  it  will  be  a  baleful  meteor,  portending 
tempest  and  war.'7 

When  by  such  appeals  as  these  he  had  wrought  upon  the  feelings 
and  the  fears  of  his  auditors,  he  again,  by  a  stroke  of  the  orator's  art, 
drew  attention  to  himself.  "I  have,"  said  he,  -"as  little  personal 
interest  in  the  event  as  any  one  here.  There  is,  I  believe,  no  mem 
ber  who  will  not  think  his  chance  to  be  a  witness  to  the  consequences 
greater  than  mine.  If,  however,  the  vote  should  pass  to  reject,  and 
a  spirit  should  arise,  as  it  will,  with  the  public  disorders  to  make 
confusion  worse  confounded,  even  I,  slender  and  almost  broken  as 
my  hold  upon  life  is,  may  outlive  the  government  and  Constitution 
of  my  country. 

The  last  stroke  completed  the  subjugation  of  his  audience.  "My 
God ! "  exclaimed  Irish  Judge  Iredell  (of  the  Supreme  Court)  to 
Vice-president  Adams  seated  at  his  side,  "how  great  he  is!  how 
great  he  has  been  !  "  "  Noble  ! "  cried  Adams.  "  Bless  my  stars  ! " 
broke  in  the  judge,  after  a  pause,  "I  never  heard  any  thing  so  great 


520  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

since  I  was  born!"  "Divine!"  chimed  in  the  vice-president. 
And  so  they  continued  their  interchange  of  interjections  while  the 
tears  rolled  down  their  cheeks.  "Not  a  dry  eye  in  the  house,"  Mr. 
Adams  reports,  "except  some  of  the  jackas>es  who  had  occasioned 
the  oratory.  These  attempted  to  laugh,  hut  their  visages  grinned 
horribly  ghastly  smiles."  The  ladies,  he  adds,  wished  the  orator's 
soul  had  a  better  body.  Forty-eight  hours  after,  the  treaty  was 
carried  by  a  vote  of  fifty-one  to  forty-eight. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  Fisher  Ames's  appeal  to  the  apprehensions 
and  sympathies  of  the  House,  supported  by  his  artful  allusion  to  the 
<'*ts  involved,  may  have  added  the  needful  votes  to  the  side  of 
the  administration.  He  did  not  disdain  to  remind  his  auditors  on 
this  occasion,  that  "profit  was  every  hour  becoming  capital,"  and 
that  "  the  vast  crop  of  our  neutrality  was  all  seed-wheat,  and  was 
sown  again  to  swell  almost  beyond  calculation  the  future  harvest  of 
our  prosperity."  He  \vas  right  there.  Seldom  has  there  been  a  treaty 
that  brought  in  a  larger  return  of  profit,  and  never  one  that  yielded 
less  honor.  Many  interests  united  in  the  demand  for  the  treaty. 
It  was  only  the  honor  and  dignity  of  the  nation  that  could  be 
sacrificed  by  accepting  it;  and  they  were  only  saved  by  the  hard 
necessity  of  the  case.  A  hand  was  in  the  lion's  mouth  which  it 
was  a  thing  of  necessity  to  get  out;  and  on  the  1st  of  June,  17%, 
when  the  posts  were  surrendered,  that  indispensable  preliminary  to 
a  f;iir  fight  was  accomplished. 

From  the  airy  height  of  Monticello,  Jefferson  surveyed  this 
troubled  scene  with  the  deepest  interest.  He  held  the  treaty  in 
abhorrence.  He  thought  the  honest  part  of  its  friends  were  influ 
enced  by  an  excessive,  unreasonable  dread  of  the  power  of  Great 
Britain  ;  and  the  dishonest,  by  the  vast  pecuniary  interests  involved. 
1I«-  >praks  of  one  person,  high  in  office,  who  was  possessed  in  turn 
by  a  mortal  fear  of  two  bugbears,  —  a  British  fleet  and  the  demo- 
•al  societies.  Years  after  the  storm  of  this  controversy  had 
blown  over,  he  still  adhered  to  the  opinion,  that,  "by  a  firm  yet  just 
conduct  in  171K>,  we  might  have  obtained  a  respect  for  our  neutral 
rights."  Xot  being  a  military  man,  having,  indeed,  no  military 
instincts,  the  recovery  of  the  posts  did  not  strike  his  mind  as  a 
compensation  for  the  defects  <•!'  the  treaty  ;  and  inhabiting  a  part  of 
the  country  which  Chared  the  perils  of  the  situation,  but  itot  its 
i'Cfit'j)  which  bore  the  &hame  of  a  violated  flag  without  deriv- 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY.  521 

ing  profit  from  the  commerce  that  escaped  interruption,  he  desired 
ardently  the  rejection  of  the  treaty.  Once,  in  the  heat  of  the  con 
troversy,  lie  declared  that  General  Washington  was  the  only  honest 
man  who  favored  it.  Silence,  however,  became  a  candidate  for  the 
presidency;  and,  though  he  lent  the  aid  of  his  experience  and 
knowledge  to  Madison  in  private  conferences,  he  uttered  not  a  word 
designed  for  the  public  eye  or  ear.  After  the  final  acceptance  of 
he  treaty  in  jVpril,  1796,  he  passed  a  quiet,  pleasant  summer  in  the 
congenial  labors  of  his  farm  and  garden,  and  in  building  his  house, 
never  going  seven  miles  from  home. 

To  secure  the  influence  of  General  Washington  was  one  of  the 
•bjects  of  both  parties.  The  president  could  have  decided  this 
election  by  merely  letting  it  be  distinctly  known  which  of  the  two 
candidates  he  preferred  for  his  successor.  Nor  were  attempts  want 
ing  to  bias  his  mind.  Only  a  few  months  after  Jefferson's  return 
home,  in  1794,  Governor  Henry  Lee  of  Virginia,  a  recent  convert  to 
Federalism,  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  do  a  dastardly  act :  he  was  con 
strained  by  his  conscience  to  report  to  the  president  a  question 
which  Mr.  Jefferson  was  said  to  have  addressed  to  a  guest  at  his 
own  house.  Lee  was  not  present  when  this  awful  question  was 
asked;  but  he  had  received  his  information  from  the  "very  respect 
able  gentleman77  of  whom  Mr.  Jefferson  had  made  the  inquiry: 
"Was  it  possible  that  the  president  had  attached  himself  to  Eng 
land,  and  was  governed  by  British  influence  ?  "  General  Washing 
ton,  though  he  stooped  to  reply  to  this  small  infamy,  marked  his 
sense  of  it  by  immediately  (two  days  after)  sending  an  express  to 
invite  Jefferson  back  to  his  old  place  in  the  cabinet.  And  now,  in 
the  summer  of  1796,  we  find  him  writing  to  Jefferson  in  the  most 
frank  and  friendly  manner,  as  of  old,  though  evidently  smarting 
under  the  sharp  attacks  of  the  Republican  press.  People  told  him, 
he  wrote,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  had  represented  the  president  as  being 
too  much  under  Hamilton's  influence.  "My  answer,'7  said  he, 
"  has  invariably  been,  that  I  had  never  discovered  any  thing  in  the 
conduct  of  Mr.  Jefferson  to  raise  suspicions  in  my  mind  of  his  insin 
cerity;  that,  if  he  would  retrace  my  public  conduct  while  he  was  in 
the  administration,  abundant  proofs  would  occur  to  him,  that  truth 
and  right  decisions  were  the  sole  objects  of  my  pursuit;  that  there 
were  as  many  instances  within  his  own  knowledge  of  my  having 
decided  against  as  in  favor  of  the  opinions  of  the  person  evidently 


522  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

alluded  to;  and,  moreover,  that  I  was  no  believer  in  the  infallibility 
of  the  politics  or  measures  of  any  man  living."  At  the  same  time, 
he  bitterly  complained  that  he  should  be  rewarded  for  an  honest 
attempt  to  avert  a  desolating  war,  by  being  assailed  "in  such  exag 
gerated  and  indecent  terms  as  could  scarcely  be  applied  to  a  Nero, 
a  notorious  defaulter,  or  even  to  a  common  pickpocket."  Mrs. 
Washington,  who  is  said  to  have  hated  "filthy  democrats"  with  all 
the  ardor  of  a  lady  of  the  old  school,  sent  her  "best  wishes"  to  the 
chief  democrat  on  this  occasion.  Indeed,  nothing  like  a  breach 
ever  occurred  between  the  two  families  or  the  two  men ;  and  Jef- 
fer.-oii  never  failed,  on  any  occasion,  to  the  last  day  of  his, life,  to 
do  justice,  not  alone  to  the  integrity  of  Washington, — which  was 
never  questioned, — but  to  his  mind  and  judgment,  which  Hamilton 
underrated,  if  he  did  not  despise.  To  Jefferson's  pen  we  owe  the 
best  characterization  of  Washington  which  comes  down  to  us  from 
his  contemporaries. 

The  strife  of  parties  continued  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1796.  The  contest  was  unexpectedly  close.  The  Jay  treat}7,  though 
the  remoter  commerce  of  the  young  nation  was  almost  created  by  it, 
seemed  at  first,  to  the  great  damage  of  his  friends,  only  to  give  new 
audacity  to  the  dashing  British  captain.  "Three  hundred  American 
•Is  seized,  and  one  thousand  American  sailors  impressed,"  during 
the  year  following  its  ratification  !  Such  was  the  statement  of  the 
Republican  press  of  the  period.  Long  lists  of  seizures  lie  before  me, 
—  not  three  hundred,  it  is  true,  nor  one  hundred,  but  enough  to  stir 
the  indignation  of  those  who  read  the  particulars,  even  at  this  late 
day.  Nor  was  the  news  from  France  re-assuring.  Republicans,  in 
17'.)(>,  r<»uld  point  to  France,  after  exhibiting  the  catalogue  of  British 
impressments  and  captures,  and  say,  with  alarming  appearance  of 
truth,  The  Jay  treaty,  which  has  not  conciliated  our  most  danger 
ous  enemy.  Las  alienated  our  only  friend. 

James  Monroe  replaced  in  Paris  the  brilliant  aristocrat,  Gouvcr- 
neur  Morris,  a  few  days  after  the  execution  of  Robespierre  had 
broken  tlie  .^pell  of  terror.  The  National  Convention  received  the 
young  Republican  with  every  Junior  which  enthusiasm  eouM  suggest. 
Reiterated  plaudits  greeted  his  entrance,  and  followed  the  reading  of 
a  translation  of  his  address.  The  chairman  of  the  Convention  re 
plied  in  ;t  style-  of  rhetorical  flourish  that  made  Monroe's  plain*speech 
Beein  a  model  of  Roman  simplicity.  "  Why,"  said  the  president 


CANDIDATE  FOE   THE   PRESIDENCY.  523 

length,  "should  I  delay  to  confirm  the  friendship  of  our  republics 

the  fraternal  embrace  I  am  directed  to  give  you  in  the  name  of 

e  French  people  ?     Come  and  receive  it  in  the  name  of  the  Amer- 

an  people  ;  and  may  this  scene  destroy  the  last  hope  of  the  impious 

nd  of  tyrants  !  "     Mr.  Monroe  was  then  conducted  to  the  presi- 

nt,  who,  as  the  Moniteur  of  the  next  day  reports,  "  gave  the  kiss 

d  embrace  in  the  midst  of  universal  acclamations  of  joy,  delight, 

d  admiration."     Republican  Paris  smiled  upon  the  new  minister. 

e    found  it  not  difficult  to  procure  the  release  of  Thomas  Paine 

m  the  Luxembourg.     He  wrote  consolingly  to  Paine  in  his  prison, 

liming   him    as    an  American    citizen    concerning  whose  welfare 

nericans  could  not  be  indifferent,  and  for  whom  the  president  cher- 

shed  a  grateful  regard.     He  received  the  sick  and  forlorn  captive 

nto  his  house,  and  entertained  him  for  a  year  and  a  half.     All  went 

7ell  with  Mr.  Monroe  until  the   rumor   of   Jay's  mission  reached 

3aris.     From  that  hour  to  the  convention  of  1800,  the  relations  of 

he  "United  States  with  France  had  but  one  course,  from  bad  to  worse ; 

French    captains,  at  length,    surpassing   the   English    in   dashing 

ixploits  upon  schooners  hailing  from  the  American  coast. 


CHAPTER  LV. 

ELECTED    VICE-PRESIDENT. 

IT  was  for  these  reasons  that  the  voters  were  so  evenly  divided  ii 
November,  1796,  between  the  candidates  of  the  two  parties,  —  Adam 
and  Pinekney,  Jefferson  and  Burr.  Jefferson  had  the  narrowes 
escape  from  being  elected  to  the  presidency:  Adams  71,  Jeffersoi 
68,  Pinckney  59,  Burr  30,  Samuel  Adams  15,  Oliver  Ellsworth  13 
George  Clinton  7,  Jay  5,  Iredell  2,  George  Washington  2,  Joh] 
Henry  2,  Samuel  Johnson  2,  C.  C.  Pinckney  1.  It  was  a  geograph 
icul  result.  For  Adams,  the  Xorth  ;  for  Jefferson,  the  South,  — 
except  that  Jefferson  received  every  Pennsylvania  vote  but  one,  an< 
Adams  seven  from  Maryland,  one  from  Virginia,  and  one  fron 

^orth  Carolina.  Hamilton  might  well  say  that  Mr.  Adams  wa 
elected  by  a  kind  of  "  miracle  j  "  for  the  three  votes  that  elected  bin 
were,  so  to  speak,  unnatural,  eccentric,  contrary  to  all  rational  expec 
tation,  against  the  current  of  popular  feeling  in  the  States  whicl 
gave  them,  namely,  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia 
According  to  the  Constitution,  not  then  amended,  Mr.  Jefferson,  hav 
ing  iv.-eived  iH-xt  to  the  highest  number  of  electoral  votes,  wa 

selected  vice-president. 

1 1.  cembei  was  well  advanced  before  he  knew  the  result.  His  feel 
ings  on  learning  it  were  fully  expressed  in  a  confidential  letter  t< 
his  other  political  self,  James  Madison.  He  said  the  vote  had  conn 
much  nraivr  an  equality  than  he  had  expected,  and  that  he  was  wel 
content  with  his  ocape.  "  As  to  the  first  office,"  said  he,  "it  wa: 
impossible  that  a  more  solid  unwillingness,  settled  on  full  calculation 
could  have  exi.-ted  in  any  man's  mind,  short  of  the  degree  of  abso 
lute  refusal.  The  only  view  on  which  I  would  have  gone  into  it  fo: 
a  while  was,  to  put  our  vessel  on  her  republican  tack,  before  sh< 
should  be  thrown  too  much  to  leeward  of  her  true  principles.  As  t( 

fi-U 


ELECTED  VICE-PRESIDENT.  525 

e  second,  it  is  the  only  office  in  the  world  about  which  I  am  unable 
decide  in  ray  own  mind  whether  I  had  rather  have  it  or  not  have 
Pride  does  not  enter  into  the  estimate ;  for  I  think  with  the 
omans,  that  the  general  of  to-day  should  he  a  soldier  to-morrow  if 
ecessary.     I  can  particularly  have  no  feelings  which  would  revolt 
a  secondary  position  to  Mr.  Adams.     I  am  his  junior  in  life,  was 
s  junior  in  Congress,  his  junior  in  the  diplomatic  line,  his  junior 
te\y  in  our  civil  government."     Nay,  more  :  "  If  Mr.  Adams  can 
induced  to  administer  the  government  on  its  true  principles,  and 
relinquish  his  bias  to  an  English  constitution,  it  is  to  be  considered 
h ether  it  would  not  be,  on  the  whole,  for  the  public  good  to  come  to 
good  understanding  with  him  as  to  his  future  elections.     He  is, 
erhaps,  the  only  sure  barrier  against  Hamilton's  getting  in." 

Having  settled  these  affairs  of  state,  he  proceeds  to  discourse  upon 
i  parcel  of  books  which  Madison  had  lately  sent  him.  In  this  letter 
;o  Madison  he  enclosed  an  open  one  to  Mr.  Adams,  leaving  it  to 
Madison's  discretion  to  forward  or  return  it.  Jefferson's  doubt  as  to 
;he  propriety  of  sending  this  letter  arose  from  the  awkwardness  of 
Drofessing  indifference  to  public  honors.  Not  one  man  in  five  could 
;hen  believe  such  professions  sincere;  and  we  see,  in  all  the  cam 
paign  frenzy  of  those  years,  the  most  unquestioning  assumption  that 
Jefferson's  every  act  and  word  had  but  one  object,  — the  presidency. 
He  desired  to  say  to  Mr.  Adams  how  satisfied  he  was,  personally, 
ivith  the  result  of  the  election,  and  to  congratulate  him  upon  the 
aonor  his  country  had  done  him.  "  I  leave  to  others,"  he  wrote, 
:'the  sublime  delight  of  riding  in  the  storm,  better  pleased  with 
sound  sleep  and  a  warm  berth  below,  with  the  society  of  neighbors, 
friends,  and  fellow-laborers  of  the  earth,  than  of  spies  and  sycophants. 
N"o  one,  then,  will  congratulate  you  with  purer  disinterestedness  than 
myself.  The  share,  indeed,  which  I  may  have  ha'd  in  the  late  vote, 
[  shall  still  value  highly,  as  an  evidence  of  the  share  I  have  in  the 
ssteem  of  my  fellow-citizens.  But  still,  in  this  point  of  view,  a  few 
rotes  less  would  be  little  sensible  ;  the  difference  in  the  effect  of  a 
few  more  would  be  very  sensible  and  oppressive  to  me.  I  have  no 
ambition  to  govern  men.  It  is  a  painful  and  tjiankless  office." 

Upon  reflection,  Mr.  Madison  deemed  it  best  not  to  send  this  let 
ter.  The  "  ticklish  temper,"  of  Mr.  Adams,  the  consideration  due 
to  those  who  had  so  vehemently  contested  his  election,  and  the  prob 
able  future  necessity  of  opposing  his  measures,  induced  him  to  keep 


r>26  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  letter  till  Mr.  Jefferson's  arrival  at  the  seat  of  government.  Ai 
the  same  time  Mr.  Madison  admitted  "the  duty  and  policy  of  culti 
vating  Mr.  Adams's  favorable  disposition,  and  giving  a  fair  start  tc 
his  executive  career." 

As  soon  as  the  result  of  this  long  contest  was  known,  an  imagina 
tive  paragraph ist  evolved  the  report,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  would  not 
deign  to  accept  the  second  office.  The  rumor  rapidl}r  spread  itself 
over  the  country.  Madison  wrote  to  Monticello,  suggesting  that  the 
best  way  to  dispel  so  absurd  an  imputation  was  for  Mr.  Jefferson  to 
come  to  Philadelphia  and  be  publicly  sworn  in  on  the  4th  of  March. 
It  was  one  of  the  "  cold  winters  "  of  the  century.  On  the  very  day 
upon  which  Madison  wrote  this  letter  the  shivering  lord  of  Monti- 
cello,  in  the  course  of  a  long  meteorological  letter  to  Volney  (in  exile 
;it  Philadelphia)  used  these  words :  "It  is  at  this  moment  so  cold,  that 
the  ink  freezes  in  my  pen,  so  that  my  letter  will  scarcely  be  legible." 
It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  remodelled  mansion  was  not  yet  weather 
proof.  For  so  healthy  a  man,  Jefferson  was  curiously  susceptible  of 
cold  ;  and  he  once  wrote  that  he  had  suffered  during  his  life  more 
from  cold  than  from  all  other  physical  causes  put  together.  He 
resolved  however,  as  he  told  Madison,  to  appear  in  Philadelphia  on 
the  day  of  the  inauguration,  "  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  public, 
and  to  do  away  with  the  doubts  which  have  spread  that  I  should  con 
sider  the  second  office  as  beneath  my  acceptance."  The  journey, 
however,  he  owned,  was  "a  tremendous  undertaking  for  one  who  had 
not  been  seven  miles  from  home  since  his  resettlement." 

Jefferson's  aversion  to  ceremonial  was  manifested  on  this  occa 
sion.  It  was  an  article  of  his  political  creed,  that  political  office 
stood  upon  the  same  footing  as  any  other  respectable  vocation,  and 
entitled  the  holder  to  no  special  consideration  ;  no  respect  except 
that  which  justly  rewards  fidelity  to  any  important  trust;  no  eti 
quette  except  such  as  that  very  fidelity  necessitates  ;  no  privileges 
except  those  legally  given  to  facilitate  the  discharge  of  public  duty. 
Holding  this  opinion,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Tazewell  of  the  Senate,  ask 
ing  him  to  prevent  the  sending  of  a  costly  and  imposing  embassy  to 
notify  him  of  his  election,  as  had  been  done  when  General  Wash 
ington  and  Mr.  Adams  were  first  elected.  Better  drop  a  letter  into 
the  post-office,  said  he  in  substance:  it  is  the  simplest,  quickest, 
and  surest  way.  He  begged  Madison,  also,  to  discourage  any  thing 
that  might  be  proposed  in  the  way  of  a  public  reception  at  Phila- 


ELECTED  VICE-PRESIDENT.  527 

elphia.  ""If  Governor  Mifflin"  (of  Pennsylvania,  a  pronounced 
tepublican),  f<  should  show  any  symptoms  of  ceremony,  pray  con- 
ive  to  parry  them." 

When  John  Howard  was   appointed  high-sheriff  of  his  county, 
}  conceived  the  novel  idea  of  inquiring  what  duties  were  attached 
)  the  office.     The  duties  of  a  high-sheriff,  he  was  informed,  were 
ride  into  town  on  court  days  in  a  gilt  coach,  entertain  the  judges 
;  dinner,  and  give   an   annual   county  ball.     But  Howard  pushed 
s  eccentricity  so  far  as  to  look  into  the  law-books,  to  see  if  there 
ight  not  be  something  else  required  at  the  hands  of  a  high-sheriff, 
here  ivas  :  he  was  to  inspect  the  jail  !    He  inspected  the  jail ;  and 
inspection  had  the  unprecedented  quality  of  being  real.     He 
oked;  he  felt;  he  smelt;  he  tasted  ;  he  weighed  ;  he  measured; 
he  questioned.     The  reformation  of  the  jails  of  Christendom   dates 
from  that  incongruous  act.     So  Jefferson,  soon  after  his  election  to 
an  office  that  made  him  chairman  of  the  Senate,  awoke  to  the  fact 
that  he  was,  from  twelve  years'  disuse,  "  entirely  rusty  in  the  parlia 
mentary  rules   of  procedure."     He   had  once   been  well  versed  in 
those  rules.     Among  the  many  curious  relics  of  his  tireless,  minute 
industry,  which  have  been  preserved  to  this  day,  is  a  small,  well- 
worn,  leather-bound  manuscript  volume   of  one  hundred   and  five 
pages,  entitled  "  Parliamentary  Pocket-book,  "  begun  by  him  when 
be  was  a  young  lawyer,  expecting  soon  to  be  a  member  of  the  par 
liament  of  Virginia.     This  work,  which  contained  the  substance  of 
ancient  parliamentary  law  and  usage,  he  now  fished  from  its  hiding- 
place  ;  and  upon  it,  as  a  basis,  he  gradually  constructed  his  "  Manual 
Df  Parliamentary  Practice,"   which   still    governs    our  deliberative 
bodies.     After  amending  it,  and  adding  to  it  for  four  years,  aided 
by  the  learning  and  experience   of  his   ancient   master  in   the  law, 
Greorge  Wythe,  he  left  it  in  manuscript  to  the  Senate,  as  the   stand 
ard  by  which  he  had  "judged  and  was  willing  to  be  judged." 

The  opening  paragraph  betrays  the  habit  of  his  mind,  and  shows 
from  what  quarter  he  habitually  expected  danger:  "Mr.  Onslow, 
the  ablest  among  the  speakers  of  the  House  of  Commons,  used  to 
say,  It  was  a  maxim  he  had  often  heard,  when  he  was  a  young 
man,  from  old  and  experienced  members,  that  nothing  tended  more 
to  throw  power  into  the  hand  of  administration,  and  those  who 
acted  with  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons,  than  a  neglect  of, 
or  departure  from,  the  rules  of  proceedings ;  that  these  forms,  as 


528  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

instituted  by  our  ancestors,  operated  as  a  check  and  control  on  th< 
actions  of  the  majority  ;  and  that  they  were,  in  many  instances,  i 
shelter  and  protection  to  the  minority  against  the  attempts  of 
power."  This  little  Manual  is  a  wonderful  piece  of  work,  compact 
with  the  brief  results  of  wide  research.  This  sentence  startles  one 
who  now  turns  over  its  pages :  "  WHEN  THE  PRIVATE  INTERESTS 

OF  A  MEMBER  ARE  CONCERNED  IN  A  BILL  OR  QUESTION,  HE  IS  TO 
WITHDRAW  !  " 

In  1797  it  was  still  ten  days'  ride  from  Monticello  to  Philadel 
phia.  AVlicii  Mr.  Jefferson's  man,  Jupiter,  drove  his  chaise  round  to 
the  door  on  the  20th  of  February,  the  master  did  not  forget  that  a 
few  weeks  In-fore  he  had  been  elected  president  of  the  Philosophical 
Society  ;  mid,  accordingly,  he  placed  in  the  carriage  some  bones  of 
tin*  mastodon,  lately  come  into  his  possession,  the  size  of  which  had 
filled  him  with  special  wonder.  With  the  Parliamentary  Pocket- 
book  in  his  trunk,  and  these  bones  under  the  seat,  he  was  well 
set  up  in  both  his  characters.  From  Alexandria  he  took  the  public 
coach,  and  sent  his  own  vehicle  home ;  not  omitting  to  record  in 
his  diary  that  the  stage-fare  from  Alexandria  to  Philadelphia  was 
.*?  1 1 .7.").  —  no  great  charge  for  six  days'  ride  in  February  mud.  Mr. 
Madison  did  not  succeed  in  parrying  the  symptoms  of  ceremony;  for 
wi-  ivad  in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  of  the  time,  that  on  Thurs 
day,  the  2d  of  March,  "the  company  of  artillery  welcomed  that 
tri»-d  patriot,  Thomas  Jefferson,  with  a  discharge  of  sixteen  rounds 
from  two  twelve-pounders,  and  a  flag  was  displayed  from  the 
park  of  artillery  bearing  the  device  '  Jefferson,  the  Friend  of  the 
Peopl 

The  inauguration  of  a  new  president,  like  the  accession  of  a 
young  prince  to  a  throne,  is  naturally  a  time  of  joyous  excitement ; 
but  the  present  occasion  was  clouded  with  apprehension.  Every 
newspaper  of  those  early  weeks  of  171)7,  which  contained  news  from 
abroad,  had  from  one  to  a  dozen  items  like  this:  "The  ship  Eliza, 
on  her  passage  from  Liverpool  to  New  York,  sprang  a  leak,  and  was 
obliged  to  hear  away  to  the  AYest  Indies.  In  sight  of  Martinico  she 
was  taken  by  a  Fr<  nrl  privateer,  and  run  ashore,  where  she  was  totally 
wrecked.  The  captain  was  imprisoned  thirty-two  days,  and  then 
released  without  trial.*'  This  from  the  only  power  in  the  world 
which  could  l>e  regarded  as  the  natural  ally  of  the  United  States  ! 
This  from  the  native  land  of  Lafayette!  And  now  the  great 


ELECTED  VICE-PRESIDENT.  529 

character  which  had  stood  between  contending  parties,  himself  no 
partisan,  was  to  withdraw  from  the  scene,  leaving  the  crisis  to  be 
dealt  with  by  men  untried  in  the  responsibilities  of  government. 
Good  citizens  might  well  be  anxious  for  their  country. 

On  reaching  Philadelphia,  Jefferson  went  at  once  to  pay  his 
respects  to  Mr.  Adams,  who,  the  next  morning,  returned  the  call, 
and  started  immediately  the  tojfic  that  was  upon  every  man's  mind 
and  tongue,  —  the  danger  of  a  rupture  with  France.  The  president 
elect  said  that  he  was  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  sending  an 
embassy  to  that  country.  The  first  wish  of  his  heart  would  have 
been  to  intrust  the  mission  to  Jefferson  ;  but  he  supposed  that  was 
out  of  the  question,  as  it  did  not  seem  justifiable  for  a  president  to 
send  away  the  person  destined  to  take  his  place  in  case  of  accident 
to  himself,  nor  decent  to  remove  from  competition  one  who  was  a 
rival  for  the  public  favor.  He  had  resolved,  he  said,  to  send  an 
imposing  embassy  of  three  distinguished  persons,  —  Elbridge  Gerry 
from  New  England,  from  Virginia  James  Madison,  from  South  Caro 
lina  C.  C.  Pinckney.  The  dignity  of  the  mission,  he  thought, 
would  satisfy  France  j  and  its  selection  from  the  three,  great  divis 
ions  of  the  country  would  satisfy  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Mr.  Jefferson  agreed  with  the  president  elect  as  to  the  impropriety 
of  his  leaving  the  post  assigned  him  by  the  people,  and  consented 
to  make  known  his  wishes  to  Madison.  Mr.  Adams  was  all  candor 
and  cordiality  on  this  occasion.  In  the  elation  of  the  hour,  he 
evidently  regarded  Mr.  Jefferson  as  a  colleague,  with  whom  it  was 
but  natural  for  him  to  consult.  In  his  swelling  moments,  during 
these  first  days  of  his  elevation,  he  liked  to  compare  Jefferson's 
position  in  the  country  with  that  of  prince-royal  or  heir-apparent 
to  a  throne,  —  much  too  exalted  a  personage  to  be  sent  on  any 
mission. 

On  the  last  day  of  Washington's  term,  Jefferson  was  one  of  the 
guests  at  the  dinner  given  by  the  president  to  the  conspicuous  per 
sons  of  the  capital  with  whom  he  had  been  officially  connected.  It 
was  a  merry  dinner ;  for,  on  this  occasion,  he  who  was  to  lay  down 
the  burden  of  power  was  happier  than  they  who  were  to  take  it  up. 
On  Saturday,  the  4th  of  March,  occurred  the  memorable  scenes  of  the 
inauguration  so  often  described.  At  eleven  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the 
Senate  Chamber,  was  sworn  into  office,  assumed  the  chair,  and  deliv 
ered  the  usual  brief  address.  He  concluded  with  a  cordial  tribute  to 
34 


530  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON". 

Mr.  Adams:  " Xo  one  more  sincerely  prays  tliat  no  accident  may 
call  me  to  the  higher  and  more  important  functions  which  the  Con 
stitution  eventually  devolves  on  this  office.  These  have  been  justly 
confided  to  the  eminent  character  which  has  preceded  me  here,  whose 
talents  and  integrity  have  been  known  and  revered  by  me  through 
a  long  course  of  years,  and  have  been  the  foundation  of  a  cordial  and 
uninterrupted  friendship  between  its;  and  I  devoutly  pray  he  may 
be  long  preserved  for  the  government,  the  happiness,  and  prosperity 
of  our  common  country." 

The  Senate,  with  Mr.  Jefferson  at  their  head,  then  .proceeded  to 
the  representatives'  Hull,  where  Mr.  Adams  took  the  oath,  and 
delivered  his  robust  inaugural,  so  worthy  of  him  and  of  the  occasion, 
so  little  appreciated  by  the  party  leaders  who  were  to  deceive,  mis 
lead,  and  destroy  him.  General  Washington's  fine  sense  of  propri 
ety  \va-  shown  on  this  occasion  in  a  trifling  incident  that  caught 
every  eye  and  dwelt  in  many  memories.  After  Mr.  Adams  had  left 
the  chamber,  the  general  and  Mr.  Jefferson  rose  at  the  same  moment 
to  follow  him  ;  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  of  course,  stood  aside  to  let  the 
ex-presid'-nt  take  the  lead  in  leaving  the  chamber.  But  the  private 
citi/en  pointedly  refused  to  accept  the  precedence  over  the  vice- 
piv-id'-nt.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  obliged  to  go  first. 

That  afternoon  there  was  a  mighty  banquet  given  in  honor  of  the 
retiring  chief  by  the  merchants  of  Philadelphia  ;  which  was  attended 
by  the  president,  the  vice-president,  members  of  Congress,  the  cabi 
net,  the  foreign  ministers,  and  a  great  company  of  noted  citizens. 
The  circus  was  converted  into  a  banqueting-hall,  to  which  the  com 
pany  marched,  two  and  two,  from  the  great  tavern  of  the  day.  The 
toa>t  given  by  Jefferson  was  very  significant  to  the  men  of  that 
time,  littl"  as  it  conveys  to  us:  "  Eternal  union  of  sentiment  between 
the  commerce  and  agriculture  of  our  country."  Benevolent  readers 
will  he  pleased  to  learn,  that,  in  accordance  with  a  kindly  custom  of 
the  period,  "the  remains  of  this  festival  were  given  to  the  prisoners 
in  the  jail,  and  the  sick  in  the  hospital,  that  the  unfortunate  and 
afflicted  might  also  rejoice." 

Sunday  passed.  If  we  may  judge  from  the  vituperation  of  after- 
years,  Mr.  Jefferson  took  the  liberty  of  attending  the  Unitarian 
chapel,  where  Dr.  Priestley  might  then  be  occasionally  heard,  instead 
of  exhibiting  himself  at  Christ  Church,  which  had  been  more  politic. 

On  Monday   Mr.  Adams   and  himself  again  dined  with  General 


ELECTED  VICE-PRESIDENT.  531 

Washington.  As  they  chanced  to  leave  at  the  same  moment,  they 
walked  together  until  their  ways  diverged,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  seized 
bhe  opportunity  to  inform  the  president  that  Madison  declined  the 
French  mission.  The  topic  had  evidently  become  an  embarrassing 
one  to  the  president.  Objections,  he  said,  in  his  honest,  tactless 
manner,  had  been  made  to  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Madison  ;  and  he 
continued  to  stammer  excuses  till  the  welcome  corner  of  Market 
Street  and  Fifth  Street  gave  him  an  undeniable  excuse  for  breaking 
off  the  conversation. 

Mr.  Adams  never  again  consulted  the  vice-president  on  a  political 
measure.  They  exchanged  punctually  the  civilities  which  their  situ 
ations  and  their  ancient  friendship  demanded ;  but  never  again  did 
they  converse  on  a  measure  of  the  administration.  Mr.  Jefferson, 
as  he  strolled  along  Fifth  Street  in  the  silence  and  solitude  of  a 
Philadelphia  evening,  mused  upon  the  cause  of  the  sudden  change 
in  the  president's  tone  on  the  subject  of  the  French  mission.  He 
arrived  at  a  probable  solution  of  the  mystery:  Mr.  Adams  had  met 
the  cabinet  that  Monday  morning  for  the  first  time.  Madison  to 
France  !  What  a  proposition  to  make  to  a  knot  of  Federalists,  sore 
and  hot  from  the  strife  of  1796  !  Madison,  the  thorn  in  Hamilton's 
side  for  seven  years,  to  be  selected  for  the  most  conspicuous  honor 
in  the  administration's  gift  by  Hamilton's  own  satellites  and  proteges! 
Mr.  Adams,  as  Jefferson  conjectured,  rose  from  the  council-table  in 
an  altered  mood ;  and  "  as  he  never  acted  on  any  system,  but  was 
always  governed  by  the  feeling  of  the  moment,"  he  gave  up  his 
dream  of  steering  impartially  between  the  two  parties,  and  employ 
ing  the  talents  of  both,  in  the  lofty  style  of  Washington.  It  is  not 
given  to  every  man  to  bend  the  bow  of  Ulysses  !  The  king  and  the 
heir-apparent  seldom  agree  in  politics  while  the  king  reigns ! 


CHAPTER  LVI. 
HAMILTON'S  AMOUR  WITH  MRS.  REYNOLDS. 

WHETHER  the  people  of  the  United  States  should  govern  or  be 
governed,  or,  in  other  words,  whether  America  should  remain  Amer 
ica  or  become  merely  a  greater  Britain,  —  that  was  the  issue  in  the 
infuriate  presidential  election  of  1800.  The  issue  was  confused,  as 
it  always  is,  by  intrigue,  accident,  and  personality:  but  the  people 
saw  it  clearly  enough  ;  for  of  all  the  devices  of  man  for  clarifying 
and  disseminating  truth,  nothing  has  yet  been  invented  so  effective 
as  one  of  our  hotly  contested  presidential  elections.  Millions  of 
li'-s  an-  generated  only  to  be  consumed;  and  the  two  warring  princi 
ples  stand  at  last  clearly  revealed,  for  each  man  to  choose,  according 
to  his  nature.  Never  once,  from  1789  to  1872,  have  the  people  of 
the  United  States  failed  to  reach  a  decision,  which,  upon  the  whole, 
was  best ;  not  once,  little  as  some  of  us  could  think  so  on  the  morn 
ing  after  certain  elections  that  could  be  named. 

The  discussion  which  had  begun  in  the  privacy  of  President 
Washington's  cabinet  in  1790,  between  American  Jefferson  and 
liritish  Hamilton,  at  length  divided  the  nation  into  two  parties. 
The  representative  individuals  who  began  it  were  now  in  situations 
that  seemed  to  withdraw  them  from  the  arena  of  strife,  —  Hamilton 
a  lawyer  at  the  New  York  bar,  Jefferson  in  the  chair  of  the  Senate: 
and  yet  it  was  about  these  two  men  that  the  strife  concentrated.  It 
was  still  Hamilton  who  led  the  party  of  re-action;  it  was  still  Jef 
ferson  who  inspired  the  Republicans,  —  each  deeply 'and  entirely 
convinced,  that  upon  the  supremacy  of  his  ideas  depended,  not  the 
welfare  of  America  only,  but  the  happiness  of  man.  What  a  might 
there  is  in  disinterested  conviction!  It  sometimes  invests  common 
talents  with  a  far-reaching  and  late-enduring  power  which  unprin 
cipled  genius  never  wields. 
'o3:s 


HAMILTON'S  AMOUK  WITH  MRS.  REYNOLDS.        533 

And  it  so  chanced  in  this  first  year  of  Mr.  Adams's  presidency, 
L797,  that  both  these  individuals,  without  agency  of  their  own  and 
;o  their  extreme  annoyance,  were  invested  with  a  new  and  intense 
xmspicuousness.  They  awoke  to  find  "the  eyes  of  the  universe" 
fixed  upon  them. 

In  April,  1796,  in  the  heat  of  the  debates  upon  the  Jay  treaty, 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  occasion  to  write  a  long  letter  of  business  to  his 
>ld  neighbor,  Mazzei,  then  happily  settled  in  his  native  Italy.  By 
way  of  a  friendly  finish  to  a  letter  of  dull  detail,  he  appended  a 
short  paragraph  upon  politics,  writing  hastily  and  without  reserves, 
as  republican  to  republican.  He  told  Mazzei,  that,  since  he  had  left 
America,  the  aspect  of  politics  had  wonderfully  changed.  An 
Anglican  monarchical  and  aristocratical  party  had  sprung  up,  small 
in  numbers  but  high  in  station,  whose  avowed  object  was  to  draw  us 
over  to  the  substance,  as  they  had  already  to  the  forms,  of  the 
British  government.  On  the  side  of  republicanism  pure  and  simple 
were  these  three,  —  the  people,  the  planters,  and  the  talents; 
against  republicanism  pure  and  simple,  placemen,  office-seekers,  the 
Senate,  "  all  timid  men  who  prefer  the  calm  of  despotism  to  the 
boisterous  sea  of  liberty,  British  merchants  and  Americans  trading 
on  British  capitals,  speculators  and  holders  in  the  banks  and  public 
funds,  a  contrivance  invented  for  the  purposes  of  -corruption,  and 
for  assimilating  us  in  all  things  to  the  rotten  as  well  as  the  sound 
parts  of  the  British  model."  He  added  these  observations :  "  It 
would  give  you  a  fever  were  I  to  name  to  you  the  apostates  who 
have  gone  over  to  these  heresies,  —  men  who  were  Samsons  in  the 
field  and  Solomons  in  the  council,  but  who  have  had  their  heads 
shorn  by  the  harlot  England.  In  short,  we  are  likely  to  preserve 
the  liberty  we  have  obtained  only  by  unremitting  labors  and  perils. 
But  we  shall  preserve  it;  and  our  mass  of  weight  and  wealth  on  the 
good  side  is  so  great  as  to  leave  no  danger  that  force  will  ever  be 
attempted  against  us.  We  have  only  to  awake,  and  snap  the  Lili- 
putian  cords  with  which  they  have  been  entangling  us  during  the 
first  sleep  which  succeeded  our  labors." 

Upon  receiving  this  letter,  Mazzei  translated  the  political  para 
graph  into  Italian,  and  had  it  inserted  in  one  of  the  newspapers  of 
Florence,  as  an  extract  from  a  letter  from  Thomas  Jefferson,  late 
secretary  of  state  of  the  United  States.  The  editor  of  the  Paris 
Momteur  espied  it,  translated  it  into  French,  and  transferred  it  to 


534  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

his  journal.  An  American  editor  translated  it  back  into  English, 
printed  it,  and  soon  all  America  was  ringing  with  it. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  compress  into  a  few  lines  a  greater  amount 
of  exasperating  offence  than  Jefferson  had  managed  to  pack  into 
these;  for  it  was  not  individuals  who  were  hit,  but  classes,  and 
classes,  too,  that  had  weapons  with  which  to  return  the  stroke.  The 
passage  had  another  peculiarity:  to  the  few  extreme  Federalists  it 
bad  the  bitter  sting  of  truth  ;  while  the  mass  of  the  party  honestly 
resented  it  as  calumny.  Nor  could  the  writer  disavow  or  explain  it 
away,  despite  the  errors  of  translation  that  intensified  some  phrases. 
Upon  reflection,  and  after  consultation  with  Madison,  he  decided  to 
adhere  to  his  ancient  rule,  and  publish  not  a  word  of  personal  expla 
nation.  But  nothing  that  Jefferson  ever  did  or  wrote  in  his  whole 
life  gave  such  deep,  wide,  and  lasting  offence  as  this  hasty  post 
script,  written  in  the  heat  of  controversy,  and  published  with  crim 
inal  thoughtlessness  by  a  sincere  friend  four  thousand  miles  away. 
Those  figures  of  speech  which  are  the  natural  utterance  of  a  kindled 
mind,  how  they  delight  and  mislead  the  unconcerned  hearer!  how 
thejr  rankle  in  the  wounds  of  self-love ! 

Hamilton's  affair  was  a  thousand  times  worse  than  this;  and  yet, 
strange  to  say,  it  gave  less  offence,  and  seemed  to  be  sooner  forgot 
ten.  To  clear  himself  from  a  charge  of  peculation  during  his 
tenure  of  the  treasury,  he  was  obliged  to  publish  in  great  detail  the 
history  of  his  amour  with  a  married  woman,  named  Reynolds.  His 
pamphlet  on  this  subject  will  be  valuable  to  any  one  who  may 
desire  to  pursue  Mr.  Lecky's  line  of  investigation  in  America,  and 
get  further  light  upon  the  history  of  morals.  It  is  a  highly  inter 
esting  fact,  that,  A.  D.  1797,  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  the  United 
States,  a  person  who  valued  himself  upon  his  moral  principle,  and 
was  accepted  by  a  powerful  part}T  at  his  own  valuation  in  that  par 
ticular,  should  havo  fdt  it  to  be  a  far  baser  thing  to  cheat  men  of 
their  money  than  to  despoil  women  of  their  honor.  In  this  pam 
phlet  he  puts  his  honorable  wife  to  an  open  shame,  and  publishes  to 
the  world  the  frailty  of  the  woman  who  had  gratified  him  ;  and  this 
to  refute  a  calumny  which  few  would  have  credited.  His  conduct 
in  this  affair  throws  light  upon  his  political  course.  He  could  be 
false  to  women  for  tin-  same  reason  that  he  could  disregard  the  will 
of  the  people,  lie  did  not  look  upon  a  woman  as  a  person  and  an 
equal  with  whom  faith  was  to  be  kept,  any  more  than  he  recognized 


HAMILTON'S  AMOUR  WITH  MRS.  REYNOLDS.        535 

:he  people  as  the  master  and  the  owner  whose  will  was  law.  Origi 
nal  in  nothing,  he  took  his  morals  from  one  side  of  the  Straits  of 
Dover,  and  his  politics  from  the  other. 

What  more  amusing  than  the  high-stepping  morality  of  the  open 
ing  of  this  pamphlet,  where  the  author  declares  that  the  spirit  of 
Jacobinism  (Hamilton's  word  for  the  opinions  .of  his  opponents) 
;hreatens  more  mischief  to  the  world  than  the  three  great  scourges, 
War,  Pestilence,  and  Famine;  and  that  it  is,  in  fact,  nothing  other 
;han  ll  a  conspiracy  of  Vice  against  Virtue  !  "  It  was  after  prelud- 
ng  upon  this  theme,  that  the  representative  of  Injured  Innocence 
told  his  story.  In  the  summer  of  1791,  a  woman  had  called  at  his 
louse  in  Philadelphia,  and  asked  to  speak  with  him  in  private.  As 
soon  as  they  were  alone,  she  had  related  a  piteous  tale, — how  her 
lusband,  after  treating  her  cruelly,  had  left  her  destitute,  and  gone 
)ff  to  live  with  another  woman.  She  now  desired  only  to  get  home 
;o  her  friends  in  New  York ;  and,  knowing  that  Colonel  Hamilton 
was  a  New  Yorker,  she  had  ventured  to  come  to  him,  as  a  country 
man,  and  ask  him  to  give  her  money  enough  for  the  journey.  He 
replied  that  her  situation  was  interesting,  and  that  he  was  disposed 
;o  help  her,  hut  he  had  no  money,  —  a  very  common  case  with  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury.  He  told  her  to  leave  her  address,  and  he 
would  call  or  send  in  the  evening. 

"  In  the  evening,"  he  says,  "  I  put  a  bank-bill  in  my  pocket,  and 
went  to  the  house.  I  inquired  for  Mrs.  Reynolds,  and  was  shown 
up  stairs,  at  the  head  of  which  she  met  me,  and  conducted  me  into  a 
>edroom.  I  took  the  bill  out  of  my  pocket,  and  gave  it  to  her. 
Some  conversation  ensued,  from  which  it  quickly  appeared  that 
other  than  pecuniary  consolation  would  be  acceptable.  After  this  I 
had  frequent  meetings  with  her,  most  of  them  at  my  own  house ; 
Mrs.  Hamilton  with  her  children  being  absent  on  a  visit  to  her 
father." 

These  "  frequent  meetings,"  which  began  in  July,  continued  until 
December,  when  they  were  rudely  interrupted  by  the  return  of  the 
husband,  and  his  discovery  of  what  had  occurred  in  his  absence. 
The  honorable  secretary  received  one  morning  a  chaotic  letter  from 
Mrs.  Reynolds,  who  had  then  become  "Maria"  to  him,  in  which 
she  announced  the  appalling  fact,  in  the  ladies'  spelling  of  the 
period,  that  irate  Reynolds  "  has  swore  if  he  dose  not  se  or  hear 
from  you  to-day,  he  will  write  Mrs.  Hamilton." 


536  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

A  letter  not  less  chaotic,  nor  better  spelled,  soon  arrived  from  Mr. 
Bi-vnolds;  and  this  led  to  an  interview  between  the  husband  and  the 
paramour, —  not  at  Weehawken,  but  in  Colonel  Hamilton's  house. 
The  consolation  which  the  husband  desired  could  not  be  described 
as  "  other  than  pecuniary."  He  asked  for  a  place  under  govern 
ment.  But  Colonel  Hamilton  was  never  capable  of  the  imfamy  of 
saddling  such  a  fellow  upon  the  public  service.  In  the  vain  attempt 
to  shut  the  man's  mouth,  he  committed  very  great  folly,  it  is  true,  but 
not  crime:  he  tried  to  buy  his  silence  with  money,  —  with  a  thou- 
.vand  dollars,  paid  in  two  instalments;  six  hundred  dollars  on  the 
1'L'd  of  December,  1791,  and  the  remainder  January  3,  1792.  The 
reader  knows  very  we41  what  followed;  for  he  lives  in  the  advanced 
year  1874,  when  the  truth  is  familiar  that  blackmail  is  a  case  of 
interminable  subtraction.  The  thousand  dollars  which  was  squeezed 
with  so  much  difficulty  out  of  a  small  salary  kept  the  noble  Rey 
nolds  quiet  for  fourteen  da}rs.  On  the  17th  of  January,  1792,  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  had  the  pleasure  of 
receiving  the  following  note :  — 

'•  Sir  I  suppose  you  will  be  surprised  in  my  writing  to  you 
Repeatedly  as  I  do.  but  dont  be  Alarmed  for  its  Mrs.  R.  wisli  to 
See  you.  and  for  My  own  happiness  and  hers.  I  have  not  the 
Least  Objections  to  your  Calling,  as  a  friend  to  Bouth  of  us.  and 
must  Rely  intirely  on  your  and  her  honnor.  when  I  conversed  with 
you  last.  I  told  you  it  would  be  disagreeable  to  me  for  you  to  Call, 
but  Sence,  I  am  pritty  well  Convinsed,  She  would  onely  wish  to  See 
you  as  a  friend,  and  sence  I  am  Reconsiled  to  .live  with  her,  I 
would  wish  to  do  every  thing  for  her  happiness  and  my  own,  and 
Time  may  ware  of  every  thing,  So  dont  fail  in  Calling  as  Soon  as 
y<>u  fan  make  it  Conveanant.  and  I  Rely  on  your  befriending  me 
if  there  should  any  thing  offer  that  would  be  to  my  advantage,  as 
you  Express  a  wish  to  befrind  me.  So  I  am  yours  to  Serve 

"  JAMES  REYNOLDS." 

From  this  letter  it  appeared  that  Mr.  Reynolds  wished  to  open  a 
new  account  with  a  gentleman  who  was  so  free  with  his  money. 
But  the  burnt  child  avoided  the  lire.  Colonel  Hamilton  did  not 
call.  Late  one  evening,  a  maid-servant  left  at  his  door  an  epistle 
still  mure  moving  from  ••  Maria''  herself.  She  could  "  neither  Eate 


HAMILTON'S  AMOUR  WITH  MRS.  REYNOLDS.        537 

ior  sleep."  She  had  been  on  the  point  of  doing  "  the  moast  horrid 
lets/'  the  thought  of  which  made  her  "  shuder."  She  felt  that  she 
*vas  not  long  for  this  world;  and  all  she  asked  was  to  "  se  "  him 
mce  more.  "  For  God  sake,"  she  concluded,  "  be  not  so  voed  of  all 
mmannity  as  to  deni  me  this  Last  request  but  if  you  will  not  Call 
ome  time  this  night  I  no  its  late  but  any  tim  between  this  and 
;welve  A  Clock  I  shall  be  up  Let  me  Intreat  you  If  you  wont  Come 
;o  send  me  a  Line  oh  my  head  I  can  rite  no  more  do  something  to 
:Ease  My  heart  or  Els  I  no  not  what  I  shall  do  for  so  I  cannot  live 
yommit  this  to  the  care  of  my  maid  be  not  offended  I  beg." 

But  even  this  tender  appeal  did  not  bring  the  truant  to  her  feet. 
She  wrote  again  two  days  after,  on  "  Wensday  Morning  ten  of 
Jlock,"  imploring  him  "  if  he  has  the  Least  Esteeme  for  the 
unhappy  Maid  whos  grateest  fault  Is  loveing  him  that  he  will  come 
as  soon  as  he  shall  get  this  and  till  that  time  My  breaste  will  be  the 
eate  of  pain  and  woe."  Nor  did  she  omit  the  truly  feminine  post- 
cript :  "  P.  S.  If  you  cannot  come  this  Evening  to  stay  just  come 
nly  for  one  moment  as  I  shal  be  Lone  Mr.  is  going  to  sup  with  a 
'riend  from  New  York."  This  postscript,  it  to  be  feared,  proved  too 
much  for  the  "  virtue  "  of  a  man  against  whom  the  spirit  of  Jacob 
inism  had  formed  a  conspiracy  with  vice.  At  least  we  know  that 
relations  between  the  woman  and  the  cabinet  minister  were  re-estab 
lished,  and  that  the  husband  promptly  brought  in  his  bill.  If  we 
may  judge  from  the  specimens  of  receipts  signed  James  Reynolds 
which  Hamilton  gives  in  his  pamphlet,  we  may  conclude,  that  when 
ever  James  Eeynolds  felt  the  need  of  a  little  money,  which  was  only 
too  often,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  applying  to  the  honorable  secretary 
of  the  treasury  for  a  small  loan ;  which  alas !  the  secretary  dared  not 
refuse.  He  responded  promptly  too ;  for  we  find  the  receipt  bearing 
the  same  date  as  the  begging  letter. 

What  a  snarl  for  the  leader  of  a  national  party  to  be  caught  in, 
in  the  year  of  a  presidential  election,  — the  wife  pestering  him  with  her 
tears  and  her  awful  letters,  and  the  husband  bleeding  him  every  few 
weeks  of  a  fifty-dollar  bill,  so  needed  for  his  own  teeming  household! 
We  cannot  wonder  that  he  should  have  broken  out  in  that  indec 
orous  manner,  in  the  newspapers,  against  his  colleague.  The  affair 
became  loathsome  beyond  expression,  and  he  could  get  neither  peace 
nor  respite.  With  a  shabby  servant-girl  leaving  crumpled  notes  at 
his  door  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  a  man  of  the  Reynolds 


538  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

stamp,  to  whom  lie  dared  not  deny  a  private  interview,  hanging 
round  his  office  in  the  daytime,  he  could  not  hope  long  to  escape 
suspicion,  if  he  did  detection  ;  and,  as  time  went  on,  the  importuni 
ties  of  both  became  alarmingly  frequent.  If  he  abstained  from 
going  near  the  woman  for  a  few  days,  he  received  a  letter  from  the 
husband,  begging  him  to  call. 

"Sir  I  am  sorry  to  be  the  barer  of  So  disagreeable,  an  unhappy 
information.  I  must  tell  you  Sir  .that  I  have  bin  the  most  uiihap- 
piest  man,  for  this  five  days  in  Existance,  which  you  aught  to  be 
the  last  person  I  ever  Should  tell  my  troubls  to.  ever  Sence  the 
night  you  Called  and  gave  her  the  Blank  Paper.  She  has  treated 
me  more  Cruel  than  pen  cant  paint  out.  and  Ses  that  She  is  deter 
mined  never  to  be  a  wife  to  me  any  more,  and  Ses  that  it  is  a  plan 
of  ours,  what  has  past  god  knows  I  Freely  forgive  you'  and  dont 
wish  to  give  you  fear  or  pain  a  moment  on  the  account  of  it.  now 
Sir  I  hope  you  will  give  me  your  advise  as  freely  as  if  Nothing  had 
ever  passed  Between  us  I  think  it  is  in  your  power  to  make  matter 
all  Easy  again,  and  I  suppose  you  to  be  that  Man  of  fealing  that 
you  would  wish  to  make  every  person  happy  Where  it  in  your  power 
I  shall  vvate  to  See  you  at  the  office  if  its  Conveuant.  I  am  sir  with 
Asteem  yours 

"JAMES  REYNOLDS." 

Only  six  days  passed  before  the  husband  handed  in  his  account. 
The  date  of  the  note  just  given  was  April  17.  The  date  of  the 
following  was  April  23  :  — 

"Sir  I  am  sorry  I  am  in  this  disagreeable  sutivation  which  Obliges 
me  to  trouble  you  So  offen  as  I  do.  but  I  hope  it  wont  be  long 
before  it  will  be  In  my  power  to  discharge  what  I  am  indebted  to 
you  Nothing  will  give  me  greaU-r  pleasure  I  must  Sir  ask  the  loan 
of  thirty  dollars  more  from  you,  which  I  shall  asteem  as  a  particular 
favour,  and  you  may  Krst  ;i>hured  that  I  will  pay  you  with  Strii-kcst 
Justice,  lor  the  Keliefe  you  have  aforded  me,  the  Inclosed  is  the 
Receipt  for  the  thirty  dollars.  I  shall  wate  at  your  office.  Sir  for 
an  answer  I  am  sir  your  very  Humble  Servant, 

"JAMES  REYNOLDS." 


HAMILTON'S  AMOUR  WITH  MRS.  REYNOLDS. 


589 


'      The  connection  became  intolerable  to  the  victim  at  last,  and  he 
ontrived  to  shake  it  off.     But  Reynolds,  five  years  after,  finding 
imself  in  jail  for  debt,   thought  to   extricate   himself  by   selling 
lamilton's  good  name  to  his  political  opponents ;  and  he  had  letters 
show,  in  Hamilton's  own  hand,  proving,  that,  between  this  dast- 
rdly  and  ignorant  wretch  and  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  some 
ncongruous  connection  involving  pecuniary  transactions  had  existed, 
t   was    to  explain    the    incongruity,  that,  in    July,  1797,   Hamil- 
,on  felt  himself  obliged  to  publish  the  pamphlet  relating  the  rise 
ind  progress  of  this  "  amorous  intrigue,"  with  enough  of  the  letters 
;o  show  that  the  sinner  in  the  case  was  not  the  Honorable  Secretary 
)f  the  Treasury,  but  only  a  weak,  vain,  and  limited  human  being, 
amed  Alexander  Hamilton. 


CHAPTER  LVII. 

THE    GRAND   EMBASSY   TO    FRANCE   IN   1797. 

PUBLIC  opinion  might  have  j.udged  Hamilton  with  almost  as 
much  severity  for  this  amour  as  the  Federalists  condemned  Jeffer 
son  for  his  Mazzei  paragraph,  if  public  events  had  not  given  a  brief 
but  overwhelming  ascendency  to  the  political  system  which  Hamil 
ton  represented.  By  the  time  his  pamphlet  had  made  its  way 
through  the  remoter  States,  the  French  imbroglio  assumed  a  charac 
ter  that  destroyed  in  a  moment  (and  for  a  moment)  all  that  popular 
sympathy  with  France  which  had  constituted  a  great  part  of  the  politi 
cal  capital  of  the  Republican  party.  For  a  time,  say  about  a  year, 
Republicanism  was  under  a  cloud;  and  that  man  was  the  hero  of 
every  circle  who  was  loudest  against  France.  Hamilton  saw  his 
dream  of  a  consolidating  war  on  the  point  of  realization.  The  poor 
man  was  excessively  vain  of  his  military  prowess,  and  had  no  more 
doubt  of  his  eminent  fitness  to  command  an  army  than  Lord  John 
Russell  was  once  supposed  to  have  of  his  ability  to  command  the 
Channel  fleet.  It  was  a  bewildering  turn  in  public  affairs  for  a  man 
\vh<>  Hoarded  war  as  the  noblest  vocation  of  human  beings,  who 
esteemed  himself  singularly  endowed  by  nature  to  shine  in  that 
ion,  and  who  felt  that  only  a  war  could  save  Asocial  order  "  in 
the  United  States. 

It  was  the  exploits  of  three  French  "strikers,"  that  deceived  and 
maddened  the  American  people  in  1798.  Vain-glorious  Americans 
pretend  that  striking  is  an  American  invention,  practised,  first  in 
New  Vork,  and  then  at  Albany,  upon  persons  interested  in  a  pend 
ing  act.  "Pay  me  five  thousand  dollars,"  says  'the  professional 
striker,  "  and  your  bill  will  pass."  And  no  man  can  say  whether  or 
not  the  bill  pa-.-'-s  in  consequence  of  the  striker's  influence,  or 
whether  the  btriking  was  or  wad  not  authorized  by  members.  It 

540 


THE  GRAND  EMBASSY  TO  FRANCE  IN  1797.  541 

ras  the  Eastern  Continent,  not  the  Western,  that  originated  this 

ine  device. 

President  Adams  carried  out  his  scheme  of  sending  to  France  an 
[imposing  embassy  of  three  gentlemen  of  the  first  distinction.  The 

Directory  had  refused  to  receive  one  American  plenipotentiary, 
(General  C.  C.  Pinckney, — refused  even  to  give  him  "cards  of  hospi 
tality,"  legalizing  his  residence  in  Paris  ;  and,  finally  (January  25, 
1797),  notified  him  that  he  had  no  legal  right  to  remain  in  France. 
The  cause  of  this  remarkable  behavior  was  the  Jay  treaty ;  or,  as 
the  French  government  styled  it,  "the  condescension  of  the  Ameri 
can  government  to  its  ancient  tyrants."  Imagine  the  effect  in  the 
United  States  of  an  insult  so  emphatic  and  so  unprovoked !  The 
best  friends  of  France  were  the  most  wounded  and  dismayed ;  while 
the  party  in  power,  in  extra  session  of  Congress  assembled,  voted 
every  thing  short  of  downright  war,  and  might  even  have  precipitated 
actual  hostilities,  but  for  the  overshadowing,  portentous  prestige  of 
General  Bonaparte.  In  the  nick  of  time  was  published  an  "  Order 
of  the  Day,"  dated  "30  Germinal,  An  V"  (or  vulgarly,  April  19, 
1797),  in  which  that  "  General-en-Chef "  informed  his  army,  in  five 
lines,  that  the  preliminaries  of  peace  had  been  signed  the  day  before 
between  the  emperor  of  Austria  and  the  French  Republic.  This 
brief  document  notified  mankind  that  General  Bonaparte,  with 
resources  vastly  increased,  was  now  free  to  direct  his  exclusive  atten 
tion  to  the  war  with  perfidious  Albion,  either  by  way  of  Calais  and 
Dover,  or  Eg}^pt  and  Calcutta.  This  intelligence,  as  Jefferson 
remarked  at  the  time,  "cooled  the  ardent  spirits,"  and  therefore, 
instead  of  war,  we  had  the  grand  embassy,  —  C.  C.  Pinckney,  John 
Marshall,  and  Elbridge  Gerry.  Pinckney  and  Marshall  were  Fed 
eralists  ;  Gerry  a  Republican. 

How  warmly  Mr.  Jefferson  urged  Mr.  Gerry  to  accept  the  mission 
is  worthy  of  remembrance,  in  view  of  its  result.  "  If,"  wrote  Jef 
ferson, "we  engage  in  a  war  during  our  present  passions,  and  our 
present  weakness  in  some  quarters,  our  Union  runs  the  greatest 
risk  of  not  coming  out  of  that  war  in  the  shape  in  which  it  enters  it. 
My  reliance  for  our  preservation  is  in  your  acceptance  of  this  mis 
sion.  I  know  the  tender  circumstances  which  will  oppose  themselves 
to  it.  But  its  duration  will  be  short,  and  its  reward  long.  You 
have  it  in  your  power,  by  accepting  and  determining  the  character 
of  the  mission,  to  secure  the  present  peace  and  eternal  union  of 


542  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

your  country.  If  you  decline,  on  motives  of  private  pain,  a  substi 
tute  may  be  named  who  has  enlisted  his  passions  in  the  present  con 
test,  and,  by  the  preponderance  of  his  vote  in  the  mission,  may 
entail  on  us  calamities,  your  share  in  which,  and  your  feelings,  will 
outweigh  whatever  pain  a  temporary  absence  from  your  family  could 


o 
give  V"ii  " 


El  bridge  Gerry  had  now  been  in  the  service  of  his  country  for 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Before  the  Re  volution  ary  War,  he 
was  a  thriving  merchant  at  Marblehead,  a  town  situated  on  a  point 
that  extends  two  or  three  miles  out  into  Massachusetts-  Bay,  and  was 
inhabited  at  that  time  only  by  fishermen  and  merchants.  Being  a 
merchant  and  a  man  of  substance,  he  naturally  took  the  lead  in 
such  a  community  during  the  agitation  which  preceded  the  Revolu 
tionary  War.  He  was  a  just,  public-spirited,  thoughtful,  and  reso 
lute  man,  a  great  friend  and  constant  correspondent  of  Samuel 
Adams,  who  was  the  soul  and  centre  of  the  opposition  to  the  king 
in  Massachusetts  for  twenty  years. 

"  The  whole  business  of  life,"  wrote  Gerry  to  Adams,  when  the 
news  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill  reached  Marblehead,  "seems  involved 
in  one  great  question,  What  is  best  to  be  done  for  our  country?" 

That  sentence  perfectly  describes  both  the  feelings  and  the  con 
duct  of  Elbridge  Gerry  at  that  period.  Politics  became,  indeed,  the 
whole  business  of  his  life  ;  and,  after  serving  his  State  in  various 
honorable  capacities,  he  found  himself  a  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  in  which  character  he  signed  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  He  served  during  the  gloomiest  period  of  the  war,  on 
that  most  laborious  and  responsible  committee  which  had  charge  of 
the  finances  of  the  country.  As  the  war  went  on,  the  forty  gentlemen 
who  composed  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  were  reduced  to 
sad  straits.  At  one  period,  when  a  dollar  in  gold  was  worth  four 
thousand  in  paper,  if,  indeed,  it  could  be  said  to  have  any  value,  Mr. 
Gerry  described  his  own  situation  thus  :  — 

"I  now  owe  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  dollars  (gold)  for 
board,  and  some  little  borrowed  of  my  landlady,  besides  twenty-six 
borrowed  for  every-day  expenses,  and  perhaps  sixteen  more  to  tailors 
and  shoemakers.  How,  under  Heaven,  am  I  to  get  this  with 
provincial  paper,  which  does  not  pass  la-re  for  any  thing  at  all,  and 
is  next  to  nothing  where  it  was  issued  ?  You  speak  of  my  soon 


THE  GRAND   EMBASSY  TO  FBANCE   IN   1797.  543 

eing  at  home !  I  own  no  horse,  or  I  might  ride  away  from  these 
reat  debts,  and  ask  charity  on  the  road  for  a  delegate  from  Massa- 
husetts,  to  enable  him  to  reach  home." 

The  supreme  power  of  the  country,  nevertheless,  and  the  control 
?  two  armies,  were  in  the  hands  of  these  forty  meji  who  were  trou- 
ied  to  pay  their  board.  Gerry  took  it  in  good  part,  and  made  a 
oke  of  it.  He  guarded  the  public  treasury  with  vigilance  and 
-ernness.  It  was  he,  in  fact,  who,  as  chairman  of  the  treasury- 
oard,  rejected  the  corrupt  claims  of  General  Arnold,  which  kindled 
anger  of  the  traitor,  and  caused  him  to  appeal  to  Congress  from 
•erry's  decision,  with  severe  remarks  upon  the  conduct  of  the  chair 
man  of  the  financial  committee.  Mr.  Gerry  replied  to  Arnold's 
3use  with  a  remark  which  some  public  servants  of  the  present  day 
night  use  with  propriety. 

If,"  said  he,  "the  faithful  discharge  of  official  duty,  unpleasant 
nough  in  itself,  is  to  bring  with  it  the  liability  of  personal  attack 
om  men  who  have  neither  honesty  in  their  public  dealings  nor 
>urtesy  in  private  life,  it  might  be  well  to  abolish  all  guards  upon 
le  treasury,  and  admit  rapacity  and  crime  to  help  themselves  at 
leasure." 

Elbridge  Gerry,  though  a  strictly  virtuous  and  honorable  man, 
as  one  of  those  who  are  sometimes  described  as  "  difficult  to  get 
iong  with."  He  had  a  spiritual  malady,  not  uncommon  in  New 
England  at  that  period,  which  still  troubles  some  Yankees,  otherwise 
excellent :  He  was  morbidly  suspicious.  He  was  prone  to  attribute 
evil  motives.  His  companions  felt  that  he  was  doubtful  of  their 
sincerity  ;  and  he  did  indeed  habitually  expect  public  men  to  abuse 
their  trust.  John  Adams  was  full  of  this  untrusting,  distrusting 
spirit ;  and  I  have  often  wondered  how  it  could  be,  that  men  so  hon 
est  and  sincere  as  John  Adams  and  Elbridge  Gerry  could  instinc 
tively  attribute  to  other  men  baseness  of  which  they  were  themselves 
incapable.  Along  with  this  suspiciousness,  there  was  in  Elbridge 
Gerry  a  tenacity  of  mind  which  caused  him  to  adhere  to  a  ground 
less  suspicion  or  a  trifling  right  as  firmly  as  to  interests  the  most 
sacred  and  the  most  important.  In  the  midst  of  the  revolutionary 
period,  Congress  having  refused  him  the  ayes  and  noes  on  a  motion, 
he  protested  against  the  refusal  as  a  wrong  done  to  his  State  ;  and, 
after  waiting  a  month  for  Congress  to  redress  his  grievance,  he  aban- 


544  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

doned  liis  seat,  and  referred  the  subject  to  the  legislature  of  Massa 
chusetts.  Nor,  when  "re-elected  to  Congress,  would  he  accept  thfl 
until  the  affair  had  been  adjusted. 

He  was  one  of  the  original  founders  of  our  Democratic  party,—* 
one  of  those,  who,  even  before  the  war  ended,  had  a  dread  of  increas 
ing  the  power  pf  the  central  government,  and  a  horror  of  the 
parade  and  pageantry  which  called  to  mind  this  vice-regal  system. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  when  the  treaty  of  peace  was  presented 
to  Congress  for  its  consideration,  there  were  only  three  members  in 
the  body  who  had  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  —  Mr. 
Jefferson,  Mr.  Gerry,  and  Mr.  Ellery  of  Rhode  Island ;  all  of  whom 
were  named  upon  the  committee  to  whom  the  treaty  was  referred. 
He  witnessed  the  memorable  scene  of  Washington's  resigning  his 
commission  at  Annapolis.  He  served  also  in  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1787. 

r>ut  the  great  event  of  his  life,  and  that  which  alone  will  cause 
him  to  be  remembered  in  history,  was  the  part  which  he  took  in 
preserving  peace,  in  1798,  between  the  United  States  and  France. 

Alter  the  departure  of  the  envoys  in  August,  there  was  a  lull  in 
tin-  storm  of  politics;  and  several  months  of  expectation  passed, 
increasing  as  time  went  on,  until  the  mere  delay  created  alarm. 
The  summer  passed,  the  autumn  glided  by,  winter  began,  Congress 
convened^  the  winter  ended,  and  still  the  dreadful  question  of  peace 
or  war  remained  unanswered.  What  of  our  envoys  ?  How  has  our 
sublime  embassy  been  received?  It  was  not  until  it  had  been  gone 
seven  months,  that  any  authoritative  answer  could  be  given  to  such 
inquiries,  even  by  the  president.  And  then  what  an  answer!  Let 
us  accompany  tliese  gentlemen  on  their  mission. 

It  was  on  the  4th  of  October,  1797,  that  the  three  envoys  found 
themselves  in  1'aris, —  two  having  come  fresh  from  the  United 
States,  and  General  I'incknoy  from  Holland.  On  that  very  first 
morning  they  had  an  experience  which  was  a  fit  prelude  to  what 
wa-  to  come.  The  inu>ieians  of  the  Directory,  in  accordance  with 
ancient,  custom  ("  everybody  does  it,  my  dear  sir "),  called  upon 
them  lor  a  ]» resent,  and  got  from  each,  as  Mr.  Gerry  reports,  "  fif 
teen  or  twenty  guineas."  Next,  a  deputation  of  fish-women,  also 
in  accordance  with  ancient  custom,  presented  themselves  for  the 
same  purpose.  ••'When  the  ladies,"  wrote  Mr.  Gerry,  "  get  sight 
of  a  minister,  as  they  did  of  my  colleagues,  they  smother  him  with 


THE  GRAND  EMBASSY  TO  FRANCE  IN   1797.  545 

kisses."  But  Mr.  Gerry  escaped  this  part  of  the  penalty  by  send 
ing  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  mission,  Major  Rutledge,  to  "nego 
tiate  for  me."  Gerry  paid  the  guineas,  and  Rutledge,  it  is  to  be 
presumed,  drew  the  kisses. 

The  next  morning  business  began.  The  envoys  sent  a  messen 
ger  to  notify  verbally  M.  de  Talleyrand,  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  of  their  arrival  in  Paris,  and  to  ask  him  to  name  a  time 
when  he  would  be  at  leisure  to  receive  one  of  their  secretaries  with 
a  formal  and  written  notification.  Answer:  The  next  day,  at  two 
o'clock.  Major  E-utledge,  punctual  to  the  time,  delivered  the  usual 
letter,  announcing  the  object  of  the  embassy,  and  requesting  the  min 
ister  to  appoint  an  hour  for  them  to  present  their  letters  of  credence. 
To  the  cordial  and  stately  letter  of  the  three  envoys,  Talleyrand  gave 

verbal  reply  :  "  The  day  after  to-morrow  at  one  o'clock."  They 
waited  upon  him  at  the  hour  appointed.  He  was  not  at  home  !  His 
chief  secretary  informed  them  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  meet  the 
Directory,  but  would  be  glad  to  see  them  at  three  o'clock.  They 
called  again  at  three  o'clock.  He  was  "  engaged  with  the  Portuguese 
minister ;"  and  the  envoys  waited  till  he  was  disengaged,  about  ten 
minutes.  They  were  then  introduced,  and  presented  their  letters, 
which  the  minister  read  and  kept.  He  then  informed  them  that  the 
Directory  had  required  him  to  draw  up  a  report  upon  the  relations  of 
France  with  the  United  States,  which  he  was  then  engaged  upon, 
and  would  complete  in  a  few  days  ;  when  we  would  let  them  know 
"what  steps  were  to  follow."  They  asked  him  if,  in  the  mean  time, 
the  usual  cards  of  hospitality  would  be  necessary.  Yes,  and  they 
should  be  sent  to  them.  He  rang  his  bell,  told  his  secretary  to 
make  them  out.  The  envoys  then  withdrew  ;  and,  on  the  day  fol 
lowing,  the  cards  were  brought  to  them. 

Ten  days  passed.     No  letter  from  M.  de  Talleyrand. 

But,  on  the  morning  of  October  18,  the  strikers  began  their 
attempts  upon  the  envoys.  A  certain  "  Mr.  W."  called  upon  Gen 
eral  Pinckney,  and  informed  him  that  "a  Mr.  X  was  a  person  of 
considerable  credit  and  reputation,  and  that  the  envoys  might  place 
great  reliance  upon  him;"  and,  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day, 
who  should  happen  to  drop  in  upon  the  envoys  but  the  same  Mr.  X? 
After  sitting  a  while,  this  Unknown  Quantity  whispered  to  General 
Pinckney  that  he  was  the  bearer  of  a  message  to  him  from  M.  de 
Talleyrand.  The  general  immediately  showed  the  message-bearer 


546  LITE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

into  the  next  room,  and  lent  an  attentive  ear  to  his  communication, 
which  was  to  this  effect :  M.  de  Talleyrand,  who  had  a  great  regard 
for  the  American  people,  was  very  desirous  to  promote  a  reconcilia 
tion  between  them  and  France,  and  was  ready,  in  confidence,  strict 
confidence,  to  suggest  a  plan  which  he  thought  would  answer  the 
purpose.  "  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  it,"  said  the  envoy.  Mr.  X 
resumed  :  The  Directory  was  exceedingly  irritated  at  some  pas 
sages  of  the  president's  speech.  First,  those  passages  must  be 
"  softened."  That  was  essential,  even  to  the  mere  reception  of  the 
envoys  by  the  Directory.  Then  the  United  States  must  lend  some 
money  to  France.  But,  besides  this,  "a  sum  of  money  was 
ri' I'l'u'i'd  for  the  pockets  of  the  Directory  and  minisfi'm.  'What 
passages  of  the  president's  speech  have  given  offence  ? '  asked  Gen- 
i-ral  I'iiiekney.  Mr.  X  did  not  know.  'What  amount  of  loan  is 
expected?  '  Mr.  X  could  not  tell.  'How  much  for  the  pockets  of 
the  Directory?'  On  this  point,  and  on  this  only,  the  striker 
possessed  exact  information:  ''Twelve  hundred  thousand  francs," 
or,  say,  a  matter  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  gold  ! 

In  the  secret  recesses  of  his  soul,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  General 
1'inckney  whistled.  But,  being  on  dut}%  he  only  said,  that  he 
could  not  so  much  as  take  these  propositions  into  consideration, 
until  he  had  consulted  his  colleagues.  He  consulted  his  colleagues. 
Their  answer  was  :  Let  Mr.  X  meet  us  all  face  to  face;  and,  to  avoid 
mistakes,  let  him  reduce  his  propositions  to  writing.  Mr.  X  con 
senting,  he  came  the  next  evening,  and  submitted  in  writing  the 
same  "suggestions."  He  was  careful  to  explain,  on  this  occasion, 
that  his  communication  did  not  come  directly  from  M.  do  Talley 
rand:  Oh,  nft!  but  from  "a  gentleman  in  whom  M.  de  Talleyrand 
had  great  confidence."  Other  interviews  followed  ;  and,  at  length, 
the  envoys  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  that  very  gentleman  in  whom 
M.  de  Talleyrand  had  so  much  confidence.  lie  did  hut  confirm  what 
Mr.  X  had  said.  "You  can  have  your  treaty,  gentlemen,"  said  he; 
"but  I  will  not  disguise  from  you,  that,  satisfaction  being  made 
(softening  the  president's  speech),  the  rwnft'il  part  of  the  treaty 
remains  to  !><•  adjusted  :  MON'KY  is  frBOESSAJrt;  MUCH  M<>\I;Y." 

For  a  month  or  more,  this  head  striker  kept  coming  and  going, 
making  various  propositions,  and  pretending  to  bring  from  Talley 
rand  various  suggestions;  bur  always  the  burden  of  his  song  was, 
The  douceur ;  the  loan;  money ;  muck  money!  The  envoys,  hav- 


THE  GRAND   EMBASSY  TO  FRANCE   IN   1707.  547 

ng  once  for  all  declined  to  entertain  any  proposition  of  that  nature, 
.'ought  shy  of  the  subject,  and  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  hints.  Take  the 
following  as  a  sample  of  these  lofty  conversations  :  — 

HEAD  STRIKER.  Gentlemen,  you  do  not  speak  to  the  point. 
The  point  is  money  !  It  is  expected  you  will  offer  money. 

ENVOYS.  We  have  spoken  to  that  point  very  explicitly :  we  have 
liven  an  answer. 

HEAD  STRIKER.  No  :  you  have  not.     What  is  your  answer  ? 

ENVOYS.  It  is  No,  NO  ;  not  a  sixpence  ! 

HEAD  STRIKER.  Think  of  the  dangers  which  threaten  your 
country.  Would  it  not  be  prudent,  even  though  you  may  not 
nake  a  loan  to  the  nation,  to  interest  an  influential  friend  in  your 
avor?  Consider  the  character  of  the  Directory  :  they  care  nothing 
or  the  justice  of  the  case  ;  they  can  only  be  reached  by  a  judicious 
implication  of  money. 

ENVOYS.  We  have  no  proof  of  this,  even  if  we  were  disposed  to 
jive  the  money. 

HEAD  STRIKER.  When  you  employ  a  lawyer,  you  give  him  a  fee 
vithout  knowing  whether  the  cause  can  be  gained  or  lost.  It  is 
necessary  to  have  a  lawyer,  and  you  pay  for  his  services  whether 
;hose  services  are  successful  or  not.  So,  in  the  present  state  of 
things,  the  money  must  be  advanced  for  the  good  offices  the  individ 
uals  are  to  render,  whatever  may  be  the  effect  of  those  offices. 

ENVOYS.  There  is  no  parallel  in  the  cases  ;  for  the  lawyer  cannot 
:ommand  success.  But  the  Directory  has  but  to  order  that  no  more 
^essels  should  be  seized,  and  to  release  those  now  held,  and  there 
could  be  no  opposition  to  the  order. 

HEAD  STRIKER.  All  the  members  of  the  Directory  are  not  dis 
posed  to  receive  your  money.  Merlin,  for  example,  is  paid  from 
another  quarter,  and  would  touch  no  part  of  your  douceur. 

ENVOYS.  We  have  understood  that  Merlin  is  paid  by  the  priva 
teers. 

HEAD  STRIKER  (nodding  assent).  You  pay  money  to  obtain  peace 
with  the  Indians  and  with  the  Algerines ;  and  it  is  doing  no  more 
to  pay  France  for  peace.  Does  not  your  government  know  that 
nothing  is  to  be  obtained  here  without  money  ? 

ENVOYS.  Our  government  has  not  even  suspected  such  a  state  of 
things. 


548  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

HEAD  STRIKER  (with  an  appearance  of  surprise).  There  is  not 
American  in  Paris  who  cannot  give  you  that  information. 

The  gentleman,  with  what  the  envoys  in  their  despatch  styh 
"vast  perseverance,"  continued  to  urge  tins  view  upon  them,  return 
ing  to  "  the  point  "again  and  again;  they  ever  adhering  to  theii 
original  reply,  "Not  a  sixpence."  It  was^General  Pinckney  wh< 
afterwards  converted  that  homely  Not  a  Sixpence  into  an  electric 
and  immortal  phrase,  "Millions  for  Defence,  but  not  a  Cent  for 
Tribute."  At  the  end  of  thirty  days,  the  envoys  seemed  no  nearer 
recognition  than  on  the  day  when  the  fish  women  had  smothered 
them  with  kisses. 

Klbridge  Gerry  alone  had  known  Talleyrand  in  the  United  States. 
One  of  the  mysterious  go-betweens  informed  him,  one  day,  that  M. 
de  Talleyrand  had  expected  to  meet  and  converse  with  the  envoys 
individually.  Mr.  Gerry  reported  this  intimation  to  his  colleagues, 
who  thought  that  he  might,  considering  his  acquaintance  with  the 
ininis;«T,  call  upon  him.  He  did  so.  They  conversed  freely  upon 
the  relations  of  the  two  countries  ;  and  Mr.  Grrry  thus  learned  pre- 
cix-ly  what  the  Directory  expected  as  conditions  preliminary  to  a 
treaty  :  1,  An  apology  for  certain  expressions  in  the  pre.-ident's 
speech  ;  as  when  he  said,  France  must  be  convinced  "  we  are  not  a 
degraded  people,"  "fitted  to  be  the  miserable  instruments  of  foreign 
influence."  2,  A  voluntary  loan  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  million  florins. 
Nothing  was  said  touching  a  douceur.  Mr.  Gerry  having  reported 
tin-  conversation  to  his  colleagues,  they  all  agreed  that  neither  of 
these  pivliminuries  was  admissible, —r  no  apology,  and  not  a  six- 
pen<-r  ;  and  they  caused  this  information  to  be  conveyed  to  Talley 
rand  by  one  of  the  mysterious  emissaries.  But,  in  recognition  of 
Mr.  Gerry's  call,  Talleyrand  invited  him  to  one  of  his  diplomatic 
dinners.  Mr.  Gerry  went  to  the  dinner,  and,  in  return,  gave-  Talley 
rand  a  dinner.  Xo  progress,  however,  was  made  in  the  business  of 
the  mission,  and  Mr.  (Jerry  declined  further  civilities. 

For  >ix  months  the  envoys  vainly  endeavored  to  bring  the  Direc 
tory  to  reason.  From  first  to  last,  the  cry  was.  Money,  money, 
money!  "We  are  engaged  in  a  death-grapple  with  our  only  foe, 
//'////•  foe,  liberty's  foe,  mankind's  foe:  we  lent  you  money  when 
you  were  in  a  similar  situation  ;  lend  us  some  in  our  struggle." 
Such  was  the  substance  of  the  later  messages  from  the  Directory. 


THE   GRAND   EMBASSY   TO  FBANCE   IN   1797.  549 

bid,  above  the  uproar  of  events,  Thomas  Paine's  voice  made  itself 
leard,  expressing  exultation  at  the  proposed  descent  upon  England, 
,nd  offering  material  aid  toward  it.  Not  much,  it  is  true  ;  but 
nough  to  create  a  "  scene "  in  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  and 
timulate  the  loan.  The  chairman  of  that  excitable  body  read  aloud 
'aine's  letter  on  the  31st  of  January,  1798;  in  which  he  said,  that, 
Ithough  in  his  present  circumstances  he  could  not  subscribe  to  the 
nvasion  loan,  yet  his  economy  enabled  him  to  make  a  small  dona- 
ion.  "I  send  one  hundred  livres,  and,  with  it,  all  the  wishes  of 
my  heart  for  the  success  of  the  descent,  and  a  voluntary  offer  of 
ny  service  1  can  render  to  promote  it.  There  will  be  no  lasting 
eace  for  France,  nor  for  the  world,  until  the  tyranny  and  corrup- 
ion  of  the  English  government  be  abolished,  and  England,  like 
taly,  becomes  a  sister  republic."  This  letter  was  received  with 
cclamations,  and  unanimously  ordered  to  be  printed. 

But  the  American  envoys  refused  to  take  the  hint.     "No,"  they 
eplied  in  substance,  "  a  loan  to  France  will  embroil  us  with  Eng- 
and."     "  Well,  then,"  rejoined  Talleyrand,  "  make  us  a  loan  paya- 
le  after  the  war"     On  this  last  proposition  the  envoys  differed  in 
pinion  ;  Marshall  and  Pinckney  rejecting  it  as  not  fit  to  be  enter- 
ained,  Gerry  willing  to  "open  negotiations  on  the  basis"  of  such  a 
oan.     The  difference  proved  irreconcilable ;    and,  after  numberless 
attempts  to  arrange  the  difficulty,  Talleyrand  notified  the  envoys 
that  the   two  gentlemen  who  refused  to  consider  the  proposition 
might  expect  to  receive  their  passports,  but  Mr.  Gerry  was  desired 
to  remain.     Gerry  replied,  that  he  had  no   authority  to  conclude 
any  thing  apart  from  his  colleagues :  he  could  only,  in  their  absence, 
confer  with  the  French  minister  unofficially,  and  communicate  with 
his  own   government  as   a  private  citizen.     Messrs.  Marshall   and 
Pinckney  departed.     Mr.  Gerry,  eager  as  he  was  to  rejoin  his  family, 
and  foreseeing  the  ruin   to  his   affairs  from   his  prolonged  absence, 
which  actually  occurred,  was  induced  to  stay.     Talleyrand  officially 
informed  him,  "by  order  of  the  Directory,"  that  his  departure  from 
France  would  be  instantly  followed  by  a  declaration  of  war;  which, 
if  he  remained,  would  be  withheld  until  he  could  hear  from  his  gov 
ernment. 


CHAPTER  LVIII. 

HAMILTON  IMPROVES  THE  OPPORTUNITY. 

AND  so  this  weighty  embassy,  this  grand  and  magnanimous 
endeavor  to  restore  the  ancient  friendship  between  two  estranged 
nations,  seemed  to  end  pitifully  in  an  intrigueHo  get  a,  little  money. 
French  cruisers  had  despoiled  American  commerce  of  many  millions 
of  dollars ;  and  a  demand  was  now  made  of  millions  more,  before 
the  claim  for  redress  would  be  listened  to!  Half  a  dozen  corrupt 
men,  whirled  aloft  in  the  storm  of  the  Revolution,  committed  this 
outrage  ;  but  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  remote  from  Europe, 
unversed  in  its  tortuous  and  childish  politics,  what  could  it  seem  but 
the  act  of  France?  For  a  short  time  France  had  few  friends  in  the 
United  States;  and  the  extremists  of  the  Federalist  party,  led  by 
Hamilton,  had  every  thing  their  own  way. 

Judge  of  the  effect  of  this  intelligence  upon  the  public  mind  bj 
events:  Gerry  recalled  ;  Marshall  received  homelike  a  conqueror; 
Tneetings  everywhere;  addresses  "poured  into"  the  president's  office 
from  every  town,  "offering  life  and  fortune;"  a  navy  department 
created;  a  navy  ^>ted;  guns  ordered;  small  arms  purchased  to  a 
v;i~l  amount;  an  army  of  ten  thousand  regulars,  and  any  number  of 
militia  anthori/ed,  ///  /v/.sr  war  was  declared,  or  the  country  invaded; 
Washington  induced  to  accept  the  command  as  lieutenant-general; 
three  major-generals,  and  nine  brigadiers  commissioned  ;  Hamilton 
nominally  second  in  command,  but  practically  commander-in-chief ; 
the  i'.>rt  iiicat  ion  of  harbors  be^un  ;  merchant  vessels  authorized  to 
arm  and  to  resist  French  men-of-war;  naval  commanders  ordered  to 
seize  and  bring  in  any  French  vessel  which  had  molested,  or  was 
su>j>rctcd  of  being  about  to  molest,  American  ships;  the  president 
authorized  to  suspend  commercial  intercourse  between  France  and 
the  United  States.  In*  a  word,  the  power  and  resources  of  the 

650 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES  THE  OPPORTUNITY.  55\ 

ountry  were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  president,  to  be  by  him 
mployed  in  waging  war  against  France,  at  his  discretion.  Harail-* 
on  saw  the  dream  of  his  life  about  to  be  realized,  —  a  war,  in  which 
le  should  win  the  only  distinction  he  valued,  —  military  glory,  — 
ind  employ,  at  least,  the  prestige  of  a  victorious  sword  on  behalf  of 
rhat  he  was  accustomed  to  sjtyle  "social  order."  All  this  year  1798, 
e  was  in  earnest,  confidential  correspondence  with  Miranda,  the 
South  American  patriot,  who  was  in  England  striving  to  unite 
Villiam  Pitt  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
government  of  England  and  the  United  States,  in  an  expedition  to 
nvade  and  wrest  from  Spain  her  American  colonies. 

This  was  to  Hamilton  a  captivating  scheme,  as  it  was  a  few  years 
ater  to  Aaron  Burr.     But  Hamilton,  ardently  as  he  cherished  it, 
xpressly  stipulated  that  he  could  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  "unless 
>atronized  by  the  government  of  this  country."     The  country,  he 
wrote  in  August,  1798,  was   not  quite   ready  for  the  undertaking ; 
but  we  ripen   fast."     The  plan,  he  thought,   should   be  this  :    A 
eet  of  Great  Britain,  an  army  of  the  United  States,  a  government 
or  the  liberated  territory  agreeable  to  both   the    co-operator?.      Mr. 
:*itt,   it  seems,  was   decided  for  the   scheme.     Miranda  replied  to 
lamiltoii's  August  letter  in  October.     "Your  wishes  are  in  some 
sort  fulfilled,-"  wrote  the  South  American;  "since  they  have  agreed 
here  that  no  English  troops  are  to  be  employed  on  shore,  seeing  that 
the  auxiliary  land  forces  should  be  American  only,  while  the  naval 
force   shall  be  purely  English.     All  difficulties  have  vanished,  and 
we  only  await  the  fiat  of  your  illustrious  president  to  set  out  like   a 
flash."     To  this  point  Hamilton  had  brought  the  mad  scheme  with 
out  the  illustrious  president  knowing  any  thing  of  it. 

But  even  this  was  not  the  wildest  nor  the  worst  of  Hamilton's 
misuse  of  the  transient  power  which  circumstances  gave  him  in 
1798.  What  shall  be  said  of  his  attempt  to  fasten  upon  the  United 
States  the  stupid  and  shameful  repressive  system  of  George  III.  ? 
What  of  the  Alien  Laws,  inspired  by  him,  approved  by  him,  passed 
by  his  adherents  ?  The  mere  rumor  of  the  intention  to  pass  such 
laws  sent  shiploads  df  French  .and  Irish  exiles  hurrying  home,  and 
prevented  worthy  men  from  seeking  needful  refuge  here.  Kosci- 
uszko  and  Volney  departed;  Priestley  was  not  deemed  safe;  noble 
Gallatin  was  menaced.  By  these  Alien  Laws,  the  wonder  and 
opprobrium  of  American  politics,  servile  tiopies  of  Pitt's  servile 


552  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

originals,  the  president  could  order  away  "  all  such  aliens  as  he 
"should  judge  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  Unitec 
States ; "  and  the  alien  who  disobeyed  the  order  was  liable  to  three 
yrars'  imprisonment.  Other  clauses  and  amendments  placed  the 
entire  foreign  population  of  the  United  States,  and  all  who  mighi 
in  future  seek  their  shores,  under  strictest  surveillance;  and,  in  case 
of  war  with  France,  every  Frenchman  not  naturalized  was  to  leave 
the  country,  or  be  forcibly  put  out  of  it. 

l>ut  even  this  was  not  so  monstrous  as  the  Sedition  Law,  also 
borrowed  from  recent  British  legislation.  Five  years'  imprison 
ment  and  five  thousand  dollars'  fine  for  conspiring  to  oppose  any 
inea.Mirc  passed  by  Congress,  or  for  attempting  or  advising  a  riot  or 
insurrection,  whether  "  the  advice  or  attempt  should  have  the  pro 
posed  effect  or  not."  Imprisonment  for  two  years,  and  a  fine  of 
two  thousand  dollars,  for  writing,  speaking,  or  publishing  "  any 
ialse,  scandalous,,  and  malicious  writing  or  writings  against  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  or  either  house  of  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  or  the  president  of  the  United  States,  with 
intent  to  defame  the  said  government,  or  either  house  of  the  said 
Congress,  or  the  said  president ;  or  to  bring  them,  or  either  of 
them,  into  contempt  or  disrepute;  or  to  excite  against  them,  or 
either  or  any  of  them,  the  hatred  of  the  good  people  of  the  United 
States;  or  to  stir  up  sedition  within  the  United  States;  or  to 
excite  any  unlawful  combinations  therein,  for  opposing  or  resisting 
any  law  of  the  United  States."  Is  it  not  incredible  ?  But  I  have 
cpt'ii  before  me,  at  this  moment,  a  ponderous  law-book  of  seven 
hundred  and  twenty-one  large  pages,  two-thirds  filled  with  "  State 
Trials  "  under  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws. 

To  these  base  imitations  the  Federalists  added  an  originality  that 
surpasM-d  in  retined  absurdity  any  thing  devised  by  Pitt  or  exe 
cuted  by  Castlereagh.  A  very  worthy,  benevolent  physician,  Dr. 
George  Logan  of  Philadelphia,  appalled  at  the  prospect  of  two 
friendly  nations  being  thus  cruelly  misled  into  a  bloody  war,  scraped 
together  a  little  money  with  much  difficulty,  and  went  to  France  to 
try  and  prevent,  by  purely  moral  means,  by  mere  remonstrance  and 
pei-Miasion,  a  <  alainity  so  dire  and  so  unnecessary.  He  discovered 
by  conversations  with  Talleyrand  and  others,  and  so  reported,  that 
there  was  nothing  the  French  government  so  little  desired  as  war 
with  the  United  States.  To  parry  this  blow,  the  llamiltonians 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES  THE  OPPORTUNITY.  553 

>asscd  what  was  called,  in  party  parlance,  the  Logan  Law,  —  five 
housand  dollars'  fine  and  three  years'  imprisonment  to  any  future 
liogan,  or  any  person  who  "  should  carry  on  any  verbal  or  written 
jorrespondence  or  intercourse  with  any  foreign  government,  or  any 
>fficer  or  agent  thereof,  with  an  intent  to  influence  the  measures  or 
jonduct  of  any  foreign  government,  or  any  officer  or  agent  thereof, 
n  relation  to  any  disputes  or  controversies  with  the  United  States." 
lamilton  was  not  going  to  be  balked  of  his  war  and  his  Miranda  pro- 
ect  by  any  sentimental  Quaker ;  least  of  all,  by  one  for  whom  Jeffer 
son  had  procured  a  safe  conduct,  and  provided  with  a  certificate  of 
citizenship  !  Dr.  Logan  won  great  honor  by  this  worthy  and  useful 
attempt;  and  in  1810,  after  an  honorable  public  career  in  Penn 
sylvania,  he  went  to  England  to  endeavor,  by  the  same  means,  to 
)revent  war  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 

From  his  lofty  seat  in  the  chair  of  the  Senate,  Jefferson  surveyed 
;he  momentary  triumph  of  the  re-actionists,  and  prepared  to  frus- 
:rate  their  intentions.  Not  for  a  moment  was  he  deceived  concern 
ing  the  real  disposition  of  France.  One  of  the  first  letters  that  he 
wrote,,  after  reading  the  despatches  of  the  envoys,  contains  these 
words:  "  You  will  perceive  that  they  have  been  assailed  by  swin 
dlers,  whether  with  or  without  the  participation  of  Talleyrand  is 
not  apparent.  But  that  the  Directory  knew  any  thing  of  it  is 
neither  proved  nor  probable."  The  lapse  of  seventy-five  years  has 
added  little  to  our  knowledge  of  that  intrigue.  "Assailed  by 
swindlers,  "  —  that  is  about  all  we  are  sure  of  at  this  moment.  In 
reckoning  up  the  wrongs  inflicted  by  Franco  upon  his  country,  he 
ruled  out,  therefore,  all  that  mass  of  curious  dialogue,  —  thirty-six 
pages  of  cipher,  —  between  the  envoys  and  the  individuals  whom 
Mr.  Adams  considerately  named  X,  Y,  Z,  and  who  are  at  once 
named  and  explained  to  modern  ears  by  the  word  strikers.  Hence, 
his  position  and  that  of  his  friends,  Madison,  Gallatin,  Monroe, 
Giles,  and  the  rest  of  the  Republican  forlorn  hope:  "The  peace- 
party  will  agree  to  all  reasonable  measures  jpf  internal  defence,  but 
oppose  all  external  preparations."  With  regard  to  the  Alien  and 
Sedition  Laws,  he  thought  they  were  an  experiment  to  ascertain 
whether  the  people  would  submit  to  measures  distinctly  contrary  to 
the  Constitution.  If  the  experiment  succeeded,  the  next  thing 
would  be  a  life  presidency;  then  an  hereditary  presidency;  then 
a  Senate  for  life.  "  Nor/7  said  he,  October,  1798,  "  can  I  be  confi- 


554  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

dent  of  their  failure,  after  the   dupery  of  which   our  countrymen 
have  shown  themselves  susceptible." 

He  soon,  however,  had  new  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  words  he 
had  spoken  to  his  Albemarle  neighbors  on  returning  from  France  in 
17!'!):  "The  will  of  the  majority,  the  natural  law  of  every  society,  is 
the  only  sure  guardian  of  the  rights  of  man.  Perhaps  even  this 
may  sometimes  err;  but  its  errors  are  honest,  solitary,  and  short" 


I  low  he  toiled  and  schemed  to  enlighten  the  public  mind  at  this 
crisis,  his  letters  of  the  time  reveal,  and  the  hatred  of  the  enemies 
of  freedom  attest.  He  was  the  soul  of  the  opposition.  By  long, 
able,  earnest  letters  to  leading  public  men  in  many  States,  he 
roused  the  dormant  and  restrained  the  impetuous.  He  induced 
good  writers  on  the  Republican  side,  Madison  above  all,  to  compose 
the  right  articles  for  the  press.  Madison,  overpowered  in  Congress, 
and  regarding  the  Constitution  as  set  aside,  and  no  longer  any 
restraint  upon  an  arrogant  and  exulting  majority,  had  retired  to 
the  legislature  of  Virginia,  as  a  general  falls  back  to  make  a  new 
stand  in  1he  fastnesses  of  his  native,  familiar  hills.  "Every  man," 
wr.-te  Jefferson  to  him  in  February,  1799,  "must  lay  his  purse  and 
hi>  pen  under  contribution.  As  to  the  former,  it  is  possible  I  may  be 
obliged  to  assume  something  for  you.  As  to  the  latter,  let  me  pray 
and  beseech  you  to  set  apart  a  certain  portion  of  every  post-day  to 
write  what  may  be  proper  for  the  public.  Send  it  to  me  while  here; 
and  when  I  go  away  I  will  let  you  know  to  whom  you  may  send, 
so  that  your  name  shall  be  sacredly  secret.  You  can  render  such 
incalculable  services  in  this  way  as  to  lessen  the  effect  of  our  loss 
of  your  presence  here."  At  the  same  time  Jefferson,  acting  on 
In-half  of  a  elub  of  choice  spirits  to  which  he  belonged,  endeavored 
to  induce  Madison  to  publish  the  notes  taken  by  him  of  the  debates 
in  the  Convention  of  1787.  The  project  failed.  The  work  was, 
indeed,  too  voluminous,  and  yet  all  too  brief,  for  the  purpose  of 
''.ing  the  public  mind  to  a  sense  of  constitutional  obligation. 
And  what  did  the  Hainihons  of  the  day  care  for  the  intentions  of 
.  -oiivention  ?  livery  p«-n,  however,  that  could  be  used  with 
against  the  military  faction,  Jefferson  sought  out,  and  stimu 
lated  ;  urging  upon  his  friends  the  powerlessness  of  blackguard 
vituperation,  if  met  by  good  sense,  and  strong,  clear,  dignified 
reasoning. 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES   THE   OPPORTUNITY.  555 

He  restrained  as  well  as  impelled.     In  the  midst  of  the  war-fury 
*  Ma}'',  1798,  John  Taylor  of  Caroline  thought  the  time*  had  come 
»r  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  to  begin  to  think  of  setting  up  for 
lemselves.     No,  said  Jefferson  :  "  if,  on  a  temporary  superiority  of 
ne  party,  the  other  is  to  resort  to  a  scission  of  the  Union,  no  federal 
overnment  can  ever  exist.     If  to  rid  ourselves  of  the  present  rule  of 
assachusetts  and  Connecticut,  we  hreak  the  Union,  will  the  evil 
top  there  ?     Suppose  the  New  England  States  alone  cut  off,  will  our 
ature  be  changed  ?     Are  we  not  men  still  to  the  south  of  that,  and 
nth  all  the  passions  of  men  ?     Immediately  we  shall  see  a  Pennsyl- 
ania  and  a  Virginia  party  arise  in  the  residuary  confederacy,  and 
;he  public  mind  will  be  distracted  with  the  same  party  spirit.     What 
i  game,  too,  will  the   one   party  have  in   their  hands,  by  eternally 
iihreatening  the  other,  that,  unless  they  do  so  and  so,  they  will,  join 
their  Northern  neighbors  !     If  we  reduce  our  Union  to  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  immediately  the  conflict  will  be  established  between 
the  representatives  of  these  two  States,  and  they  will  end  by  break 
ing  into  their  simple  units.     Seeing,  therefore,  tbat  an  association  of 
men  who  will  not  quarrel  with  one  another  is  a  thing  which  never 
yet  existed,  from  the  greatest  confederacy  of  nations  down  to  a  town 
meeting  or  a  vestry,  seeing  that  we  must  have  somebody  to  quarrel 
with,  I  had  rather  keep  our  New  England  associates  for  that  pur 
pose  than  to  see  our  bickerings  transferred  to  others." 

No  language  can  overstate  the  boiling  fury  of  party  passion  then. 
Social  intercourse  between  members  of  the  two  parties  ceased,  and 
old  friends  crossed  the  street  to  avoid  saluting  one  another.  Jeffer 
son  declined  invitations  to  the  usual  gatherings  of  "  society,"  and 
spent  his  leisure  hours  in  the  circle  that  met  in  the  rooms  of  the 
Philosophical  Society,  ever  longing  for  the  end  of  the  session  and  the 
sweet  tranquillity  of  his  home.  "Here,"  he  writes  to  his  daughter 
Martha,  in  February,  1798,  "your  letters  serve  like  gleams  of  light, 
to  cheer  a  dreary  scene,  where  envy,  hatred,  malice,  revenge,  and  all 
the  worst  passions  of  men,  are  marshalled,  to  make  one  another  as 
miserable  as  possible.  I  turn  from  this  with  pleasure,  to  contrast  it 
with  your  fireside,  where  the  single  evening  I  passed  at  it  was  worth 
more  than  ages  here."  Again,  in  May:  "For  you  to  feel  all  the 
happiness  of  your  quiet  situation,  you  should  know  the  rancorous 
passions  which  tear  every  breast  here,  even  of  the  sex  which  should 
be  a  stranger  to  them.  Politics  and  party  hatreds  destroy  the  hap- 


556  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

piness  of  every  being  here.  They  seem,  like  salamanders,  to  considei 
fire  as  their  element."  And  again,  in  February,  1799 :  "  Youi 
letter  was,  as  Ossian  says,  or  would  say,  like  the  bright  beams  of  the 
moon  on  the  desolate  heath.  Environed  here  in  scenes  of  constant 
torment,  malice,  and  obloquy,  worn  down  in  a  station  where  no  effort 
to  render  service  can  avail  any  thing,  I  feel  not  that  existence  is  a 
blessing  but  when  something  recalls  my  mind  to  my  family  or 

If  a  man  so  placid  as  Jefferson  was  moved  so  deeply,  we  cannot 
wonder  ut  the  frenzy  of  nervous  and  excitable  spirits.  President 
Adams  seemed  at  times  almost  beside  himself.  Many  readers 
ivim-mber  the  remarkable  account  given  by  him  of  scenes  in  the 
streets  of  Philadelphia,  on  what  he  calls  "  my  fast  day,"  May  9, 
17'J.S  :  "  When  Market  Street  was  as  full  as  men  could  stand  by  one 
another,  and  even  before  my  door ;  when  some  of  my  domestics,  in 
iVeu/.y,  determined  to  sacrifice  their  lives  in  my  defence ;  when  all 
we •!•••  n-ady  to  make  a  desperate  sally  among  the  multitude,  and 
others  were  with  difficulty  and  danger  dragged  back  by  the  others; 
when  I  myself  judged  it  prudent  and  necessary  to  order  chests  of 
arms  from  the  war-office  to  be  brought  through  by-lanes  and  ba%ck- 
doors  ;  determined  to  defend  my  house  at  the  expense  of  my  life, 
and  the  lives  of  the  few,  very  few,  domestics  and  friends  within  it." 
This  record  was  mere  midsummer  madness.  On  referring  to  the 
Philadelphia  newspapers  of  the  time,  I  read  in  Claypoole,  of  May  11, 
1798,  that  " the  Fast  was  observed  with  a  decency  and  solemnity 
never  be  lore  exhibited  on  a  similar  occasion." 

Tin-re  was,  indeed,  a  slight  disturbance.  For  the  warning  of  stu 
dents,  and  particularly  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  hereafter 

in\V>;iga,te  THE  LAWS  GOVERNING  THE  GENERATION  OF  FALSEHOOD, 

1  will  copy  two  newspaper  accounts  of  Mr.  Adams's  terrible  riot. 
Clay  pool.-.  May  11  :  "  After  the  solemnities  of  the  day  were  ended, 
towards  evening,  a  number  of  butcher-boys  made  their  appearance  at 
the  8t»te  H..u>e  garden  with  French  cockades  in  their  hats.  Some 
di.M  nsned;  but,  several  of  them  being  taken  up  and  com 

mitted  to  jail.  «>nl<-r  \\as  restored,  and  tranquillity  reigned  through 
the  night."  The  following  is  from  another  Philadelphia  paper,  the 
Merchants'  Daily  Advertiser.  .May  10,  17(,)S  :  "About  six  o'clock 
information  n  red  at  tin-  mayor's  office,  that  a  number  of  per- 

boiis  were  marching  about  the  city  in  a  very  disorderly  manner,  with 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES  THE   OPPORTUNITY.  557 


558  LITE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFEKSON. 

Revolution,  —  eleven  years  of  remonstrance  and  entreaty.  In  Octo 
ber,  17'.>S.  two  Republicans,  George  Nicholas  of  Kentucky,  and  Wil 
son  C.  Nicholas  of  Virginia,  met  at  Monticello,  to  consult  their 
chief  upon  the  situation.  These  brothers,  like  Madison,  had  retired 
from  Congress  to  endeavor  to  make  head  in  the  legislatures  of  their 
States  against  the  bold,  blind,  arrogant  men  who  controlled  the  gov 
ernment.  The  result  of  their  deliberations  was  the  "Kentucky 
Kcsohit  ions,"  draughted  by  Jefferson,  and  the  "Virginia  Resolutions," 
draughted  by  Madison;  by -the  passage  of  which  the  legislatures  of 
those  States  declared  that  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  being  con 
trary  to  the  plainest  letter  of  the  Constitution,  were  "  altogether 
void  and  of  no  force."  Jefferson's  draught  uttered  only  the  simple 
and  obvious  truth,  when  it  said  that  "  these  and  successive  acts  of 
the  same  nature,  unless  arrested  at  the  threshold,  will  iMaemflHrity 
drive  these  States  into  revolution  and  blood;''*  "for  this  common 
wealth  is  determined,  as  it  doubts  not  its  co-States  are,  to  submit  to 
illicit-legated,  and  consequently  unlimited  power,  in  no  man  or  body 
of  men  on  earth."  The  last  of  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  provided 
for  a  Committee  of  Conference  and  Correspondence,  who  should 
have  in  charge  to  exchange  information  and  sentiments  with  the 
legislatures  of  other  States. 

One  would  have  expected  Hamilton  to  pause  and  reconsider  his 
course  upon  reading  such  a  weighty  and  cogent  protest  as  this.  He 
did  not.  His  was  the  unteachable  mind  of  a  Scotch  Jacobite.  His 
>nse  to  the  Kentucky  and  Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798  is  pub- 
lished  at  length  in  his  works,  in  the  form  of  his  annual  political 
programme  for  1799,  addressed  to  Jonathan  Dayton,  long  the 
speaker  of  the  House,  and  then  about  to  enter  the  Senate.  Circum- 
stance<.  ho  said,  aided  by  the  extraordinary  exertions  of  "'  the  friends 
of  government."  had,  indeed,  gained  something  for  "the  side  of 
men  of  information  and  property;"  but,  after  all,  "  public  opinion 
lias  not  been  ameliorated,"  and  "sentiments  dangerous  to  social 
happin«-s  have  not  been  diminished*"  The  Kentucky  and  Virginia 
Resolutions  could  be  considered,  he  thought,  "in  no  other  light  than 
as  an  attempt  to  change  the  government;''  and  it  was  ••  .stated" 
that  ''the  faction"  in  Virginia  was  preparing  to  follow  up  hostile 
words  by  hostile  acts,  and  was  actually  gathering  arms,  stocking 
arsenals,  and  levying  new  taxes.  In  these  circumstances,  the  "sup 
porters  of  govern  nu-nt,"  while  preparing  to  meet  force  with  force, 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES   THE  OPPORTUNITY.  559 


5GO  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

explain  the  truth,  but  a  truth  it  •/.<,  that  the  paramour  of  a  Rey 
nolds  was  never  yet  capable  of  founding  a  safe  system  for  the  guid 
ance  of  a  nation.  Immoral  men  may  be  gifted  and  amiable,  but 
thev  are  never  wise. 

And  now  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  honest  John  Adams,  by  doing  the 
noblest  action  of  his  life,  to  reduce  Alexander  Hamilton  to  some 
thing  like  his  natural  proportions,  while  dispelling  his  silly  divan 
of  leading  an  American  army  to  conquest  in  South  America,  am 
picking  up  a  French  island  or  two  on  the  way.  We  all  know  Mr. 
Adams's  boisterous  foibles.  But  if  all  the  other  actions  of  his  life 
had  hiMMi  foolish,  this  one  act,  now  to  be  related,  would  entitle  him 
to  a  high  place  among  the  worthies  of  America. 

th:>  return  of  Elbridge  Gerry  from  France,  October  1,  1798, 
In-  found  himself,  in  the  circles  naturally  frequented  by  a  person  of 
his  character  and  services,  the  most  odious  of  men.  At  Cambridge 
even  his  family  had  been  subjected  to  outrage  in  his  absence. 
An  .MI  ymous  letters  reached  his  young  wife  by  "  almost  every  post," 
attributing  his  prolonged  stay  in  France  to  the  cause  of  all  others 
the  most  distressing  to  an  honorable  woinan ;  and  '*  on  several  occa 
sions,'5  as  his  biographer  adds,  "  the  morning  sun  shone  upon  a 
model  of  a  guillotine,  erected  in  the  field  before  her  window, 
smrared  with  blood,  and  having  the  effigy  of  a  headless  man."  It 
known  that  his  house  contained  only  women  and  children  ;  but 
savage  yells,  and  bonfires  suddenly  blazing  under  their  windows, 
disturbed  and  terrified  them  at  night.  After  leaving  his  despatches 
with  the  cabinet  at  Philadelphia,  and  visiting  his  home,  Mr.  Gerry 
drove  out  to  Quincy,  where,  most  fortunately,  the  president  was 
pa->ing  his  vacation,  —  far  from  a  cabinet  devoted  to  Hamilton  and 
determined  upon  war.  In  long  conferences,  renewed  from  day  to 
day.  Mr.  G.-rry  proved,  to  the  perfect  satisfaction  of  Mr.  Adams,  that 
the  government  and  people  of  France  desired  peace  with  the  United 
•id  would  respond  cordially  to  a  re-opening  of  diplomatic 
relations  He  showed  to  the  president  letters  from  Talleyrand, 
offering  him,  in  the  name  of  the  Directory,  a  public  reception  ;  aban 
doning  the  d  Mnand  for  a  loan  and  an  apology  for  the  president's 
ipeeeh';  positively!  engaging  to  receive  another  American  minister 
with  all  due  respirt  ;  and  declaring  a  willingness  to  enter  into  just 
commercial  arrangements  on  the  basis  of  conceding  to  the  United 
States  tho  neutrality  they  claimed.  Mr.  Gerry  had  something 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES   THE  OPPOETUNITY.  561 

better  to  show  the  president  than  promises.  At  Havre,  as  he  was 
ahout  to  sail,  he  had  received  a  copy  of  an  order  of  the  Directory  to 
the  French  officer  in  command  of  the  West  India  fleet,  to  restrain 
the  lawless  spoliation  of  American  commerce  by  French  privateers. 
He  told  the  president,  too,  that  the  French,  dazzled  and  inflated 
beyond  measure  by  Bonaparte's  victories,  had  treated  other  nations 
with  far  greater  insolence  tlian  they  had  the  United  States.  The 
government  had  sent  off  from  Paris  thirteen  foreign  ambassadors,  and 
even  gone  to  the  length  of  imprisoning  one,  and  confining  another  to 
his  house  under  guard. 

Mr.  Adams,  instructed  and  convinced  by  Mr.  Gerry,  had  the  great 
and  rare  courage  to  act  upon  his  conviction.  Against  the  opinion 
of  his  cabinet,  contrary  to  the  cry  and  expectation  of  his  party,  to 
the  infinite  disgust  and  cutting  disappointment  of  Hamilton,  as  well 
as  to  his  own  speedy  downfall  and  immortal  glory,  he  re-opened  dip 
lomatic  relations  with  France,  which  led  to  a  peace  that  has  lasted 
seventy-three  years.  It  was  his  own  act,  and  Elbridge  Gerry  alone 
shares  with  him  the  glory  of  it.  Mr.  Adams,  in  one  of  his  public 
letters  of  a  later  day,  tells  the  story  of  Mr.  Gerry's  appointment  and 
success  in  a  few  lines  :  "I  called  the  heads  of  departments  together, 
and  proposed  Mr.  Gerry.  All  the  five  voices  were  unanimously 
against  him.  Such  inveterate  prejudice  shocked  me.  I  said  noth 
ing,  but  was  determined  not  to  be  the  slave  of  it.  I  knew  the  man 
infinitely  better  than  all  of  them.  He  was  nominated  and  approved, 
and  finally  saved  the  peace  of  the  nation  ;  for  he  alone  discovered 
and  furnished  the  evidence  that  X,  Y,  and  Z  were  employed  by  Tal 
leyrand  ;  and  he  alone  brought  home  the  direct,  formal,  and  official 
assurances  upon  which  the  subsequent  commission  proceeded,  and 
peace  was  made."  February  17,  1799,  the  president,  to  the  equal 
astonishment  of  Federalists  and  Republicans,  nominated  William 
Vans  Murray  plenipotentiary  to  the  French  Republic. 

Hamilton  had  a  prompt  revenge,  but  it  inured  to  the  good  of  the 
country.  The  strange  manner  in  which  both  the  folly  and  the 
crimes  of  public  men  in  the  United  States  have  issued  in  lasting 
public  benefit,  is  an  argument  for  Providence  that  sometimes  stag 
gers  the  stanchest  unbeliever.  Hamilton  destroyed  the  Federalists, 
and  Calhoun  killed  slavery.  When  the  time  came  for  choosing  can 
didates  for  the  presidencj7,  Hamilton  was  resolved  to  push  John 
Adams  from  his  seat,  though  in  doing  so  he  prostrated  his  own  party. 


562  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

"For  my  individual  part,"  he  wrote  to  Theodore  Sedgwick,  "my 
mind  is  made  up.  I  will  never  more  be  responsible  for  Adams  by 
inv  direct  support,  even  though  the  consequence  should  be  the  elec 
tion  of  Jefferson.  If  we  must  have  an  enemy  at  the  head  of  the 
government,  let  it  be  one  whom  we  can  oppose,  and  for  whom  we  are 
not  responsible,  who  will  not  involve  our  party  in  the  disgrace  of  his 
foolish  and  bad  measures.  Under  Adams,  as  under  Jefferson,  the 
government  will  sink." 

A  bungling  business  he  made  of  it;  but  he  had  his  way.  His 
first  thought  was  to  lure  General  Washington  from  the  retreat  he  so 
much  loved,  needed,  and  deserved  ;  but  when  the  letter  of  Gouver- 
neur  Morris,  proposing  this  ungrateful  scheme,  reached  Mount  Ver- 
non,  Washington  lay  cold  in  death.  Then  Hamilton  brought  once 
more  into  play  that  baleful  ingenuity  of  his  which  had  misled  him 
so  often.  He  attempted  a  manceuvre  which  every  competent  corpo 
ral  knows  to  be  necessarily  fatal,  —  a  change  of  front  under  the 
enemy's  hottest  fire.  First  by  secret  manipulations  of  legislatures, 
and  afterwards  by  an  open,  printed  appeal,  signed  by  his  name,  he 
endeavored  to  bring  C.  C.  Pinckney,  the  Federalist  candidate  for  the 
vice-presidency,  into  the  presidency  over  Mr.  Adams.  By  thus 
rending  his  own  party  in  twain,  he  made  the  victory  easier  to  the 
Republicans  ;  and  perhaps  it  was  he  who  made  that  victory  theirs  in 
isno  instead  of  1804. 

Nor  can  we  award  him  even  the  credit  of  submitting  to  the  decis 
ion  of  the  people,  which  is  one  of  the  two  vital  conditions  of  a 
it-public's  existence  ;  the  other  being  a  pure  ballot-box.  The  election 
in  New  York  went  against  him;  i.e.  the  people  elected  a  legislature 
pledged  to  choose  Republican  electors.  He  instantly  wrote  to  Gov 
ernor  Jay,  urging  him  to  summon  at  once  the  existing  legislature 
(whose  time  had  still  seven  weeks  to  run),  and  get  it  to  pass  a  law 
depriving  the  legislature  of  the  power  to  elect  electors,  and  devolv 
ing  it  upon  the  people  by  districts.  This  manoeuvre  would 
give  the  beaten  Federalists  a  second  chance.  It  would  rob  the  Re 
publicans  of  their  victory.  It  would  compel  them  to  gird  on  their 
armor  again,  and  descend  a  second  time  into  the  arena.  It  was  los 
ing  the  game,  grabbing  the  stakes,  and  demanding  another  chance 
to  win  them,  with  points  in  favor  of  the  grabber. 

To  a  person  unacquainted  with  Hamilton's  peculiar  character,  this 
advice  to  the  governor  seems  simply  base.  But  the  error,  like  mil- 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES  THE  OPPORTUNITY.  563 

lions  of  other  errors  of  our  short-sighted  race,  was  not  half  so  much 
moral  as  mental.  It  was  ignorance  and  incapacity  rather  than  tur 
pitude.  He  said  to  the  governor,  in  substance  :  I  own  that  this 
measure  is  not  regular,  nor  delicate,  nor,  in  ordinary  circumstances, 
even  decent ;  but  "  scruples  of  delicacy  and  propriety  ought  not  to 
hinder  the  taking  of  a  legal  and  constitutional  step  to  prevent  an 
atheist  in  religion  and  a  fanatic  in  politics  from  getting  possession 
of  the  helm  of  state."  You  don't  know  these  Republicans  as  I  do, 
he  continued.  The  party  is  "  a  composition,  indeed,  of  very  incon 
gruous  materials,  but  all  tending  to  mischief;  some  of  them  to  the 
overthrow  of  the  government  by  stripping  it  of  its  due  energies ; 
others  of  them  to  a  revolution,  after  the  manner  of  Bonaparte.  I 
speak  from  indubitable  facts,  not  from  conjectures  and  inferences." 
Now,  my  dear  sir,  these  people  call  to  their  aid  "  all  the  resources 
which  vice  can  give  :  "  can  we,  then,  hope  to  succeed,  we  virtuous,  if 
we  confine  ourselves  "  within  all  the  ordinary  forms  of  delicacy  and 
decorum?"  No,  indeed.  But,  of  course,  we  must  "frankly  avow" 
our  object.  You  must  tell  the  legislature  that  our  purpose  is  to 
reverse  the  result  of  the  late  election,  in  order  to  prevent  the  general 
government  from  falling  into  hostile  hands,  and  to  save  the  "  great 
cause  of  social  order."  To  us,  this  long  epistle  to  Mr.  Jay  reads 
more  like  mania  than  wickedness.  This  man  had  lived  in  New  York 
twenty  years  without  so  much  as  learning  the  impossibility  of  its 
people  being  made  to  submit  to  an  avowed  outrage  so  gross  !  Gov 
ernor  Jay  was  at  no  loss  to  characterize  the  proposal  aright.  Instead 
of  plunging  the  State  into  civil  war  by  adopting  the  measure,  he 
folded  Hamilton's  letter,  and  put  it  away  among  his  most  private 
papers,  bearing  this  indorsement :  (( Proposing  a  measure  for  party 
purposes  w/tic7i  I  think  it  would  not  become  me  to  adopt." 

Mr.  Jefferson's  attitude  during  this  intensest  of  all  known  polit 
ical  struggles  is  an  interesting  study.  The  simplicity  of  his  politi 
cal  system  was  such,  that  he  could  give  a  complete  statement  of  it 
in  a  few  lines  ;  and  it  was  so  sound,  that-  the  general  government, 
from  1789  to  1873,  has  worked  well  so  far  as  it  has  conformed  to  it, 
and  worked  ill  as  often  as  it  has  departed  from  it.  Jefferson  was  so 
RIGHT,  that  every  honest,  patriotic  man  who  has  since  gone  to  Wash 
ington  after  having  learned  his  rudiments  from  Jefferson,  and  has 
had  strength  enough  to  vote  up  to  the  height  of  his  convictions,  has 
made  a  respectable  public  career,  no  matter  how  ordinary  his  endow- 


564  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

ments;  while  every  public  man  who  has  not  accepted  this  simple 
clew  to  the  labyrinth  of  public  business  has  made  a  career  which 
time  and  events  will  condemn,  though  he  may  have  had  the  talents 
of  a  Webster  or  a  Clay. 

This  is  the  Jeffersonian  system  in  brief:  "Let  the  general  gov 
ernment  be  reduced  to  foreign  concerns  only,  and  let  our  affairs  be 
disentangled  from  those  of  all  other  nations,  except  as  to  commerce, 
which  the  merchants  will  manage  the  better  the  more  they  are  left 
free  to  manage  for  themselves,  and  our  general  government  may  be 
reduced  to  a  very  s-irnple  organization,  and  a  very  unexpensive  one; 
a  few  plain  duties  to  be  performed  by  a  few  servants." 

This  was  the  basis.  He  explained  himself  more  in  detail  to 
Kl  bridge  Gerry,  in  January,  1799.  He  said  he  was  in  favor  of 
fulfilling  the  Constitution  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  originally 
interpret <'d  by  the  men  who  drew  it,  and  as  it  was  accepted  by  the 
States  upon  their  interpretation.  He  objected  to  every  thing  which 
tended  to  monarchy,  or  which  even  gave  the  government  a  mon 
archical  air  and  tone.  He  claimed  for  the  States  every  power  not 
/  •.>•/, /v.s-.s-///  yielded  by  the  Constitution  to  the  general  government. 
He  demanded  that  the  three  great  departments  of  the  government, 
Congress,  the  Executive,  and  the  Judiciary,  should  each  keep  to  its 
sphere,  neither  of  them  encroaching  upon  any  of  the  others.  He 
desired  a  government  rigorously  frugal  and  simple,  and  the  applica 
tion  of  all  possible  savings  to  the  discharge  of  the  public  debt.  In 
peace,  no  standing  army,  and  only  just  navy  enough  to  protect  our 
coasts  and  harbors  from  ravage  and  depredation.  Free-trade  with 
all  nations;  political  connection  with  none;  little  or  no  diplomatic 
•lishment.  Freedom  of  religion;  perfect  equality  of  sects 
re  the  law;  freedom  of  the  press;  free  criticism  of  government 
by  everybody,  whether  just  or  unjust.  Finally,  in  the  great  struggle 
which  began  with  the  dawn  of  human  reason,  and  will  end  only 
when  reason  is  supreme  in  human  affairs,  namely,  the  struggle 
between  Science  and  Superstition,  he  was  on  the  side  of  Science. 
Personally,  he  was  in  favor  of  "encouraging  the  progress  ,,f  science 
in  all  its  brandies;"  and  he  was  oppo*rd  to  ''overawing  the  human 
mind  by  stories  of  raw-head  and  bloody  bones,"  which  made  it  dis 
trustful  of  itself,  and  disposed  to  follow  blindly  the  lead  of  others. 
Tin*  first  object  of  his  heart,  he  said,  was  his  own  country,  —  not 
France,  not  .England,  —  and  the  one  no  more  than  the  other,  except 


HAMILTON  IMPROVES   THE   OPPORTUNITY.  565 

as  one  might  be  more  or  less  friendly  to  us  than  the  other.  The 
depredations  of  France  upon  our  commerce  were  indeed  "  atrocious," 
but  he  believed  that  a  mission  sincerely  disposed  to  peace  would 
obtain  retribution  and  honorable  settlement.  These  were  his 
principles,  but  he  indulged  no  antipathy  to  those  who  differed  from 
him.  "  I  know  too  well,"  said  he,  "the  texture  of  the  human  mind 
and  the  slipperiness  of  the  human  reason,  to  consider  differences  of 
opinion  otherwise  than  differences  of  form  and  feature.  Integrity 
of  views,  more  than  their  soundness,  is  the  basis  of  esteem." 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  his  opinions,  political  and  other,  in  view 
of  the  fact  well  known,  that  he  would  again  be  the  candidate  of 
his  party  for  the  presidency  in  1800. 

The  tranquil  dignitj7  of  the  candidate's  demeanor  was  pleasing  to 
witness.  During  1798  and  1799  he  devoted  a  great  part  of  his 
time  and  strength  to  enlightening  the  public  mind;  employing  for 
this  purpose  all  that  his  party  possessed  of  bright  intelligence  and 
practised  ability.  But  when,  in  1800,  the  contest  lost  the  character 
of  a  conflict  of  ideas,  and  assumed  that  of  a  competition  of  persons, 
he  ceased  to  write  letters,  withdrew  to  Monticello,  and  spent  an 
unusually  laborious  summer  in  improving  his  nail-factory,  burning 
bricks  for  his  house,  and  superintending  his  farms ;  rarely  going 
farther  from  home  than  the  next  village ;  never  too  busy  to  keep  up 
his  meteorological  records,  and  look  after  the  interests  of  the  Philo 
sophical  Society. 

Indeed,  if  we  may  judge  from  his  letters,  the  more  furiously  the 
storm  of  politics  raged  about  him,  the  more  attentive  he  was  to 
philosophy.  It  was  in  the  very  heat  of  the  war  frenzy  of  1798  that 
he  wrote  his  well-known  letter  to  Mr.  Nolan,  asking  information 
concerning  those  "large  herds  of  horses  in  a  wild  state,"  which,  he 
had  been  recently  informed,  were  roaming  "  in  the  country  west  of 
the  Mississippi."  He  entreated  Mr.  Nolan  to  be  very  particular 
and  exact  in  detailing  "the  manners,  habits,  and  laws  of  the  horse's 
existence  "  in  a  state  of  nature.  It  was  also  during  the  very  crisis 
of  the  French  imbroglio,  in  February,  1799,  that  he  penned  his 
curious  letter  about  the  steam-engine ;  in  which  he  expressed  a 
timid  hope,  that  perhaps  the  steam-engine,  as  now  improved  by 
Watt,  might  be  available  for  pumping  water  to  the  tops  of  houses 
for  family  use.  Every  family,  he  said,  has  a  kitchen  fire;  small, 
indeed,  but  sufficient  for  the  purpose.  To  these  years  seems  to 


566  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

belong  also  his  invention  of  the  revolving  chair,  which  the  newspa 
pers  of  that  day  used  to  style  "Mr.  Jefferson's  whirligig  chair," 
now  a  familiar  object  in  all  countries  and  most  counting-rooms. 
The  party  papers  of  the  time  had  their  little  joke  even  upon  this 
innocent  device ;  insisting  that  Mr.  Jefferson  invented  it  to  facilitate 
his  looking  all  ways  at  once. 


CHAPTER  LIX. 

THE    CAMPAIGN   LIES    OF    1800. 

THAT  product  of  the  human  intellect  which  we  denominate  the 
Campaign  Lie,  though  it  did  not  originate  in  the  United  States,  has 
here  attained  a  development  unknown  in  other  lands.  It  is  the 
destiny  of  America  to  try  all  experiments  and  exhaust  all  follies. 
In  the  short  space  of  seventy-seven  years,  we  have  exhausted  the 
efficiency  of  falsehood  uttered  to  keep  a  man  out  of  office.  The  fact 
is  not  to  our  credit,  indeed ;  for  we  must  have  lied  to  an  immeasura 
ble  extent  before  the  printed  word  of  man,  during  six  whole  months 
of  every  fourth  year,  could  have  lost  so  much  of  its  natural  power 
to  affect  human  belief.  Still  less  is  it  for  our  good ;  since  Campaign 
Truths,  however  important  they  may  be,  are  equally  ineffectual. 
Soon  after  the  publication  of  a  certain  ponderous  work,  called  the 
Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  one  of  the  original  Jackson  men  of  Penn 
sylvania  met  the  author  in  the  street,  and  said  in  substance,  "  I  am 
astonished  to  find  how  little  I  knew  of  a  man  whose  battles  I  fought 
for  twelve  years.  I  heard  all  those  stories  of  his  quarrels  and  vio 
lence  ;  but  I  supposed,  OF  COURSE,  they  were  Campaign  Lies  ! " 

Thomas  Jefferson,  who  began  so  many  things  in  the  early  career 
of  the  United  States,  was  the  first  object  upon  whom  the  Campaign 
Liar  tried  his  unpractised  talents.  The  art,  indeed,  may  be  said  to 
have  been  introduced  in  1796  to  prevent  his  election  to  the  presi 
dency;  but  it  was  in  1800  that  it  was  clearly  developed  into  a 
distinct  species  of  falsehood.  And  it  must  be  confessed,  that,  even 
amid  the  heat  of  the  election  of  1800,  the  Campaign  Liar  was  hard 
put  to  it,  and  did  not  succeed  in  originating  that  variety  and  reck 
less  extravagance  of  calumny  which  has  crowned  his  efforts  since. 
Jefferson's  life  presented  to  his  view  a  most  discouraging  monotony 
of  innocent  and  beneficial  actions,  —  twenty-five  years  of  laborious 

667 


568  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

and  unrecompensed  public  service,  relieved  by  the  violin,  science, 
invention,  agriculture,  the  education  of  his  nephews,  and  the  love  of 
his  daughters.  A  life  so  exceptionally  blameless  did  not  give  fair 
scope  to  talent;  since  a  falsehood,  to  have  its  full  and  lasting  effect, 
must  contain  a  fraction  of  a  grain  of  truth.  Still,  the  Campaign 
Liar  of  1800  did  very  well  for  a  beginner. 

I  re  was  able,  of  course,  to  prove  that  Mr.  Jefferson  "hated  the 
Constitution,"  had  hated  it  from  the  beginning,  and  was  "pledged 
to  subvert  it."  The  noble  Marcellus  of  New  York  (Hamilton 
apparently)  writing  in  Noah  Webster's  new  paper,  the  Commercial 
Advertiser,  soared  into  prophecy,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  describe 
with  precision  the  methods  which  Mr.  Jefferson  would  employ  in 
efVerting  his  fell  purpose.  He  would  begin  by  turning  every  Fed 
eralist  out  of  office,  down  to  the  remotest  postmaster.  Then  he 
would  '•  tumble  the  financial  system  of  the  country  into  ruin  at  one 
stroke;"  which  would  of  necessity  stop  all  payments  of  interest  on 
the  public  debt,  and  bring  on  "universal  bankruptcy  and  beggary." 
Next  he  would  dismantle  the  navy,  and  thus  give  such  free  course 
to  privateering,  that  "every  vessel  which  floated  from  our  shores 
*vould  be  plundered  or  captured."  And,  since  every  source  of  reve 
nue  would  be  dried  up,  the  government  would  no  longer  be  able  to 
pay  the  pensions  of  the  scarred  veterans  of  the  Revolution,  who 
would  be  seen  "  starving  in  the  streets,  or  living  on  the  cold  and 
precarious  supplies  of  charity."  Soon  the  unpaid  officers  of  the 
government  would  resign,  and  "counterfeiting  would  be  practised 
with  impunity."  In  short,  good  people,  the  election  of  Jefferson 
will  be  the  signal  for  Pandora  to  open  her  box,  and  empty  it  upon 
your  heads. 

Tin-  Campaign  Liar  mounted  the  pulpit.  In  the  guise  of  the 
Cotton  Mather  Smith  of  Connecticut,  he  stated  that  Mr. 
had  gained  his  estate  by  robbery  and  fraud, — yea,  even  by 
robbing  a  widow  and  fatherless  children  of  ten  thousand  pounds, 
intrusted  to  him  by  the  dead  father's  will.  "All  of  this  can  be 
proved,"  said  the  Keveivnd  Campaigner.  Some  of  the  falsehoods 
were  curiously  remote  from  the  truth.  "He  despises  mechanics," 
said  a  Philadelphia  paragraphist  of  a  man  who  doted  on  a  well- 
skilled,  conscientious  work- man.  "He  despises  mechanics,  and  owns 
two  hundred  and  til'ry  of  tin-in. "  remarked  this  writer.  That  Mmi- 
ticello  swarmed  with  yellow  Jeffersous  was  the  natural  conjecture 


THE  CAMPAIGN  LIES  OF   1800.  569 

of  a  party  who  recognized  as  their  chief  the  paramour  of  a  Reynolds. 
"  Mr.  Jefferson's  Congo  Harem "  was  a  party  cry.  There  were 
allusions  to  a  certain  "  Dusky  Sally,"  otherwise  Sally  Henings, 
whose  children  were  said  to  resemble  the  master  of  Monticello  in 
their  features  and  the  color  of  their  hair.  In  this  particular  Cam 
paign  Lie,  there  was  just  that  fractional  portion  of  truth  which  was 
necessary  to  preserve  it  fresh  and  vigorous  to  this  day.  There  is 
!ven  a  respectable  Madison  Henings,  now  living  in  Ohio,  who  sup 
poses  that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  his  father.  Mr.  Henings  has  been 
misinformed.  The  record  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  every  day  and  hour, 
contained  in  his  pocket  memorandum  books,  compared  with  the 
record  of  his  slaves'  birth,  proves  the  impossibility  of  his  having 
been  the  father  of  Madison  Henings.  So  I  am  informed  by  Mr. 
Randall,  who  examined  the  records  in  the  possession  of  the  family. 
The  father  of  those  children  was  a  near  relation  of  the  Jefferson s, 
who  need  not  be  named. 

Perhaps  I  may,  in  view  of  recent  and  threatened  publications, 
copy  a  few  words  from  Mr.  Randall's  interesting  letter  on  this  sub 
ject.  They  will  be  valued  by  those  who  believe  that  chastity  in  man 
is  as  precious  a  treasure  as  chastity  in  woman,  and  not  less  essential 
to  the  happiness,  independence,  and  dignity  of  his  existence  :  — 

"  Colonel  Randolph  (grandson  of  Mr.  Jefferson)  informed  me  (at 
Monticello)  that  there  was  not  a  shadow  of  suspicion  that  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  in  this  or  any  other  instance,  had  any  such  intimacy  with 
his  female  slaves.  At  the  period  when  these  children  were  born, 
Colonel  Randolph  had  charge  of  Monticello.  He  gave  all  the  gene 
ral  directions,  and  gave  out  all  their  clothes  to  the  slaves.  He  said 
Sally  Henings  was  treated  and  dressed  just  like  the  rest.  He  said 
Mr.  Jefferson  never  locked  the  door  of  his  room  by  day,  and  that  he, 
Colonel  Randolph,  slept  within  sound  of  his  breathing  at  night. 
He  said  he  had  never  seen  a  motion  or  a  look  or  a  circumstance 
which  led  him  to  suspect,  for  an  instant,  that  there  was  a  particle 
more  of  familiarity  between  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Sally  Henings  than 
between  him  and  the  most  repulsive  servant  in  the  establishment, 
and  that  no  person  living  at  Monticello  ever  dreamed  of  such  a 
thing.  Colonel  Randolph  said  that  he  had  spent  a  good  share  of 
his  life  closely  about  Mr.  Jefferson,  — at  home  and  on  his  journeys, 
in  all  sorts  of  circumstances,  —  and  he  believed  him  to  be  as  chaste 


570  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

and  pure,  "as  immaculate  a  man  as  ever  God  created."  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  eldest  daughter,  Mrs.  Governor  Kandolph,  took  the  Dusky 
Sally  stories  much  to  heart.  But  she  spoke  to  her  sons  only  once 
on  the  subject.  Not  long  before  her  death,  she  called  two  of  them 
to  her,  —  the  Colonel,  and  George  Wythe  Randolph.  She  asked 
the  Colonel  if  he  remembered  when  Henings  (the  slave  who  most 
resembled  Mr.  Jefferson)  was  born.  He  turned  to  the  book  contain 
ing  the  list  of  slaves,  and  found  that  he  was  born  at  the  time  sup 
posed  by  Mrs.  Randolph.  She  then  directed  her  son's  attention  to 
the  fact,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Sally  Heniugs  could  not  have  met, 
were  far  distant  from  each  other,  for  fifteen  months  prior  to  the 
birth.  She  bade  her  sons  remember  this  fact,  and  always  defend 
the  character  of  their  grandfather.  It  so  happened,  when  I  was 
examining  an  old  account-book  of  Mr.  Jefferson's,  I  came  pop  on 
the  original  entry  of  this  slave's  birth ;  and  I  was  then  able,  from 
well-known  circumstances,  to  prove  the  fifteen  months'  separation. 
...  I  could  give  fifty  more  facts,  if  there  were  any  need  of  it,  to 
show  Mr.  Jefferson's  innocence  of  this  and  all  similar  offences 
against  propriety." 

So  much  for  this  poor  Campaign  Lie,  which  has  been  current  in 
the  world  for  seventy-four  years,  and  will,  doubtless,  walk  the  earth 
as  long  as  weak  mortals  need  high  examples  of  folly  to  keep  them  on 
endurable  terms  with  themselves. 

Religion,  for  the  first  and  last  time,  was  an  important  element  in 
the  political  strife  of  1800.  There  was  not  a  pin  to  choose  between 
the  heterodoxy  of  the  two  candidates;  and,  indeed,  Mr.  Adums  was 
sometimes,  in  his  familiar  letters,  more  pronounced  in  his  dissent 
from  established  beliefs  than  Jefferson.  Neither  of  these  Christians 
perceived,  as  clearly  as  we  now  do,  the  absolute  necessity  to  un rea 
soning  men  of  that  husk  of  fiction  in  which  vital  truth  is  usually 
enclosed  ;  nor  what  avast,  indispensable  service  the  Priest  renders  the 
ignorant  man  in  supplying  fictions  for  his  acceptance  less  degradiirg 
than  those  which  he  could  invent  for  himself.  Mr.  Adams,  however, 
was  by  far  the  more  impatient  of  the  two  with  popular  creeds,  as  ho 
shows  in  many  a  comic  outburst  of  robust  and  boisterous  contempt. 
He  protested  his  utter  inability  to  comprehend  that  side  of  human 
nature  which  made  people  object  to  paying  a  pittance  for  his  new 
iiuvy-yards,  and  eager  to  throw  away  their  money  upon  such  struc- 


THE  CAMPAIGN  LIES  OF   1800.  571 


572  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

The  orthodox  clergy  were  Dot  averse  then,  it  appears,  to  "  politic 
in  the  pulpit."  Our  historical  collections  yield  many  proofs  of  it  i^ 
the  form  of  pamphlets  and  sermons  of  the  year  1800.  It  cheers  thi 
mind  of  the  inquirer,  in  his  dusty  rummaging,  to  measure  the  strid 
the  public  mind  has  taken  in  less  than  three-quarters  of  a  century 
"Hold  !  "  cries  one  vigorous  lay  sermonizer  (Claims  of  Thomas  Jef 
ferson  to  the  Presidency  examined  at  the  Bar  of  Christianity),  — 
"  hold !  The  blameless  deportment  of  this  man  has  been  the  themi 
of  encomium.  He  is  chaste,  temperate,  hospitable,  affectionate,  an< 
frank."  BUT  he  is  no  Christian!  He  does  not  believe  in  the  Del 
uge.  He  does  not  go  to  church.  "  Shall  Thomas  Jefferson,"  ask 
this  writer,  *•'  who  denies  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  avows  tin 
pernicious  folly  of  all  religion,  be  your  governor  ?  " 

One  writer  proves  his  case  thus :  1,  The  French  Revolution  wa 
a  conspiracy  to  overthrow  the  Christian  religion  ;  2,  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  avowed  a  cordial  sympathy  with  the  French  Re  volution 
3,  Therefore  Thomas  Jefferson  aims  at  the  destruction  of  the  Chris 
tian  religion.  To  this  reasoning  facts  were  added.  Mr.  Jefferson 
fearing  to  trust  the  post-office,  had  written  a  letter  in  Latin  to  ai 
inlidcl  author,  approving  his  work,  and  urging  him  to  print  it.  Thei 
look  at  his  friends  !  Are  they  not  "  deists,  atheists,  and  infidels  ?  ' 
Did  not  General  Dearborn,  one  of  his  active  supporters,  while  travel 
ling  to  Washington  in  a  public  stage,  say,  that  "  so  long  as  ou 
temples  stood,  we  could  not  hope  for  good  order  or  good  govern 
ment "  ?  The  same  Dearborn,  passing  a  church  in  Connecticut 
pointed  at  it,  and  scornfully  exclaimed,  "Look  at  that  painted  nuis 
anrr  ! ''  But  the  most  popular  and  often-repeated  anecdote  of  this 
nature,  which  the  contest  elicited,  was  the  following :  "  When  th< 
late  liev.  Dr.  John  B.  Smith  resided  in  Virginia,  the  famous  Mazze 
happened  one  night  to  be  his  guest.  Dr.  Smith  having,  as  usual 
assembled  his  family  for  their  evening  devotions,  the  circumstanc< 
>ne<l  some  discourse  on  religion,  in  which  the  Italian  made  n< 
of  his  inlidel  principles.  In  the  course  of  conversation,  h< 
remarked  to  Dr.  Smith,  '  Why,  your  great  philosopher  ami  statesman 
Mr.  .JelV« -isi-n,  is  rather  further  gone  in  infidelity  than  I  am;'  am 
related,  in  continuation,  the  following  anecdote.  That,  as  he  was 
once  riding  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  In-  expressed  his  '  surprise  that  tin 
people  of  this  country  take  no  better  care  of  their  public  buildings. 
*  What  buildings?'  exclaimed  Mr.  Jefferson.  'Is  that  not  j 


THE  CAMPAIGN  LIES  OF   1800.  573 


574  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

He  avoided,  on  principle,  that  line  of  conduct,  so  familiar  to  pub 
lie  moil  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  rank,  which  Mark  Twain  ha 
recentlv  called  "  currying  favor  with  the  religious  element."  TVhih 
h<-  was  most  careful  not  to  utter  a  word,  in  the  hearing  of  young  o: 
unformed  persons,  even  in  his  own  family,  calculated  to  disturb  thei] 
faith,  he  was  equally  strenuous  in  maintaining  his  right  to  liberty 
both  of  thought  and  utterance.  Thus,  at  a  time  when  the  wore 
"Unitarian"  was  only  less  opprobrious  than  infidel,  and  he  was  i 
candidate  for  the  presidency,  he  went  to  a  church  of  that  denomina- 
tion  at  Philadelphia,  in  which,  as  he  says,  "Dr.  Priestley  ofnciatec 
to  numerous  audiences."  "  I  never  will,"  he  once  wrote,  "  by  an} 
word  or  act,  bow  to  the  shrine  of  intolerance,  or  admit  a  right  of 
inquiry  into  the  religious  opinions  of  others.  On  the  contrary,  w( 
are  bound,  you,  I,  and  every  one,  to  make  common  cause,  even  wit! 
error  itself,  to  maintain  the  common  right  of  freedom  of  conscience 
AVe  ought,  with  one  heart  and  one  hand,  to  hew  down  the  daring 
and  dangerous  efforts  of  those  who  would  seduce  the  public  opinior 
to  substitute  itself  into  that  tyranny  over  religious  faith  which  th( 
laws  have  so  justly  abdicated.  For  this  reason,  were  my  opinions 
up  to  the  standard  of  those  who  arrogate  the  right  of  questioning 
them,  I  would  not  countenance  that  arrogance  by  descending  to  ar 
explanation." 

It  strengthened  Jefferson's  faith  in  republican  institutions,  thai 
his  countrymen  rose  superior  to  religious  prejudices  in  1800,  anc 
gave  their  votes  very  nearly  as  they  would  if  the  religious  questior 
had  not  been  raised.  Tradition  reports,  that,  when  the  news  of  his 
election  reached  New  England,  some  old  ladies,  in  wild  consternation 
hung  their  Bibles  down  the  well  in  the  butter-cooler.  But,  in  truth 
the  creed  of  Jefferson  is,  and  long  has  been,  the  real  creed  of  tin 
people  of  the  United  States.  They  know  in  their  hearts,  whateve] 
form  of  words  they  may  habitually  use,  that  Christianity  is  a  life 
not  a  belief;  a  principal  of  conduct,  not  a  theory  of  the  universe, 
"  I  am  a  Christian,"  wrote  Jefferson,  "  in  the  only  sense  in  wind 
Jesus  \vi>h«-d  a^ny  one  to  be,  —  sincerely  attached  to  his  doctrines  ic 
preference  to  all  others."  One  evening,  in  Washington,  having, 
for  a  wonder,  a  little  leisure,  he  took  two  cheap  copies  of  the  Ne^ 
Testament,  procured  for  the  purpose,  and  cut  from  them  the  words  of 
Jesus,  and  such  other  passages  of  the  evangelists  as  are  in  closesl 
accord  with  them.  These  he  pasted  in  a  little  book,  and  entitled  it 


THE  CAMPAIGN  LIES   OF    1800.  575 

'he  Philosophy  of  Jesus  extracted  from  the  Text  of  the  Evangelists. 
'wo  evenings  were  employed  in  this  interesting  work ;  and  when  it 
ras  done  he  contemplated  it  with  rapturous  satisfaction.  The 
rords  of  Jesus,  he  thought,  were  "  as  distinguishable  from  the  mat- 
3r  in  which  they  are  imbedded  as  diamonds  in  dunghills.  A  more 
recious  morsel  of  ethics  was  never  seen." 


CHAPTER  LX. 

THE    TIE    BETWEEN   JEFFERSON    AND    BURR. 

THE  peculiar  result  of  the  election  of  1800  is  familiar  to  most 
readers:  Jefferson,  73;  Burr,  73;  Adams,  65;  C.  C.  Pinckney,  64; 
Jay,  1.  Again  Hamilton's  preposterous  device  of  the  electoral  col 
lege  brought  trouble  and  peril  upon  the  country;  for  the  Federalists, 
oon  as  the  tie  was  known,  made  haste  to  fill  up  the  measure  of 
their  errors  by  intriguing  to  defeat  the  will  of  the  people,  and  make 
r.iirr  president  instead  of  Jefferson.  I  need  not  repeat  the  shame- 
rul  story.  For  many  days,  during  which  the  House  of  Representa- 
\ives  balloted  twenty-nine  times,  the  country  was  excited  and 
alarmed ;  and  nothing  averted  civil  commotion  but  the  wise  and 
resolute  conduct  of  the  Republican  candidates.  At  Alban}-,  where 
]  HUT'S  duties  as  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  New  York  detained 
him  during  the  crisis,  an  affair  more  interesting  to  him  even  than  the 
presidential  election  was  transpiring.  Theodosia,  his  only  daugh 
ter,  the  idol  of  his  life,  was  married  at  Albany,  February  2,  1800 
(a  week  before  the  balloting  began),  to  Joseph  Alston  of  South 
Carolina.  He  performed  but  one  act  in  connection  with  the  strug 
gle  in  the  wilderness  of  Washington.  He  wrote  a  short,  decisive 
note  to  a  member  of  the  House,  repudiating  the  unworthy  attempt 
about  to  be  made  to  elevate  him.  His  friends,  he  truly  said, 
"  would  dishonor  his  views  and  insult  his  feelings  by  a  suspicion 
that  he  would  submit  to  be  instrumental  in  counteracting  the  wishes 
and  tin-  expectations  of  the  United  States;"  and  he  constituted  the 
friend  to  whom  he  wrote  his  proxy  to  declare  these  sentiments  if  the 
occasion  should  require.  Having  despatched  this  letter,  and  being 
then  at  a  distance  often*  days'  travel  from  the  seat  of  government, 
he  did  nothing,  and  could  do  nothing,  further. 

*  "  Now  York  mid  Albany  M:iil  Stage  — 

"Lc-uvi-s  N.  u    Y^rk  cvi-ry  morning  at  pix  o'clock,  lodges,  at  Pwkpkill  and  Rhine'beck, 
and  urriviB  in  Albany  on  the  third  dny.    Fare  of  each  passenger  through,  eight  dollars;  and 
676 


THE  TIE  BETWEEN  JEFFERSON  AND   BURR.  577 

Jefferson's  part  was  much  more  difficult.  Besides  that  a  great 
party  looked  to  him  as  the  repository  of  their  rights,  his  own  pride 
was  interested  in  his  not  being  made  the  victim  of  a  corrupt 
intrigue.  As  the  president  of  the  Senate,  he  was  in  the  nearest 
proximity  to  the  scene  of.  strife,  liable  to  take  fire  from  the  passions 
that  raged  there.  Seldom  has  a  fallible  man  been  placed  in  circum 
stances  more  trj'ing  to  mind  and  nerve. 

There  were  four  evil  courses  possible  to  the  Federalists ;  each  of 
which  Jefferson  had  considered,  and  was  prepared  for,  before  the 
balloting  began. 

1.  They  might  elect  Aaron  Burr  president,  and  himself  vice-pres 
ident.     In  that  case,  because  the  election  would  have  been  "  agree 
able  to  the  Constitution,"  though  "  variant  from  the  intentions  of 
the  people,"  his  purpose  was  to  submit  without  a  word.     "  No  man," 
he  wrote  a  few  weeks  later,  "  would  have  submitted  more  cheerfully 
than    myself,  because  I  am  sure  the  administration  would  have  been 
Republican." 

2.  The  Federalists  could  offer  terms  to  Jefferson,  and  endeavor  to 
extort  valuable  concessions   from   him.     Upon  this  point,  too,  his 
mind  was  made  up ;  and  he  met  every  approach  of  this  nature  by  a 
declaration,  in  some  form,  that  "  he  would  not  come  into  the  presi 
dency  by  capitulation."     He  has  himself  recorded  several  of  these 
attempts  at  negotiation.     "  Coming  out  of  the  Senate  one  day,"  he 
writes,  <'  I  found  Gouverneur  Morris  on  the  steps.     He  stopped  me, 
and  began  a  conversation  on  the  strange  and  portentous  state  of 
things  then  existing,  and  went  on  to  observe,  that  the  reasons  why 
the  minority  of  States  was  so  opposed  to  my  being  elected  were,  that 
they  apprehended,  that,  1,  I  would  turn  all  Federalists  out  of  office ; 
2,  Put  down  the  navy;  3,  Wipe  off  the  public  debt.     That  I  need 
only  to  declare,  or  authorize  my  friends  to  declare,  that  I  would  not 
take  these  steps,  and  instantly  the  event  of  the  election  would  be 


578  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

fixed.  I  told  him  that  I  should  leave  the  world  to  judge  of  the 
course  I  meant  to  pursue  by  that  which  I  had  pursued  hitherto, 
believing  it  to  be  my  duty  to  be  passive  and  silent  during  the  present 
scene  ;  that  I  should  certainly  make  no  terms ;  should  never  go  into 
the  office  of  president  by  capitulation,  nor  with  my  hands  tied  by  any 
conditions  which  should  hinder  me  from  pursuing  the  measures  which 
I  should  deem  for  the  public  good."  Other  interviewers,  some  of 
whom  held  the  election  in  their  hands,  had  no  better  success. 

3.  The  balloting  could  have  been  continued  day  after  day,  until 
the  end  of  Mr.  Adams's  term,  two  weeks  distant;  when,  there  being 
no  president  and  no  vice-president,  anarchy  and  chaos  might  have 
been  expected.     For  this  emergency,  also,  Jefferson  had  provided  a 
plan,    which,    he    always    thought,    would   have    prevented    serious 
trouble.     The  Republican  members  of  Congress,  in  conjunction  with 
the  president  and  vice-president  elect,  intended  to  meet,  and  issue  a 
call  to  the  whole  country  for  a  convention  to  revise  the  Constitution, 
and  provide  a  suitable,  orderly  remedy  for  the  lapse  of  government. 
This    convention,  as  Jefferson  remarked  to  Dr.  Priestley,  "would 
have  ln-cn  on  the  ground  in  eight  weeks,  would  have  repaired  the 
Constitution  where  it  was  defective,  and  wound  it  up  again." 

4.  But  unhappily  there  was  a   fourth    expedient   contemplated, 
which  was  fraught  with  peril  to  the  country's  peace.     It  was  pro 
posed  to  pass  a  law  devolving  the  government  upon  the  chairman 
of  the  Senate  (to  be  elected  by  the  Senate),  in  case  the  office  of 
pre.-ident  should  become  vacant.     At  once  he  declared,  in  conversa 
tions  meant  to  be  reported,  that  such  an  attempt  would  be  resisted 
by  force.     The  very  day,  said  he,  that  such  an  act  is  passed,  the 
Middle    States    (i.e.  Virginia   and   Pennsylvania)    will    arm.     And 
when  we  know  that  James  Monroe  was  the  governor  of  Virginia, 
and  Thomas  McKcun  governor  of  Pennsj'lvania,  we  may  be  sure 
that  this  was  no  empty  threat.     Not  for  a  day,  he  added,  will  such 
a  usurpation  be  submitted  to.     "I  was  decidedly  with  those,"  he 
explained  a  few  weeks  after,  "  who  were  determined  not  to  permit 
it.      localise,  that  precedent  once  set,  it  would  be  artificially  repro 
duced,  and  would  soon  end  in  a  dictator." 

But  he  was  not  wanting  in  efforts  to  prevent  a  calamity  so  dire. 
There  was  one  man  who  could  have  instantly  trust  rated  the  scheme 
by  his  veto,  —  Mr.  Adams,  the  president,  with  whom  Jefferson, 
with  that  indomitable  good-nature  and  inexhaustible  tolerance  of 


THE  TIE  BETWEEN   JEFFERSON  AND   BUKR.  579 

his,  had  maintained  friendly  relations  through  all  the  mad  strife 
of  the  last  years.  Upon  reaching  the  seat  of  government  at  the 
beginning  of  this  session,  he  had  hesitated  before  calling  at  the 
presidential  mansion.  Knowing  the  sensitive  self-love  of  his  old 
friend,  he  was  afraid  that  if  he  called  too  soon  Mr.  Adams  would 
think  he  meant  to  exult  over  him,  and  that  if  he  delayed  his  visit 
beyond  the  usual  period  it  would  be  regarded  as  a  slight.  He 
called,  however,  at  length,  and  found  the  defeated  man  alone.  One 
glance  at  the  president  satisfied  him  that  he  had  come  too  soon. 
Mr.  Adams,  evidently  unreconciled  to  the  issue  of  the  election,  hur 
ried  forward  in  a  manner  which  betrayed  extreme  agitation  ;  and, 
without  sitting  down  or  asking  his  visitor  to  sit,  said,  in  a  tremulous 
voice,  "You  have  turned  me  out;  you  have  turned  me  out."  Mr. 
Jefferson,  in  that  suave  and  gentle  tone  which  fell  like  balm  upon 
the  sore  and  troubled  minds  of  men,  said,  "  I  have  not  turned  you 
out,  Mr.  Adams ;  and  I  am  glad  to  avail  myself  of  this  occasion  to 
show  that  I  have  not,  and  to  explain  my  views  on  this  subject.  In 
consequence  of  a  division  of  opinion  existing  among  our  fellow-citi 
zens,  as  to  the  proper  constitution  of  our  political  institutions,  and  of 
the  wisdom  and  propriety  of  certain  measures  which  have  been 
adopted  by  our  government,  that  portion  of  our  citizens  who  ap 
proved  and  advocated  one  class  of  these  opinions  and  measures 
selected  you  as  their  candidate  for  the  presidency,  and  their  oppo 
nents  selected  me.  If  you  or  myself  had  not  been  in  existence,  or 
for  any  other  cause  had  not  been  selected,  othefr  persons  would  have 
been  selected  in  our  places;  and  thus  the  contest  would  have  been 
carried  on,  and  with  the  same  result,  except  that  the  party  which 
supported  you  would  have  been  defeated  by  a  greater  majority,  as  it 
was  known,  that,  but  for  you,  your  party  would  have  carried  their 
unpopular  measures  much  farther  than  they  did.  You  will  see  from 
this  that  the  late  contest  was  not  one  of  a  personal  character  between 
John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  but  between  the  advocates  and 
opponents  of  certain  political  opinions  and  measures,  and,  therefore, 
should  produce  no  unkind  feelings  between  the  two  men  who  hap 
pened  to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  two  parties." 

These  words  did  much  to  restore  Mr.  Adams  to  composure  for 
the  moment.  Both  gentlemen  took  seats,  when  they  conversed  in 
their  usual  friendly  way  upon  the  topics  of  the  hour.  We  have  the 
testimony  of  both  of  them  to  the  correctness  of  this  report.  Mr. 


580  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFEESON. 

Jefferson  has  recorded  the  interview;  and  once,  when  his  friend, 
lid  ward  Coles,  repeated  to  Mr.  Adams,  the  story  as  he  had  heard 
it  at  Monticello,  Mr.  Adams  said  to  him,  "  If  you  had  been  present 
and  witnessed  the  scene  you  could  not  have  given  a  more  accurate 
account  of  what  passed."  The  fiery  ex-president  added,  "  Mr. 
Jefferson  said  I  was  sensitive,  did  he?  Well,  I  was  sensitive. 
But  I  never  before  heard  that  Mr.  Jefferson  had  given  a  second 
thought  as  to  the  proper  time  for  making  the  visit." 

I'.eing  thus  on  the  old  terms  with  his  old  friend,  Jefferson  visited 
him  at  this  threatening  crisis  to  call  his  attention  to  the  most 
obvious  means  of  averting  the  danger.  He  has  recorded  the  failure 
of  his  attempt:  "We  conversed  on  the  state  of  things.  I  observed 
to  him  that  a  very  dangerous  experiment  was  then  in  contemplation, 
to  defeat  tin-  presidential  election  by  an  act  of  Congress  declaring 
the  right  of  the  Senate  to  name  a  president  of  the  Senate,  to  devolve 
on  him  the  government  during  any  interregnum;  that  such  a 
measure  would  probably  produce  resistance  by  force,  and  incalculable 
consequences,  which  it  would  be  in  his  power  to  prevent  by  negativ 
ing  such  an  act.  He  seemed  to  think  such  an  act  justifiable,  and 
observed,  it  was  in  my  power  to  fix  the  election  by  a  word  in  an 
instant,  by  declaring  I  would  not  turn  out  the  Federal  officers,  nor 
put  down  the  navy,  nor  sponge  out  the  national  debt.  Finding  his 
mind  made  up  as  to  the  usurpation  of  the  government  by  the 
president  of  the  Senate,  I  urged  it  no  further,  and  observed,  the 
world  must  judge  as  k>  myself  of  the  future  by  the  past,  and  turned 
the  conversation  to  something  else." 

Happily  the  Federalists,  admonished  by  their  fears,  recovered  in 
time  the  use  of  their  reason.  Hamilton,  from  the  first,  opposed  the 
attempt  to  give  the  first  place  to  his  vigilant  New  York  rival ;  but 
this  he  did  merely  on  the  ground  that  Burr  was,  if  possible,  a  more 
terrific  being  even  than  Jefferson.  Gouverneur  Morris,  who  was  a 
gentleman,  as  well  as  a  man  of  real  ability,  placed  his  own  opposi 
tion  to  the  nefarious  scheme  on  the  right  basis :  "  Since  it  was 
evidently  the  intention  of  our  fellow-citizens  to  make  Mr.  Jefferson 
their  president,  it  seems  proper  to  fulfil  that  intention."  After 
seven  days  of  balloting,  the  House  of  llepresentatives  elected 
Thomas  Jefferson  president,  and  Aaron  Burr  vice-president. 

Thus  ended  ilie  rule  of  the  Federalists,  the  first  party  that  ever 
governed  the  United  States.  Mcver  was  the  downfall  of  a  party 


THE  TIE  BETWEEN  JEFFERSON   AXD  BURR.  581 

more  just  or  more  necessary.  Its  entire  policy  was  tainted  by  the 
unbelief  of  its  leaders  in  the  central  principle  of  the  Republican 
system.  Nearly  every  important  thing  they  did  was  either  wrong 
in  itself,  or  done  for  a  wrong  reason.  The  only  president  they  ever 
elected,  Mr.  Adams,  was  as  interesting  and  picturesque  a  character 
as  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  and  nearly  as  unfit  as  Johnson  for  an 
executive  post ;  while  Hamilton,  in  whom  they  put  their  chief  trust, 
can  be  acquitted  of  depravity  only  by  conceding  his  ignorance  and 
incapacity.  Alexander  Hamilton  had  no  message  for  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  His  "  mission,"  if  he  had  one,  was  not  here. 
His  mind  was  not  continental.  He  did  not  know  his  ground.  And 
like  many  other  unwise,  well-intentioned  men,  he  brought  oppro 
brium  even  upon  that  portion  of  truth  which  he  had  been  able  to 
grasp.  Probably  there  is  an  ingredient  of  truth  in  every  heartfelt 
conviction  of  an  honest  mind ;  and  no  one  can  read  Hamilton's  con 
fidential  letters  without  feeling  his  sincerity  and  devotion. 

The  basis  of  truth  in  the  convictions  of  Hamilton  and  his  circle 
was,  that  the  Intelligence  and  Virtue  of  a  country  must,  in  some 
way,  be  got  to  the  top  of  things,  and  govern.  Jefferson  heartily 
agreed  with  them  in  this  opinion ;  and  felt  it  the  more  deeply,  from 
having  discovered  that  the  political  system  of  the  Old  World  had 
placed  a  fool  on  every  throne,  and  hedged  him  about  with  a  dissolute 
and  ignorant  class.  Hamilton  always  assumed  that  intelligence 
and  virtue  of  the  requisite  degree  are  only  to  be  found  among  peo 
ple  who  possess  a  certain  amount  of  property ;  equivalent,  say,  to  a 
thousand  Spanish  dollars.  Jefferson  was  for  bringing  the  whole,  of 
the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  a  community  into  play  by  the  subsoil 
plough  of  general  suffrags ;  recognizing  the  natural  right  of  every 
mature  person  to  a  voice  in  the  government  of  his  country.  If 
Hamilton  'had  been  a  wise  and  able  man,  he  would  have  had  an  im 
portant  part  to  play  in  anticipating  and  warding  off  the  only  real 
danger  that  has  ever  menaced  republican  institutions  in  America,  — 
ignorant  suffrage.  Upon  him  would  have  devolved  the  congenial 
task  of  convincing  the  American  people,  seventy  years  before  Tweed 
and  the  Carpet-bagger  convinced  them,  that  a  man  of  this  age  who 
cannot  read  is  not  a  mature  person,  but  is  a  child,  who  cannot  per 
form  the  act  of  the  mind  called  voting.  His  had  been  the  task  of 
establishing  the  truth,  that  a  system  of  suffrage  which  admits  the 
most  benighted  men,  and  excludes  the  most  enlightened  women,  is 


582  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

one  which  will  not  conduct  this  republic  honorably  or  safely  down 
the  centuries.  He  might  have  helped  us  in  this  direction.  His 
"  thousand  Spanish  dollars  "  belonged  to  another  system,  utterly 
iinsiiiti'd  to  this  hemisphere;  and  he  did  nothing  for  the  United 
States  which  time  has  not  undone,  or  is  not  about  to  undo. 

He  threatened,  it  seems,  to  "  beat  down,"  the  incoming  adminis 
tration  ;  and,  indeed.  I  observe,  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time,  that 
he  continued,  as  long  as  he  lived,  to  fulminate  sonorous  inanity 
against  Mr.  Jefferson's  acts  and  utterances.  But  he  was  never  again 
a  power  in  the  politics  of  America.  He  bought  a  few  acres  of  land 
near  the  Hudson,  not  far  from  what  exultant  land-agents  now  speak 
of  as  One  hundred  and  Fiftieth  Street;  where  the  thirteen  trees, 
which  he  planted  in  commemoration  of  the  original  thirteen  States, 
are  now  in  a  condition  of  umbrageous  luxuriance,  pleasing  to  behold 
even  in  a  photograph.  There  he  strove,  during  the  pleasant  sum 
mer  weeks,  to  forget  politics  in  cultivating  his  garden  ;  and  there  he 
awaited  the  inevitable  hour  when  Jefferson's  fanatical  course  should 
issin-  in  that  anarchy  which  he  had  so  often  foretold,  and  from  which 
his  puissant  arm  would  deliver  a  misguided  people. 


CHAPTER  LXI. 

THE  FIRST  REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION. 

PEACE  now  fell  upon  the  anxious  minds  of  men.  A  vast  content 
spread  itself  everywhere  as  the  news  of  Jefferson's  election  was 
slowly  borne  in  creaking  vehicles  over  the  wide,  weltering  mud  of 
February  and  March.  The  tidings  from  abroad,  too,  were  more  and 
more  re-assuring  :  a  convention  with  Bonaparte  was  as  good  as  con 
cluded  ;  the  Continent  was  pacificated  by  being  terrified  or  subdued; 
and  there  were  good  hopes  of  that  peace  between  Great  Britain  and 
France  which  was  to  follow  before  Jefferson  had  sent  in  his  first  mes 
sage.  Bonaparte,  so  terrible  to  Europe  and  to  Federalists,  seems 
always,  if  we  may  judge  from  his  correspondence,  to  have  cast  friendly 
eyes  across  the  Atlantic.  In  1800,  it  is  true,  he  ordered  Fouche  to 
notify  "  M.  Payne,"  that  the  police  was  aware  of  his  ill-conduct,  and 
that,  on  the  first  complaint  against  him,  he  would  be  renvoye  en  Ame- 
rique,  sa  patrie  •  but  in  1801,  about  the  time  of  Jefferson's  inaugura 
tion,  he  assigned  to  Robert  Fulton  ten  thousand  francs  for  the  com 
pletion  of  his  experiment  with  the  Nautilus  at  Brest.  Fortunate 
Jefferson  !  For  the  first  time  in  eight  years,  an  American  administra 
tion  could  look  abroad  over  the  ocean  without  shame  and  without  fear. 
Peace  at  home,  peace  abroad,  safety  on  the  sea ! 

It  becomes  a  conqueror  to  conciliate.  Only  gentle  and  benevolent 
feelings  occupied  the  benign  soul  of  Jefferson  at  this  trying  period. 
Those  who  look  over  his  correspondence  of  the  early  weeks  of  1801 
remark  again  what  a  precious,  tranquillizing  resource  he  had  in  na 
ture,  and  in  those  "trivial  fond  records"  that  employ  the  naturalist's 
pen.  His  letters  to  philosophical  friends,  at  the  time  when  mis 
guided  men  were  intriguing  to  rob  his  country  of  its  right  to  elect  a 
chief  magistrate,  were  more  frequent  and  more  interesting  than  usual. 
The  bones  of  the  mammoth,  the  effects  of  cold  on  human  happiness, 

683 


584  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

• 

the  power  of  the  moon  over  the  weather,  the  temperature  of  moon 
beams,  the  question  of  the  turkey's  native  land,  the  peculiar  ra\ii- 
buws  seen  from  Moutieello,  and  the  nature  of  the  circles  round  the 
inoon,  were  subjects  which  had  power  to  lure  him  from  the  contem 
plation  of  the  pitiful  strifes  around  him.  Nor  did  he  forget  his 
pivripus  collections  of  Indian  words.  He  tells  one  correspondent 
that  he  possesses  already  thirty  vocabularies,  and  that  he  has  it 
"much  at  heart  to  make  as  extensive  a  collection  as  possible  of  In* 
dian  tongues ;  "  wondering  to  find  the  different  languages  so  radically 
different.  When,  at  last,  the  political  struggle  was  at  an  end,  his 
first  and  only  thought  was  to  conciliate.  He  knew  the  suicidal  char 
acter  of  the  error  which  the  Federalists  had  committed;  and  he  was 
glad  of  it,  because  it  made  his  task  of  restoring  parties  to  good- 
humor  so  much  easier.  "  Weeks  of  ill-judged  conduct  here,"  he 
wrote  to  a  friend  a  few  days  after  the  election  in  the  House,  "have 
strengthened  us  more  than  years  of  prudent  and  conciliatory  admin 
istration  could  have  done.  If  we  can  once  more  get  social  inter 
course  restored  to  its  pristine  harmony,  I  shall  believe  we  have  not 
lived  in  vain."  The  leaders  of  the  Federalists,  he  supposed,  were 
w incorrigible  ;M  they  would,  doubtless,  continue  to  oppose  and  de 
nounce  ;  but  he  hoped  to  convince  the  mass  of  their  followers  that 
the  accession  of  the  Republican  party  to  power  would  not  reverse  all 
the  beneficent  laws  of  nature. 

If  there  is  one  tiling  upon  which  the  Tories  of  America  and  Great 
Britain  plume  themselves  more  than  another,  it  is  their  superior 
breeding,  their  finer  sense  of  what  is  due  from  one  person  to  another 
in  trying  circumstances.  The  public  has  been  frequently  informed, 
that,  when  the  Federalists  fell  from  power  in  1S01,  the  "  age  of  polite- 
!>a>sed  away."  The  late  Mr.  Peter  Parley  Goodrich  lamented 
the  decline  of  "the  good  old  country  custom,"  of  youngsters  giving 
respectful  salutation  to  their  elders  in  passing.  It  was  at  this 
prri.»d,  he  tells  us,  that  the  well-executed  bow  "subsided,  first,  intoa 
vulgar  nod,  half  ashamed  and  half  impudent,  and  then,  like  the  pen 
dulum  of  a  dying  clock,  totally  ceased/'  When  Jefferson  came  in, 
he  adds,  rude!ie.-s  and  irreverence  were  deemed  the  true  mode  for 
democrats  ;  a  statement  which  he  illustrates  by  one  of  his  entertaining 
am rdotes.  "  How  are  }'ou  priest?  "  said  a  rough  fellow  to  a  clergy- 
man.  "  How  are  you,  democrat?"  was  the  clergyman's  retort. 
"  How  do  you  know  I  am  a  democrat  ?  "  asked  the  man.  "  How  do 


THE  FIRST   REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION.  585 

you  know  I  am  a  priest  ?  "  said  the  clergyman.  "  I  know  you  to 
be  a  priest  by  your  dress."  "I  know  you  to  be  a  democrat  by  youi 
address,"  said  the  parson. 

This  anecdote,  Mr.  Goodrich  assures  us,  in  his  humorous  manner, 
is  "strictly  historical."  I  am  afraid  it  is.  And  I  fear  that  much  of 
the  superior  breeding  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  old  school,  of  which 
we  are  so  frequently  reminded,  was  a  thing  of  bows  and  observ 
ances  ;  which  expressed  the  homage  claimed  by  rank,  instead  of 
the  respectful  and  friendly  consideration  due  from  man  to  man. 

In  taking  leave  of  power  in  1801,  the  "gentlemen's  party" 
revealed  the  innate  vulgarity  of  the  Tory  soul.  When  I  say  vul 
garity,  I  mean  commonness,  the  absence  of  superiority,  which  is  the 
precise  signification  of  the  word.  Congress  had  acted  upon  Hamil 
ton's  suggestion  of  dividing  the  country. into  judicial  districts,  with 
a  permanent  United  States  court  in  each  ;  but  they  preserved  only 
the  shadow  of  his  perfect  apparatus  of  tyranny,  —  twenty-four  dis 
trict  courts  in  all,  with  powers  not  excessive.  But  when  the  fangs 
of  a  serpent  have  been  extracted,  the  creature,  in  its  writhing 
impotence,  retains  its  power  to  disgust.  This  increase  of  the  judi 
ciary  was  believed  to  be  only  a  device  for  providing  elevated  and 
comfortable  places  for  Federalists,  from  the  vantage-ground  of  which 
they  could  assail  with  more  effect  the  Republican  administration. 
The  measure  was  not,  in  itself,  a  lofty  style  of  politics ;  but  the 
manner  in  which  the  scheme  was  carried  out  bears  the  unquestion- 
ble  stamp  of — commonness. 

Mr.  Adams's  last  day  arrived.  This  odious  judiciary  law  had  been 
passed  three  weeks  before ;  but,  owing  to  the  delay  of  the  Senate  to 
act  upon  the  nominations,  the  judges  were  still  uncommissioned. 
The  gentlemen's  party  had  not  the  decemyy  to  leave  so  much  as  one 
of  these  valuable  life-appointments  to  the  incoming  administration ; 
nor  any  other  vacancy  whatever,  of  which  tidings  reached  the  seat 
of  government  in  time.  Nominations  were  sent  to  the  Senate  as 
late  as  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  3d  of  March ;  and  Judge 
Marshall,  the  acting  secretary  of  state,  was  in  his  office  at  mid 
night,  still  signing  commissions  for  men  through  whom  another 
administration  was  to  act.  But  the  secretary  and  his  busy  clerks, 
precisely  upon  the  stroke  of  twelve,  were  startled  b£  an  apparition. 
It  was  the  bodily  presence  of  Mr.  Levi  Lincoln  of  Massachusetts, 
whom  the  president  elect  had  chosen  for  the  office  of  attorney  gen- 


586  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

eral.  A  conversation  ensued  between  these  two  gentlemen,  which 
has  heen  recently  reported  for  us  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  great-grand 
daughter  :  *  — 

LINCOLN.  I  have  been  ordered  by  Mr.  Jefferson  to  take  posses 
sion  of  this  office  and  its  papers. 

MARSHALL.    Why,  Mr.  Jefferson  has  not  yet  qualified. 

LINCOLN.  Mr.  Jefferson  considers  himself  in  the  light  of  an 
executor,  bound  to  take  charge  of  the  papers  of  the  government 
until  he  is  duly  qualified. 

MARSHALL  (taking  out  his  watch).  But  it  is  not  yet  twelve 
o'clock. 

LINCOLN  (taking  a  ivatch  from  his  pocket  and  showing  it). 
This  is  the  president's  watch,  and  rules  the  hour. 

Judge  Marshall  felt  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  master  of  the  situa 
tion  ;  and.  casting  a  rueful  look  upon  the  unsigned  commissions 
spread  upon  the  table,  he  left  his  midnight  visitor  in  possession. 
Relating  the  scene  in  after-years,  when  the  Federalists  had  recov 
ered  a  portion  of  their  good  humor,  he  used  to  say,  laughing,  that 
he  had  been  allowed  to  pick  up  nothing  but  his  hat. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring,  Mr.  Adams  was  preparing 
for  that  precipitate  flight  from  the  capital  which  gave  the  last 
humiliation  to  his  party.  He  had  not  the  courtesy  to  stay  in 
Washington  for  a  few  hours,  and  give  the  eclat  of  his  presence  to 
the  inauguration  of  his  successor.  Tradition  reports  that  he 
ordered  his  carriage  to  be  at  the  door  of  the  White  House  at  mid 
night  ;  and  we  know,  that,  before  the  dawn  of  the  4th  of  March, 
he  had  left  Washington  forever. 

That  day  was  celebrated  throughout  the  United  States  like 
another  4(\\  of  July.  Soldiers  paraded,  bells  rang,  orations  were 
delivered,  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  read,  and  in  some 
of  the  Republican  newspapers  it  was  printed  at  length.  In  most 
towns  of  any  importance  a  dinner  was  eaten  in  honor  of  the  day, 
the  toasts  of  which  figured  in  the  papers,  duly  numbered,  and  the 
precise  number  of  cheers  stated  which  each  called  forth.  Sixteen 
\vas  evidently  considered  the  proper  number  for  the  president.  In 

*  Domestic  Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  p.  308. 


THE  FIRST  REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION.  587 

»me  instances,  if  we  may  believe  the  party-press,  the  Federalists 

•traded  their  disgust.     No  one  can  tell  us  now  whether  the  great 

|ell  of  Christ  Church  in  Philadelphia  really  did   "toll   all   day," 

hen  the  news  of  Jefferson's  election  reached  the  city ;  nor  whether, 

la  the  4th  of  March,  a  ship-owner,  on   going  to  the  wharf  and 

Inding  his  vessel  dressed  with  flags,  flew  into  a  passion,  and  swore 

e  would  sell  out  his  share  in  her  if  the  flags  were  not  taken  in. 

Nothing  is  too  absurd  to  be  believed  of  human  prejudice. 

Of  the  ceremonies  at  Washington  the  records  of  the  time  give 
is  the  most  meagre  accounts.     Boswell,  the  father  of  interviewing, 
liad  no  representative  in  America  then;  and  journalism  was  con- 
lent  to  print  little  more   than  the   inaugural   address.     It   is  only 
|'rom  the  accidental  presence  of  an  English  traveller  that  we  know 
n  what   manner  Mr.  Jefferson   was   conveyed   to   the  Capitol  that 
Inorning.      He    had    no    establishment    in    Washington.      "Jack 
Eppes,"  his  son-in-law,  was  completing  somewhere  in  Virginia  the 
purchase  of  four  coach-horses,  —  price,  $1,600,  —  with  which  the 
president   elect   hoped   to    contend   triumphantly   with    the   yellow 
maud  of  Washington.     But,  as  neither  horses  nor  coach  had   yet 
arrived,  he  went  to  the  Capitol  in  his  usual  way.     "  His  dress,"  as 
pur  traveller,  John  Davis,  informs  us,   "was  of  plain  cloth,  and  he 
rode  on  horseback  to  the  Capitol  without  a   single   guard   or  even 
servant  in  his  train,  dismounted  without  assistance,  and  hitched  the 
bridle  of  his  horse  to  the  palisades."     In  composing  the  inaugural 
I  address  (fitter  to  be  read  on  the  Fourth  of  July  than  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence),  he   evidently  put  his   heart   and  strength 
into  the  passages  which  called  upon,  estranged  partisans  to  be  fellow- 
citizens  once  more  :  — 

"Every  difference  of  opinion  is  not  a  difference  of  principle. 
We  have  called  by  different  names  brethren  of  the  same  principle. 
We  are  all  Republicans  :  we  are  all  Federalists.  If  there  be  any 
among  us  who  would  wish  to  dissolve  this  Union,  or  to  change 
its  republican  form,  let  them  stand  undisturbed  as  monuments  of 
the  safety  with  which  error  of  opin%n  may  be  tolerated  where  rea 
son  is  left  free  to  combat  it.  I  know,  indeed,  that  some  honest 
men  fear  that  a  republican  government  cannot  be  strong,  —  that  this 
government  is  not  strong  enough.  But  would  the  honest  patriot, 
in  the  full  tide  of  successful  experiment,  abandon  a  government 


588  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON". 

which  has  so  far  kept  us  free   and  firm,  on  the  theoretic  and  vis 
ionary  fear  that  this   government,  the  world's  best  hope,  may  b 
possibility  want  energy  to  preserve  itself?     I  trust  not.     I  believ 
this,  on  the  contrary,  the  strongest  on  earth.     I  believe  it  the  only 
one  where  every  man,   at  the  call  o(  the  laws,   would  fly  to  thfj 
standard  of  the  law,  and  would  meet  invasions  of  the  public  ordeij 

as  his  own  personal  concern." 

« 

In  1801  this   was    theory.       In  1861  it  was  fact. 

Happy,  indeed,  was  the  change  which  that  day  came  over  the 
aspect  of  American  politics.  No  longer  was  the  spectacle  exhibited 
of  the  government  pulling  one  way,  and  the  people  another.  The 
people  of  the  United  States  ruled  the  United  States ;  and  they 
were  served  by  men  who  owned  their  rightful  mastery.  That  ele 
ment  which  resisted  the  Stamp  Act,  and  declared  independence,  was 
uppermost  again.  "Old  Coke  "  and  Algernon  Sidney  were  in  the 
ascendent.  The  hard  hand  that  held  the  plough,  the  thick  muscle 
that  wielded  the  hammer,  the  pioneer  out  on  the  deadly  border-line 
between  savage  and  civilized  man,  and  all  the  mighty  host  of  toil- 
in  LJ  men,  gained  something  of  dignity  and  self-esteem  by  the  change. 
The  old  Whig  chiefs,  who  for  two  or  three  years  past  had  been 
avoided,  reviled,  cut,  by  their  juniors  and  inferiors,  could  look  up 
again,  and  exchange  glad  salutations.  The  old  men  of  the  ante- 
Revolution  time  were  coming  into  vogue  once  more,  and  Jefferson 
ust-d  all  the  prestige  of  his  office  in  their  behalf. 

A  graceful  act  of  manly  homage  (like  king  Hal's  greeting  to 
"old  Sir  Thomas  Erpingham"  op  the  morning  of  Agincourt*)  was 
that  letter  which  President  Jefferson,  amid  the  hurry  and  distrac 
tion  of  his  first  days  of  power,  found  time  to  write  to  Samuel  Adams, 
then  verging  upon  fourscore,  past  service,  but  not  past  love  and 
veneration.  It  was  so  good  and  gentleman-like  in  Jefferson  to 
Hi  ink  nf  the  old  hero  at  such  a  time  ;  and  it  was  becoming  in  Vir 
ginia  thus  again,  as  in  the  grt^at^ears  Preceding  the  Revolution, 
to  greet  congenial  ICassachusetty  Ami  lilHfeteeefiilly  the  president 
ac.jiiitteil  himsi-lf:  k>  I  addressft)  a  letter  fflyou,  my  very  dear  and 
ancient  friend,  on  the  4th  of  March;  not,  indeed,  to  you  by  name, 
but  through  the  medium  of  some  of  my  fellow-citizens',  whom  occa- 


*  Henry  V.,  act  iv.  scene  1. 


THE  FIRST  REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION. 


589 


.on  called  on  me  to  address.     In  meditating  the  matter  of  that 
ddress,  I  often  asked  myself,  'Is  this  exactly  in  the  spirit  of  the 
atriarch,  Samuel  Adams  ?     Is  it  as  he  would  express  it  ?     Will  he 
pprove  of  it?'     I  have  felt  a  great  deal  for  our  country  in  the 
Lines  we  have  seen,  but  individually  for  no  one  so  much  as  your- 
elf.     When    I   have    been    told    that   you  were  avoided,  insulted, 
Downed  upon,  I  could  but  ejaculate,  t  Father,  forgive  them ;  for  they 
now  not  what  they  do ! '     I  confess  I  felt  an  indignation  for  you 
Hiich    for   myself   I  have    been    able,    under    every   trial,  to   keep 
ntirely  passive.     However,  the  storm  is  over,  and  we  are  in  port. 
?he  ship  was  not  rigged  for  the  service  she  was  put  on.     We  will 
how  the  smoothness  of  her  motions  on  her  Republican  tack."     And 
ie  goes  on  to  tell  the  old  man  how  intent  he  is  upon  restoring  har- 
nony  in  the  country,  —  an  object  to  which  he  is  ready  to  "  sacrifice 
|>very  thing  but  principle."     "  How  much  I  lament,"  concluded  the 
(resident,  "that  time  has  deprived  me  of  your  aid.     It  would  have 
>een  a  day  of  glory  which  should  have  called  you  to  the  first  office  of 
he  administration.     But  give  us  your  counsel,  my  friend,  and  give 
is  your  blessing !  "    We  can  imagine  the  radiant  countenance  of  this 
venerable  man,  so  august  in  his  poverty  and  isolation,  as  he  held 
;his  letter  in  his  palsied  hand,  and  slowly  gathered  its  contents. 

Dr.  Priestley,  too,  who  had  been  an  object  of  envenomed  attack, 
ind  menaced  with  expulsion  under  the  Alien  Law,  received  cordial 
(recognition,  and  a  warm  invitation  to  visit  the  seat  of  government. 
ll  should  claim  the  right  to  lodge  you,"  said  the  president,  "should 
you  make  such  an  excursion."  He  evidently  felt  it  a  public  duty  to 
itone,  in  some  degree,  for  the  inhospitality  with  which  the  United 
States  had  appeared  to  treat  the  first  man  eminent  in  original 
[science  who  ever  emigrated  to  the  western  continent.  "  It  is  with 
heartfelt  satisfaction,"  he  wrote  to  him,  "that  in  the  first  moments 
of  my  public  action  I  can  hail  you  with  welcome  to  our  land,  tender 
to  you  the  homage  of  its  respect  and  esteem,  cover  you  under 
the  protection  of  those  laws  which  were  made  for  the  good  and  wise 
like  you,  and  disdain  the  legitimacy  of  that  libel  on  legislation, 
which,  under  the  form  of  a  law,  was  for  some  time  placed  among 
them." 

Before  Dr.  Priestley  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  these  lines,  he 
had  enjoyed  the  greater  one  of  knowing,  that,  among  President 
Jefferson's  first  acts,  was  the  pardoning  of  every  man  in  the  country 


590  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 


: 


who  was  in  prison  under  the  Sedition  Law.  Jefferson  used  to  sa 
that  he  considered  that  law  "a  nullity  as  absolute  and  palpable 
if  Congress  had  ordered  us  to  fall  down  and  worship  a  golden 
image."  The  victims  of  the  Alien  Law  were  beyond  his  reach; 
but  some  of  them,  who  could  be  fitly  consoled  by  epistolary  notice, 
KoM-iuszko,  Volney,  and  others,  received  friendly  letters  from  the 
president. 

A  gallant,  high-bred  act  it  was  in  Jefferson  not  to  shrink  from 
the  odium  of  recognizing  the  claim  which  Thomas  Paine  had  to  the 
regards  of  a  Republican  president.  The  ocean,  for  some  years  past, 
had  not  been  a  safe  highway  for  a  man  whom  both  belligerents 
looked  upon  as  an  enemy;  and  Paine  had,  in  consequence,  expressed 
a  wish  for  a  passage  home  in  a  naval  vessel.  The  first  national 
ship  that  sailed  for  France  after  Mr.  Jefferson's  inauguration  carried 
a  letter  from  the  president  to  Mr.  Paine,  offering  him  a  passage  in 
that  vessel  on  its  return.  "I  am  in  hopes,''  he  wrote,  "  that  you  will 
find  us  returned  generally  to  sentiments  worthy  of  former  times. 
In  these  it  will  be  your  glory  to  have  steadily  labored,  and  with  as 
much  effect  as  any  man  living."  This  must  have  been  comforting 
to  a  man  who,  having  been  first  driven  from  England,  then  threat 
ened  with  expulsion  from  France,  and  warned  by  the  Sedition  Law 
from  entering  the  United  States,  might  have  been  truly  described, 
before  the  4th  of  March,  1801,  as  "the  man  without  a  country." 
Enriched  though  he  had  been  by  the  gratitude  of  America,  he  had 
been  living  in  Paris  for  some  time  past  in  poverty  and  squalor,  his 
American  property  being  little  productive  in  the  absence  of  the 
owner.  Mr.  Jefferson's  letter  found  him  the  occupant  of  "  a  little 
dirty  r»om,  containing  a  small  wooden  table  and  two  chairs."  An 
old  English  friend,  who  visited  him  not  long  after  he  had  received 
it,  described  Paine's  abode,  which  lie  had  much  trouble  to  find,  as 
being  the  dirtiest  apartment  he  ever  sat  down  in.  "The  cliimney- 
h'-ar:li  was  a  heap  of  dirt,"  he  adds:  "there  was  not  a  speck  of 
cleanliness  to  be  seen.  Three  shelves  were  filled  with  pasteboard 
S,  .-ach  labelled  after  the  manner  of  a  minister  of  foreign  affairs, 
—  Corretpondanee  BrifiMungita,  /'/•.•/ //r^/*/-,  etc.  In  one  corner  of 
the  room  >t"»(l  several  huge  Lars  of  iron,  curiously  shaped,  and  two 
large  trunks  ;  opposite  the  fireplace,  a  board  covered  with  pamphlets 
and  journals,  having  more  the  appearance  of  a  dresser  in  a  scullery 
than  a  sideboard." 


THE  FIRST   REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION.  591 

The  occupant  of  this  doleful  room,  then  sixty-five  years  of  age, 
km  came  down  stairs  dressed  in  a  long  flannel  gown,  and  wearing 
his  haggard  face  an  expression  of  the  deepest  melancholy.     His 
Imversation  showed  that  he  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  little  band 
f  Frenchmen  whom  Bonaparte  had  not  dazzled  out  of  their  senses. 
le  had  dared  even  to   translate   and  print   Jefferson's    Inaugural 
Lddress,  "by  way  of  contrast,"  as  he  said,  u  with  the  government 
If  the  First*  Consul."     But  he  had  lost  all  hope  of  France.     "  This 
not  a  country,"  he  said,  "  for  an  honest  man  to  live  in  :  they  do 
Lot  understand  any  thing  at  all  of  the  principles  of  free  government, 
tnd  the  best  way  is  to  leave  them  to  themselves.     You  see,  they 
lave  conquered  all  Europe,  only  to  make  it  more  miserable  than  it 
vas  before.     Republic  !     Do  you  call  this  a  republic  ?     Why,  they 
ire*  worse    off  than    the   slaves    at  Constantinople;  for  there  they 
pxpect  to  be  bashaws  in  heaven  by  submitting  to  be  slaves   here 
pelow.     But  here  they  believe  neither  in  heaven  nor  hell,  and  yet 
ire  slaves  by  choice  !     I  know  of  no  republic  in  the  world  except 
America,  which  is  the  only  country  for  such  men  as  you  and  me. 
[  have   done  with  Europe  and  its  slavish  politics."     He  gave  his 
[visitor   Mr.  Jefferson's   letter  to  read,  and  said  he  meant  soon  to 
avail  himself  of  its  offer.     "  It  would  be  a  curious  circumstance,"  he 
added,    laughing,  "if  I    should   hereafter  be  sent  as  secretary  of 
legation  to  the  English  Court  which  outlawed  me.     What  a  hubbub 
[it  would  create  at  the  king's  levee  to  see  Tom  Paine  presented  by 
the    American    ambassador !     All   the   bishops    and    women   would 
faint  away."     His  guest  frankly  told  him  that  the  course  of  events 
had   caused   him   to  change  his  principles.     Paine's   answer  was, 
"  You  certainly  hare  the  right  to  do  so,  but  you  cannot  alter  the 
nature  of  things.     The  French  have  alarmed  all  honest  men ;  but, 
still,  truth  is  truth." 

Poor  Paine!  His  errors  were,  for  the  most  part,  those  of  his  age  ; 
and  they  were  aggravated  by  his  circumstances,  his  defective  educa 
tion,  nnd  the  ardor  of  his  temperament.  But  his  merits,  which  were 
real  and  not  small,  were  peculiarly  his  own.  He  loved  the  truth  for 
its  own  sake  ;  and  he  stood  by  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  truth 
when  all  the  world  around  him  reviled  it.  'That  hasty  pamphlet  of 
his  which  he  named  The  Age  of  Reason,  written  to  alleviate  the 
tedium  of  his  Paris  prison,  differs  from  other  deistical  works  only  in 
being  bolder  and  honester.  It  contains  not  a  position  which  Frank- 


f>92  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

I 

lin.  John  A«lums,  Jefferson,  and  Theodore  Parker  would  have  dis 
sented  from ;  and,  doubtless,  he  spoke  the  truth  when  he  declared 
that  his  main  purpose  in  writing  it  was  to  "inspire  mankind  with  a 
niMiv  exulted  idea  of  the  Supreme  Architect  of  the  Universe."  I 
think  his  judgment  must  have  been  impaired  before  he  could  have 
consented  to  publish  so  inadequate  a  performance.  In  a  remarkably 
convivial  age,  he  sang  a  very  good  song,  and  often  favored  a  jovial 
company,  after  dinner,  with  ditties  of  his  own  composition.  This 
ever-welcome  talent,  joined  to  the  vivacity  of  mind  which  naturally 
expends  itself  in  agreeable  conversation,  made  him  in  his  best  days 
the  delight  of  his  circle,  and  lured  him,  perhaps,  into  habits  that  pre 
vented  his  ripening  into  happiness  and  wisdom  ;  for  no  man  can 
attain  welfare  who  does  not  obey  the  physical  laws  of  his  being.  It 
becomes  us,  however,  to  deal  charitably  with  the  faults  of  a  benefac 
tor  who  wrote  The  Crisis  and  Common  Sense,  who  conceived  the 
pluning-machine  and  the  iron  bridge.  A  glorious  monument  in  his 
honor  swells  aloft  in  many  of  our  great  towns.  The  principle  of  his 
:nvh  now  sustains  the  marvellous  railroad  depots  that  half  abolish  the 
distinction  between  in  doors  and  out. 

Nearly  every  other  man  whom  Jefferson  singled  out  for  distinction 
had  suffered,  in  some  special  manner,  during  the  recent  contests. 
Madison,  after  bearing  the  brunt  of  many  a  battle  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  retired  at  last,  almost  despairing  of  the  republic, 
and  went  home  to  make  a  new  stand  in  the  legislature  of  Virginia. 
II:.-  father,  too,  far  advanced  in  years, needed  his  constant  aid  in  the 
management  of  an  extensive  estate  that  only  a  master's  eye  could 
render  profitable.  New  he  was  coming  back  to  the  seat  of  govern 
ment  a>  MM Tetary  of  state  !  The  declining  strength  of  his  lather 
warned  him  not  to  leave  his  home  for  the  inauguration,  and  the  old 
man  died  a  few  days  after.  The  news  of  Mr.  Madison's  nomination 
to  the  cabinet,  and  that  of  his  father's  death,  reached  the  public  at 
the  same  time. 

This  is  an  interesting  sentence  in  the  will  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
cs].e. -ially  to  those  who  know  something  of  the  friendship  which  sub- 
1  between  the  illustrious  democrat  and  the  greatest  of  his  dis 
ciples  :  — 

"I  give  to  my  old  friend,  James  Madison  of  Montpelier,  my  gold- 
mounted  walking-staff  of  animal  horn,  as  a  token  of  the  cordial  and 


THE  FIEST   REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION.  593 

affectionate  friendship,  which,  for  nearly  now  an  half-century,  has 
united  us  in  the  same  principles  and  pursuits  of  what  we  have 
deemed  for  the  greatest  good  of  our  country." 

This  passage  was  written  in  March,  1826,  a  few  months  before  the 
death  of  the  testator.  The  friendship  of  which  it  speaks  was  the 
controlling  influence  in  the  public  career  of  Mr.  Madison,  and  an 
event  of  the  greatest  importance  in  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  It  made 
Madison  president,  and  secured  to  Jefferson  the  successor  best  fitted 
of  all  living  men  to  continue  the  Jeffersonian  system. 

James  Madison,  born  in  Virginia  in  1751,  was  the  son  of  James 
Madison,  a  wealthy  tobacco -planter,  a  descendant  from  John 
Madison,  an  English  gentleman  who  came  to  Virginia  about  the  year 
1650.  The  eldest  son  of  a  thriving  planter,  he  received  an  education 
remarkable  for  its  extent  and  thoroughness.  In  those  days  it  was 
customary  for  the  parish  clergyman  of  Virginia  to  prepare  pupils  for 
college.  James  Madison  had  this  advantage,  and  at  the  age  of 
eighteen  went  to  Princeton  College  in  New  Jersey,  from  which  he 
graduated  after  a  residence  of  only  two  years.  He  continued,  how 
ever,  to  reside  at  Princeton  for  another  year,  during  which  he  pur 
sued  his  studies  as  a  kind  of  private  pupil  of  the  president.  He 
committed  at  this  period  an  error,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  never 
wholly  recovered  during  all  his  long  life  of  eighty-five  years.  Hav 
ing  an  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge,  he  allowed  himself  but  three 
hours'  sleep,  and  devoted  almost  all  the  rest  of  the  day  to  study ;  and 
even  when  warned  of  the  folly  of  this  course  by  the  failure  of  his 
health,  he  continued  to  over-exert  himself,  although  in  a  less  degree. 

In  the  year  1772,  when  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he  returned 
to  his  native  State,  and  there  began  the  study  of  the  law;  which  he 
pursued  with  the  same  zeal  and  devotion,  without  discontinuing  his 
general  studies.  His  biographer  tells  us  that  his  attention  was 
drawn  powerfully  at  this  time  to  the  study  of  theology,  which  he 
continued  to  investigate  until  he  had  satisfied  himself  respecting  its 
nature  and  its  claims. 

The  Revolutionary  War  was  impending.  Among, the  subjects  of 
agitation  then  in  Virginia,  was  the  connection  between  Church  and 
State,  which  existed  in  Virginia  as  completely  as  in  the  mother 
country ;  so  that  every  denomination  except  one  labored  under  obvi 
ous  and  serious  disadvantages.  James  Madison,  as  we  have  seen, 

38 


594  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

was  among  the  young  men  who  favored  the  dissolution  of  this  unnat- 
nnil  tie,  and  on  this  issue  was  elected,  in  the  spring  of  1776,  a  mem 
ber  of  tin;  Virginia  legislature.  Almost  the  only  knowledge  we 
have  of  his  early  parliamentary  career  is  derived  from  an  interesting 
g8  iii  the  autobiography  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 

"Mr.  Madison,"  he  says,  "came  into  the  House  in  1776,  a  new 
member  and  young;  which  circumstances,  concurring  with  his 
erne  modesty,  prevented  his  venturing  himself  in  debate  before 
his  removal  to  the  Council  of  State  in  November,  1777.  From  thence 
he  went  to  Congress,  then  consisting  of  a  few  members.  Trained  in 
in  three  successive  schools,  he  acquired  a  habit  of  self-possession 
which  placed  at  ready  command  the  rich  resources  of  his  luminous 
ami  discriminating  mind  and  of  his  extensive  information,  and  ren 
dered  him  the  first  of  every  assembly  afterwards  of  which  he  became 
a  member.  Never  wandering  from  his  subject  into  vain  declama 
tion,  hut  pur.-uing  it  closely,  in  language  pure,  classical,  and  copious, 
soothing  always  the  feelings  of  his  adversaries  by  civilities  and  soft- 
D6M  "f  expression,  he  rose  to  the  eminent  station  which  he  held  in 
the  great  national  convention  of  1787;  and  in  that  of  Virginia  which 
followed,  lie  sustained  the  new  constitution  in  all  its  parts,  bearing 
off  the  palm  against  the  logic  of  George  Mason  and  the  fervid  decla 
mation  of  Mr.  Il'-mv.  With  these  consummate  powers  were  united 
a  pure  and  spotless  virtue,  which  calumny  in  vain  attempted  to  sully." 

This  is  a  noble  tribute.  So  glowing  is  it,  that  many  persons  have 
thought  it  exaggerated,  and  attributed  it  to  the  affectionate  regard 
which  a  good  master  naturally  feels  for  the  chief  of  his  disciples; 
but  this  is  not  the  case.  I  have  been  assured  by  the  Hon.  Nicholas 
P.  Tri>t.  the  son-in-law  and  executor  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  that  there 
was  no  man  to  whose  understanding  Mr.  Jefferson  more  sinc-Tely 
(/*;//•/•/••  (/.  or  for  whose  character  he  had  so  complete  a  respect,  as  for 
that  of  .James  MadU-m. 

What  a  change,  too.  for  Albert  Gallatin  to  find  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  treasury  department  !  We  ran  estimate  his  services  to 
Kepuhlicanism  by  the  singular  intensity  of  the  hatred  borne  him  by 
tin-  Federalists.  From  17'.)."..  when  Pennsylvania  elected  him  to  rep- 
t  her  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  their  aversion,  as  much 
as  his  own  merit,  had  kept  his  name  conspicuous. 


THE  FIRST   REPUBLICAN   ADMINISTRATION.  595 

Abraham  Albert  Alphonse  de  Gallatin  was  born  at  Geneva,  in 
Switzerland,  in  1761.  In  the  letters  of  Voltaire,  who  lived  two  or 
three  miles  from  Geneva,  there  are  many  allusions  to  the  family  of 
Gallatin,  which  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  respectable  of  Swit 
zerland;  and  I  presume  Albert  Gallatin  must  have  often  seen  Vol 
taire  in  his  boyhood,  and  perhaps  conversed  with  him.  Among  the 
connections  of  the  family  was  the  celebrated  Madame  de  Stael. 
Graduating  from  the  University  of  Geneva  in  1779,  he  refused  the 
brilliant  offer  of  a  lieutenant-colonelcy  in  a  German  regiment,  for  the 
express  purpose  of  coming  over  to  America,  as  Lafayette  had  done 
a  year  or  two  before,  and  joining  the  patriot  army  under  General 
Washington. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1780,  that  the  vessel  in  which  he  sailed  to 
America  was  obliged  to  put  into  a  harbor  on  the  coast  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  the  young  enthusiast  came  on  shore.  On  landing  he  went 
to  the  nearest  tavern ;  and  there,  to  his  equal  astonishment  and 
delight,  he  met  with  some  Swiss  lately  from  Geneva,  who  were 
acquainted  with  his  family.  They  were  on  their  way  to  a  settlement 
in  Maine,  where  they  intended  to  reside.  Overjoyed  at  this  coinci 
dence,  he  joined  the  party,  and  went  with  them  to  Machias,  where  he 
at  once  enlisted  in  a  company  of  volunteers  about  to  march  to  the 
defence  of  a  threatened  point ;  and  he  was  soon  appointed  to  com 
mand  a  post  of  some  importance,  garrisoned  by  a  body  of  militia  and 
Indians.  Being  the  son  of  a  wealthy  family,  he  had  brought  with 
him  a  little  money,  something  less  than  a  thousand  dollars ;  and  his 
troops  being  in  need  of  the  most  indispensable  supplies,  he  advanced 
the  greater  part  of  his  money  for  their  relief,  receiving  in  return  an 
order  on  the  treasury  of  the  United  States.  At  the  end  of  the  cam 
paign,  being  in  Boston,  and  having  spent  all  the  rest  of  his  cash,  he 
presented  his  order  for  payment,  and  was  informed  that  the  treasury 
was  empty.  He  was  obliged  to  sell  his  order  for  one-third  of  its 
value;  so,  for  his  six  hundred  dollars,  he  received  two  hundred. 

The  war  ended,  he  looked  about  him  for  employment,  and  found  ifc 
at  Harvard  College,  where  he  taught  French  during  the  year  1783. 
On  coming  of  age  he  received  from  Switzerland  his  share  of  his 
father's  estate,  with  which  he  went  to  Virginia  and  bought  a  tract  of 
land  in  the  western  part  of  the  State.  It  was  there  that  he  had  his 
celebrated  interview  with  General  Washington,  which  he  often 
related,  and  which  was  published  some  years  ago  in  a  literary  journal. 


596  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

It  occurred  in  a  log-house,  fourteen  feet  square,  consisting  of  one 
room,  which  was  furnished  with  a  bed,  a  pine  table,  and  a  bench  or 
tw<>.  General  Washington,  who  owned  large  tracts  of  land  in  that 
region,  had  invited  some  of  the  settlers  and  hunters  acquainted  with 
tli.-  country,  to  meet  him  at  this  log-hut,  for  the  purpose  of  talking 
over  and  settling  upon  the  best  pass  for  a  road  through  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountains.  Attracted  by  curiosity  to  see  so  celebrated  a 
person,  Gallatin  was  present. 

When  General  Washington  came  in  (Mr.  Gallatin  used  to  say)  he 
took  his  seat  at  the  pine  table;  and  all  the  hunters  of  the  country 
stood  up  around  it,  except  a  few  who  found  seats  upon  the  bed.  The 
general  questioned  them,  and  noted  down  their  replies  upon  paper. 
He  wa-  V.TV  particular  in  his  inquiries,  and  continued  his  questioning 
for  some  time  after  the  young  Swiss  thought  he  had  discovered,  not 
only  the  best  pass,  but  the  only  one  available  for  the  purpose.  Being 
a  little  impatient  at  the  apparent  indecision  of  the  general,  he  sud 
denly  interrupted  him,  without  reflecting  upon  the  impropriety  of  his 
condii'-t,  and  said,  — 

•  ( >h.  it  is  plain  enough  !  such  a  place  (mentioning  the  one  in  his 
mind)  is  the  most  practicable." 

The  people  present  stared  at  the  young  man  with  much  surprise, 
marvelling  at  his  boldness  in  giving  his  opinion  before  the  u;"nei-al 
had  asked  it.  Washington  paused,  laid  down  his  pen,  lifted  his  • 
fr<»m  the  paper,  and  looked  sternly  at  the  young  foreigner,  evidently 
ofivnded,  but  uttered  not  a  word.  He  resumed  his  inquiries,  and 
continued  to  question  the  hunters  for  some  time  longer,  when  he 
suddenly  stopped,  and,  throwing  down  his  pen,  said  to  the  stranger,  — 

••  You  are  right,  sir." 

In  commenting  upon  this  scene,  Mr.  Gallatin  used  to  say, — 

"  It  was  so  on  all  occasions  with  General  Washington.  He  was 
slow  in  forming  an  opinion,  and  never  decided  until  he  knew  he 
was  right.'' 

The  warlike  Indians  of  Western  Virginia  prevented  his  settling 
the  lands  he  had  purchased  ;  and  he  went  to  reside  upon  a  farm  in 
Pennsylvania,  on  the  hanks  of  the  Monongahela,  not  far  from  Pitts- 
burg.  There,  besides  carrying  on  a  farm,  he  founded  the  glass 
manufacture,  which  has  since  grown  to  such  proportions,  that,  at  the 
present  time,  about  one-half  of  all  the  glass  used  in  the  United 
B  is  made  within  a  few  miles  of  the  spot  where  Albert  Gallatin 
began  it  about  1790. 


THE  FIRST   REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION.  597 

He  was  soon  drawn  into  public  life.  Upon  the  division  of  parties 
during  Washington's  first  term,  Albert  Gallatin  sided  with  Jeffer 
son  and  the  Democracy,  and  made  himself  conspicuous  by  the  bold 
ness  and  decision  with  which  he  advocated  Democratic  principles. 
The  whole  country  rang  with  his  name  in  1793,  when,  after  having 
boen  elected  a  United  States  senator  by  the  legislature  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  his  right  to  the  seat  was  denied  by  the  Federal  senators. 
The  Constitution  requires  that  a  senator,  if  not  a  native  of  the  United 
States,  must  have  been  a  citizen  for  nine  years.  The  question  was 
this :  Did  Gallatin's  citizenship  begin  on  the  day  he  landed  in 
Massachusetts,  thirteen  years  before,  or  did  it  begin  on  the  day  he 
swore  allegiance  to  the  republic  in  1785,  which  was  only  eight  years 
before.  After  a  debate  of  eight  weeks,  the  Senate  decided,  by  a  strict 
party  vote  of  fourteen  Federalists  to  twelve  Democrats,  that  his  citi 
zenship  began  when  he  took  the  oath.  This  affair  was  really  benefi 
cial  to  Albert  Gallatin,  because  the  Democratic  party  deemed  that 
he  had  been  the  subject  of  an  outrage.  They  regarded  him  as  an 
injured  man. 

At  the  time  of  the  whiskey  insurrection,  though  he  sympathized 
warmly  with  the  insurrectionists,  he  opposed  all  violent  measures,  and 
was  greatly  instrumental  in  bringing  the  affair  to  a  peaceful  conclu 
sion.  The  great  period  of  his  life  began  in  1795,  when  the  people 
of  Western  Pennsylvania  elected  him  to  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  where  he  distinguished  himself  by  the  vigor  of  his  opposition 
to  Federal  measures. 

His  enemies  were  again  inconsiderate  enough  to  confer  upon  him 
the  distinction  of  an  outrage.  In  Februar3T,  1799,  when  he  was 
exerting  every  faculty  in  opposition  to  the  Alien  Law,  the  majority 
held  a  caucus,  and  resolved  to  make  no  answer  whatever  to  any  thing 
that  might  be  said  against  either  the  Alien  or  the  Sedition  Law.  Gal 
latin  rose  in  the  House  to  urge  their  repeal.  For  a  short  time  he  was 
heard  in  contemptuous  silence.  Then  honorable  members  began  to 
converse,  laugh,  talk,  cough,  move  about ;  and  made  at  last  so  loud  a 
noise,  that,  as  Jefferson  remarked  at  the  time,'  the  speaker  must  have 
had  the  lungs  of  an  auctioneer  to  be  heard.  Perhaps  he  may  have 
thought  of  this  scandalous  scene  when  he  sent  to  the  Senate,  two 
years  after,  the  name  of  Albert  Gallatin  for  secretary  of  the  treas 
ury. 

Levi  Lincoln,  the  new  attorney-general,  had  a  taste  in  common 


598  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

with  the  president.  He  loved  science.  Another  remarkable  quali 
fication  was,  that  he  was  a  distinguished  Massachusetts  lawyer,  — 
at  tlie  head  of  the  bar  of  that  State  for  several  years,  —  and  yet  not  a 
F» -drrulist.  These  two  facts,  if  we  may  believe  the  controversial  writ- 

of  the  day,  bore  to  one  another  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect. 
H'-nry  Dearborn  of  Maine,  whom  Mr.  Jefferson  appointed  secre- 
tarv  «if  war,  had  been  a  veritable  hero  of  romance.  In  1775  he  was 
a  village  doctor.  For  three  years  the  sign  of  Dr.  Dearborn  had 
hung  out  in  a  hamlet  of  New  Hampshire,  when  a  horseman  on  a 
panting  steed  brought  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington. 
Before  the  sun  had  set  that  day,  the  young  doctor,  splendid  with  the 
glow  of  perfect  health  and  the  elastic  grace  of  twenty-four,  led  sixty 
men  toward  Cambridge,  sixty-live  miles  distant,  which  he  reached 
soon  alter  sunrise  on  the  day  following.  At  Bunker  Hill  he  was  a 
captain ;  but,  as  there  was  nothing  to  do  there  but  load  and  fire,  lie 
took  a  musket,  and  made  one  of  his  company,  loading  and  firing 
with  the  rest  as  long  as  they  had  any  thing  to  put  into  their  guns, 
lie  went  with  Arnold's  thousand  men  on  that  march  through  an 
unt  rodden  wilderness  to  join  Montgomery  in  an  attack  upon  Quebec. 
The  wonder  was,  that  a  man  of  them  escaped  starvation.  Captain 
Dearborn  had  with  him  a  magnificent  dog,  the  favorite  of  all  the 
company,  and  to  himself  most  dear;  but  he  could  not  resist  the 
entreaties  of  starving  comrades,  and  gave  him  up,  at  length,  to  some 
soldiers,  who  took  the  dog  to  their  quarters,  and  divided  his  flesh, 
with  line  Yankee  self-control,  among  the  men  who  could  least  help 
themselves,  who  were  nearest  perishing.  "  They  ate  every  part  of 
him,"  wrote  his  muster,  ';  not  excepting  his  entrails  ;  and,  after  fin 
ishing  their  meal,  they  collected  the  bones  and  carried  them  to  be 
pounded  up,  and  to  make  broth  for  another  meal."  The  only  other 
•lied  to  the  expedition,  a  small  one,  had  been  privately  killed 
and  eaten  befoiv.  Men  sacrificed  their  "old  breeches "  made  of 
nioosehide;  boiled  them  long,  and  then  cut  them  into  slices,  and 
broiled  them  on  the  coals.  A  barber's  powder-bag  was  made  into 
soup  at  last.  It  exeiteil  the  wonder  of  the  doctor-captain  to  see  men 
keep  up  with  their  company  until  they  were  so  near  exhaustion  that 
they  would  breathe  their  last  four  or  live  minutes  after  sitting  down. 
Dearborn  himself  gave  out  at  length,  and  lay  in  a  hut  for  ten  days 
at  the  point  of  death.  But  he  rallied,  trudged  after  the  army,  and 
went  to  the  assault  at  the  head  of  his  command. 


THE  FIRST  REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION.  599 

In  this  spirit  and  in  this  manner  Henry  Dearborn  served  till  the 
surrender  of  Cornwallis,  which  he  witnessed.  On  General  Washing 
ton's  staff,  as  quartermaster-general,  he  acquired  that  familiarity 
with  military  business  which  made  him  at  home  in  the  office  in  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  placed  him.  President  Washington  had  appointed 
him  marshal  of  the  district  of  Maine,  and  the  people  had  elected  him 
twice  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  was  a  large,  handsome 
man,  of  erect,  graceful,  military  bearing;  a  striking  figure  in  the  circles 
of  the  city  that  was  rising  in  the  primeval  wilderness.  He  was, 
perhaps,  the  only  public  man  in  the  country  who  united  all  the 
qualities  desirable  for  his  post ;  being  a  soldier,  a  Republican,  a  man 
of  science,  and  a  man  of  business. 

In  bestowing  the  great  places  of  the  government,  Jefferson  evi 
dently  had  it  in  view  to  exalt  and  stimulate  the  intellectual  side  of 
human  nature,  then  under  a  kind  of  ban  in  Christendom.  Every 
member  of  his  cabinet  was  college-bred;  and  every  man  of  them 
was  in  some  peculiar  way  identified  with  knowledge.  Madison  was, 
above  all  things  else,  a  student  of  constitutional  science  as  well  as 
of  constitutional  law.  Gallatin,  the  founder  of  the  glass  manufac 
ture  of  Pittsburg,  was  accomplished  in  the  science  of  his  day,  em 
inently  an  intellectual ized  person.  Dearborn,  a  graduate  of  Har 
vard,  had  also  been  admitted  to  one  of  the  learned  professions. 
Robert  Smith  of  Maryland,  secretary  of  the  navy,  a  graduate  of 
Princeton,  after  long  eminence  at  the  bar  and  in  public  life,  died 
president  of  the  Agricultural  Society  and  provost  of  the  University 
of  Maryland.  Gideon  Granger  of  Connecticut,  post-master-gen 
eral,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  a  lawyer  of  learning  and  high  distinction, 
fought  through  the  Connecticut  legislature  the  liberal  school-fund 
to  which  that  State  is  so  much  indebted.  He  was  noted,  all  his  life, 
as  the  intelligent  and  public-spirited  friend  of  every  thing  high  and 
advanced.  It  was  he  who  promoted  internal  improvements  in  a 
manner  to  which  the  strictest  constructionist  could  riot  object^  by 
giving  a  thousand  acres  of  land  for  the  benefit  of  the  Erie  Canal. 
Chancellor  Livingston,  whom  Mr.  Jefferson  invited  to  his  cabinet, 
and  induced  to  go  as  minister  to  France,  was  the  most  liberal  patron 
science  had  yet  found  in  America.  A  graduate  of  King's  College 
in  New  York,  he  spent  his  leisure  and  his  income  in  promoting 
science,  art,  and  agriculture.  It  was  his  intelligent  faith  and  his 
liberal  outlay  of  money  that  enabled  Robert  Fulton  to  carry  out 


600  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

John  Fitch's  idea  of  a  steamboat.  James  Monroe,  the  least  learned 
of  the  men  whom  Jefferson  advanced,  could  give  a  glorious  reason 
why  he  wa<  not  a  graduate  of  a  college.  The  battle  of  Lexington 
called  him  away  from  William  and  Mary  to  the  camp  at  Cambridge. 
Let  it  be  noted,  then,  as  an  interesting  fact  in  political  history, 
that  the  first  Democratic  administration  paid  homage  to  the  higher 
attainments  of  man,  and  sought  aid  from  the  class  farthest  removed 
from  the  uni instructed  multitude.  If  Jefferson  had  not  done  this 
fr«m  principle,  he  would  have  done  it  from  calculation;  because, 
knowing  the  people  as  he  did,  he  was  aware  that  the  farther  they 
g«-t  from  having  down  to  fictitious  distinctions,  the  more  alive  they 
become  to  those  which  are  real.  At  the  same  time,  he  did  not  over 
value  learning.  "It  is  not  by  his  reading  in  Coke-Littleton,"  he 
wrote  to  the  brother  of  Robert  Smith,  "that  I  am  induced  to  this 
proposition  (offering  him  the  Navy  Department),  though  that  also 
will  be  of  value  in  our  administration  ;  but  from  a  confidence  that 
he  mu>t,  from  his  infancy,  have  been  so  familiarized  with  naval 
things,  that  he  will  be  perfectly  competent  to  select  proper  agents 
and  to  judge  of  their  conduct."  From  that  day  to  this,  as  often  as 
Mr.  Jefferson's  example  has  been  followed  in  this  particular,  the 
people  of  the  United  States  have  been  gratified.  "What  appoint 
ments  more  popular  than  those  of  Irving,  Goodrich,  Hawthorne, 
]Janrr«>fr.  Kenned}1,  and  Curtis? 

An  American  president  usually  has  something  to  do  besides  man 
aging  the  affairs  of  the  public.  After  making  the  first  arrange 
ments.  Jefferson  went  home  for  a  month  to  put  his  own  affairs  in 
train  for  a  long  absence,  to  select  books  for  removal,  and  give  time 
for  the  'members  of  his  cabinet  to  remove  to  Washington.  The 
city  was  miserably  incomplete  and  unprovided.  Only  ten  months 
had  passed  since  Philadelphians,  going  by  the  office  .of  the  secretary 
of  state,  had  read  on  a  placard  tin-  official  notice  of  the  removal  of 
thejjovernment  to  the  tract  of  wilderness  which  had  been  despoiled 
of  its  primeval  beauty,  and  named  after  the  Father  of  his  Country. 
These  were  the  words  they  read:  "Notice. — The  office  of  the 
irtment  of  State  will  he  removed  this  day  from  Philadelphia. 
All  letters  ami  applications  are  therefore  to  be  addressed  to  that 
department  at  the  city  <>f  Washington  from  this  date,  28th  May, 
1800."  The  day  bel'oiv.  I're.-ident  Adams  began  his  journey  toward 
the  ne\v  capital,  going  "by  way  of  Lancaster  and  Fredurieksburg." 


THE  FIRST   REPUBLICAN   ADMINISTRATION.  601 

When  Mrs.  Adams  joined  him,  she  was  ill-advised  enough  to  go  by 
Baltimore;  and  a  nice  time  she  had  of  it.  Between  Baltimore  and 
Washington,  the  forest  had  not  a  break.  Soon  after  leaving  Balti 
more,  her  coachman  lost  his  way,  went  eight  or  nine  miles  wrong, 
then  tried  to  get  back  through  the  forest  to  the  right  road,  and 
wandered  two  hours  without  finding  a  creature  of  whom  to  ask  a 
question  ;  until,  at  last*,  a  straggling  negro  came  along,  whom  they 
hired  as  a  guide.  Washington  she  discovered  to  be  all  promise  and 
no  performance  ;  every  thing  begun  and  nothing  finished  ;  no  bells 
in  the  presidential  mansion  ;  no  fence  about  it ;  the  grand  staircase 
not  up  ;  and  the  great  rooms  unfurnished.  She  used  the  unplas- 
tered  east  room  that  winter  for  drying  clothes. 

If  the  president's  house  was  in  such  a  condition,  we  may  con 
clude,  that,  if  the  president  and  cabinet  meant  to  be  comfortable, 
they  must  lend  a  hand  to  the  work  themselves.  The}'  were  going 
to  live  in  a  city  of  huts  and  small  unfinished  houses,  with  here  and 
there  a  marble  palace  rising  above  the  trees,  and  a  great  street  of 
rich  yellow  clay  piercing  the  forest,  three  miles  long,  a  hundred  feet 
wide,  and  two  feet  deep,  —  "  the  best  city  in  the  world  for  a  future 
residence,"  as  Gouverneur  Morris  remarked  to  one  of  his  fair  corre 
spondents.  "We  want  nothing  here,"  said  he,  "but  houses,  cellars, 
kitchens,  well-informed  men,  amiable  women,  and  other  little  trifles 
of  this  kind,  to  make  our  cit}^  perfect." 

Besides  sending  many  a  load  of  books  and  other  articles  by  way 
of  beginning,  Jefferson  kept  a  wagon  going  pretty  frequently 
between  Monticello  and  Washington  during  the  whole  of  his  presi 
dency.  Before  leaving  home  he  wrote  curiously  minute  directions 
for  his  steward,  Mr.  Edmund  Bacon.  His  heart  was  set  upon 
restoring  and  enlarging  a  mill  for  grinding  the  grain  of  the  region 
round  about :  that  must  be  pushed  to  completion.  Then  there  were 
fences  to  be  made,  fields  to  be  cleared,  a  new  variety  of  corn  to  be 
tried,  charcoal  to  be  burned,  the  garden  to  be  levelled,  pork  to  be 
bought,  the  nailery  to  be  kept  going,  clothing  to  be  provided,  groves 
to  be  thinned,  shrubs  to  be  pruned,  the  building  to  continue.  Con 
cerning  all  these  labors,  Mr.  Jefferson  left  precise  instructions,  and 
kept  them  in  mind  at  all  times.  Take  this  brief  passage  of  his 
last  orders  in  April,  1801,  as  a  specimen  of  the  kind  of  directions 
he  frequently  gave  while  he  was  apparently  absorbed  in  affairs  of 
state :  — 


602  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

"  I  have  hired  all  the  hands  belonging  to  Mrs.  and  Miss  Danger- 
field  for  the  next  year.  They  are  nine  in  number.  Moses  the 
miller  is  to  be  sent  home  when  his  year  is  up.  With  these  will 
work  in  common,  Isaac,  Charles,  Ben,  Shepherd,  Abram,  Davy, 
John,  and  Shoemaker  PhiFl ;  making  a  gang  of  seventeen  hands. 
Martin  is  the  miller,  and  Jerry  will  drive  his  wagon.  Those  who 
work  in  the  nailery  are  Moses,  Wormly,  James  Hubbard,  Barnaby, 
Label's  Davy,  Bedford  John,  Bedford  Davy,  Phill  Hubbard,  Bartlet, 
and  Lewis.  They  are  sufficient  for  two  fires,  five  at  a  fire.  I  am 
desirous  a  single  man,  a  smith,  should  be  hired  to  work  with  them, 
to  see  that  their  nails  are  well  made,  and  to  superintend  them  gen 
erally  ;  if  such  an  one  can  be  found  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hun 
dred  dollars  a  year,  though  I  would  rather  give  him  a  share  in  the 
nails  made,  say  one-eighth  of  the  price  of  all  the  nails  made,  deduct 
ing  the  cost  of  the  iron  :  if  such  a  person  can  be  got,  Isbel's  Davy 
may  be  withdrawn  to  drive  the  mule-wagon,  and  Samson  to  join  the 
laborers.  There  will  then  be  nine  nailers,  besides  the  manager,  so 
that  ten  may  still  work  at  two  fires ;  the  manager  to  have  a  log-house 
built,  and  to  have  five  hundred  pounds  of  pork.  The  nails  are  to  be 
sold  by  Mr.  Bacon,  and  the  accounts  to  be  kept  by  him  ;  and  he  is 
to  direct  at  all  times  what  nails  are  to  be  made.  The  toll  of  the  mill 
is  to  be  put  away  in  the  two  garners  made,  which  are  to  have 
secure  locks,  and.  Mr.  Bacon  is  to  keep  the  keys.  When  they  are  get- 
ting  too  full,  the  wagons  should  carry  the  grain  to  the  overseer's  house, 
to  be  carefully  stowed  away.  In  general,  it  will  be  better  to  us«-  all 
the  bread-corn  from  the  mill  from  week  to  week,  and  only  bring  away 
tlje  surplus.  Mr.  Randolph  is  hopper-free  and  toll-free  at  the  mill. 
Mr.  Kppes,  having  leased  his  plantation  and  gang,  they  are  to  pay 
toll  hereafter.  Clothes  for  the  people  are  to  be  got  from  Mr.  Iliggin- 
bothaiu,  <»f  the  kind  heretofore  got.  I  allow  them  a  best  striped 
blanket  every  three  years.  This  year  eleven  blankets  must  be  bought, 
and  i^iven  to  those  most  in  need,  noting  to  whom  they  are  given.  The 
hirelings,  it'  they  had  not  blankets  last  year,  must  have  them  this 
year.  Mrs.  Jlandolph  always  chooses  the  clothing  for  the  house-ser 
vants;  that  is  to  say,  for  Peter  Henings,  Burwell,  Edwin,  Critta, 
and  Sally.  (.'<•_]. .red  plaids  are  provided  for  Betty  Brown,  Betty 
llening.-,  Xance,  Ursula,  and  indeed  all  the  others.  The  nailers, 
laborers,  and  hirelings  ma}'  have  it,  if  they  prefer  it  to  cotton. 
Wool  is  given  for  stockings  to  those  who  will  have  it  spun  and  knit 


THE  FIRST   REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION.  603 

•or  themselves. /  Fish  is  always  to  be  got  from  Richmond,  and  to  be 
lealt  out  to  the  hirelings,  laborers,  workmen,  and  house-servants  of 
ill  sorts,  as  has  been  usual.  Six  hundred  pounds  of  pork  is  to  be 
provided  for  the  overseer,  five  hundred  pounds  for  Mr.  Stewart,  and 
ive  hundred  pounds  for  the  superintendent  of  the  nailery,  if  one  is 
employed ;  also  about  nine  hundred  pounds  more  for  the  people,  so 
is  to  give  them  half  a  pound  apiece  once  a  week.  This  will  require, 
n  the  whole,  two  thousand  or  two  thousand  five  hundred  pounds. 
After  seeing  what  the  plantation  can  furnish,  and  the  three 
logs  at  the  mill,  the  residue  must  be  purchased.  In  the  winter 
hogshead  of  molasses  must  be  provided  and  brought  up,  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  (merchant  at  Richmond)  will  furnish.  This  will  afford 
o  give  a  gill  apiece  to  everybody  once  or  twice  a  week." 

No  interest  of  his  plantation  was  too  trifling  to  escape  his  atten- 
ion.  He  did  not  disdain  to  remind  Mr.  Bacon  that  "  the  old  gar- 
ien  pales"  wanted  patching  up,  nor  omit  to  designate  the  two  men 
nost  fit  for  the  job.  When  all  else  had  been  provided  for,  he  adds 
y  way  of  postscript,  that,  as  "  these  rains  have  possibly  spoiled  the 
odder  you  had  agreed  for,  you  had  better  see  it,  and,  if  injured, 
ook  out  in  time  for  more."  And  yet  another  word  :  If  Mr.  Bacon 
vould  prefer  to  "take  his  half  beef  now,"  he  might  kill  an  animal 
or  the  purpose,  and  send  the  other  half  to  the  house  or  to  Mr. 
Randolph's. 

A  man  does  not  govern  a  commonwealth  the  worse  for  having 
een  trained  in  a  homely  school  like  this.  Such  training,  of  course, 
ivould  not  be  sufficient ;  but,  even  of  itself,  it  would  bring  an  intel- 
igent  mind  nearer  the  secret  of  genuine  statesmanship  than  Bona- 
arte's  military  school  or  Pitt's  parliamentary  arena. 

Early  in  May  the  members  of  the  administration  were  in  Wash- 
ngton,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  addressed  himself  to  the  task  which  his 
;ountrymen  had  assigned  him. 


CHAPTER    LXII. 

JEFFERSON    PRESIDENT. 

OXE  thing  only  is  indisputable  with  regard  to  the  administration 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  from  1801  to  1809 :  it  satisfied  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  The  proof  of  this  is  not  merely  that  he  was  re- 
elected  by  a  vastly  increased  majority ;  nor  that  the  Federalists, 
once  so  powerful  and  so  confident,  were  reduced  in  the  House  tc 
twenty-seven,  and  in  the  Senate  to  one  less  than  half  a  dozen;  noi 
that  the  legislatures  of  Vermont,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Mary 
land,  and  Georgia,  the  Senate  of  New  York,  and  the  House  of  Dele 
gates  of  Virginia,  requested  him  to  stand  for  a  third  term  ;  nor  that, 
at  last,  fourteen  States  out  of  seventeen  were  ranged  in  the  Republi 
can  line,  and  Jefferson  himself  thought  the  opposition  was  getting 
too  weak  for  the  country's  good.  These  were  remarkable  facts,  but 
they  were  only  a  part  of  his  triumph.  At  the  end  of  eight  years, 
without  an  effort  of  his  own,  without  so  much  as  the  expression  of  £ 
preference,  he  handed  over  the  government  to  the  man  of  all  others 
in  the  world  whom  he  would  have  chosen  for  a  successor;  and  thai 
man,  at  the  end  of  his  eight  years,  passed  it  on  to  another  of  Jeffer 
son's  disciples  and  allies,  under  whom  opposition  died,  only  to  live 
;i  when  Federalism  started  into  a  semblance  of  life  in  the  mes 
sages  of  .John  Quincy  Adams.  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe 
wen-  three  men  and  one  system.  The  era  of  good  feeling  in  Mm- 
'a  time,  which  would  have  come  in  Madison's  but  for  the  war  of 
181 L*.  \\:is  the  completion  of  Jefferson's  success.  It  is  this  twenty- 
four  years  .if  public  content  that  renders  an  inquiry  into  the  condud 
of  President  Jefferson  interesting. 

For.  as  all  readers  know,  there  are  two  ways  of  explaining  it.     T< 
republicans,  indeed,  it  requires  no  explanation.     It  is  of  the  essenc< 
of  their  faith,  that  there  is  nothing  occult  or  mysterious  in  the  ar 
604 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  605 

government,  but  that  it  consists  in  doing  right.  Their  simple 
conviction  is,  —  and  they  desire  the  Coming  Party  to  ponder  well 
the  truth,  —  that  the  old  Democratic  party  ruled  the  United  States 
for  sixty  years  for  no  other  reason  than  that,  on  every  leading  issue 
except  one,  —  the  extension  of  slavery,  the  rock  on  which  it  struck 
and  went  to  pieces,  —  the  old  Democratic  party  was  right.  The 
other  theory  is,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  successors  were  wonder 
fully  skilful  and  perfectly  unscrupulous  in  flattering  what  the  polite 
Federalists  used  to  style  the  Mob.  Headers  remember,  perhaps, 
Tom  Moore's  verses  on  this  subject,  written  soon  after  his  visit  to 
Washington,  in  which,  putting  into  rhyme  the  gossip  and  sniff  of 
Federalist  drawing-rooms,  he  spoke  of  President  Jefferson  as 

"  That  inglorious  soul, 

Which  creeps  and  winds  beneath  a  mob's  control, 
Which  courts  the  rabble's  smile,  the  rabble's  nod, 
And  makes,  like  Egypt,  every  beast  its  god." 

This  was  the  Federalists'  opinion  better  expressed ;  and  they  used 
to  point  to  Aaron  Burr's  skill  in  political  management  as  a  proof  of 
its  correctness.  Aaron  Burr,  however,  was  too  knowing  a  politician 
ever  to  waste  time  upon  the  dozen  loafers  in  each  ward  of  New 
York  who  alone  could  then  be  justly  called  rabble ;  and  his  skill, 
such  as  it  was,  did  not  prevent  his  own  downfall  and  hopeless  ruin. 
America  had  no  rabble.  America  has  no  rabble.  Except  in  a  few 
large  cities,  there  is  no  considerable  class  that  even  bears  any  out 
ward  resemblance  to  a  rabble ;  and  never  has  that  class  been  impor 
tant  in  a  general  election.  The  voters  that  kept  the  Tweeds  in 
power  were,  for  the  most  part,  well-meaning,  industrious  men,  whom 
a  Tweed  could  reach  through  their  prejudices,  their  vanity,  and 
their  interest,  but  who  could  not  be  reached  by  honest  men  because 
education  had  opened  no  road  to  their  minds  -accessible  to  disinter* 
ested  intelligence.  But  let  me  recall  the  leading  traits  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson's  administration,  with  a  view  to  getting  light  upon  the  ques 
tion,  whether  he  satisfied  the  people  of  his  time  by  doing  right,  or 
by  adroitly  pretending  to  do  right. 

He  was  faithful  to  the  party  that  elected  him. 

As  soon  as  his  election  was  known,  some  of  his  friends  urged  him 
to  conciliate  the  Federalists  by  appointing  a  few  of  their  leaders  to 
office.  His  answer  was,  No :  the  mass  of  the  party,  being  Kepubli- 


606  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

can  at  heart,  will  be  conciliated  by  a  consistent  adherence  to  Repub 
lican  principles;  and,  as  to  the  chiefs,  they  cannot  be  conciliated! 
r.i--id'-s.  every  office  in  the  country  in  the  gift  of  the  president  was 
already  filled  by  a  Federalist;  for  that  party,  said  he,  had  at  an 
i-urlv  period  adopted  the  principle  of  "excluding  from  office  every 
shade  of  opinion  that  was  not  theirs ; ''  and  he  thought  it  only  right 
that  all  vacancies  should  be  given  to  Republicans,  until  there  should 
be  at  least  as  many  of  them  in  office  as  Federalists.  He  meant,  as 
he  said  early  in  his  first  term,  to  "sink  Federalism  into  an  abyss 
from  which  there  should  be  no  resurrection  for  it."  He  accom 
plished  this  purpose;  and  his  clear  adherence  both  to  the  men  and 
principles  of  his  own  party  was  among  the  means  which  he  employed. 

But  he  would  not  appoint  men  to  office  merely  because  they  were 
conspicuous  partisans. 

The  notorious  Callender  was  a  case  in  point.  He  was  a  scurrilous, 
fertile,  forcible  writer  of  the  day,  who  had  been  prosecuted  under 
the  Sedition  Law,  and  so  made  a  dirty  martyr  of.  Republicans  had 
been  compelled  to  give  him  aid  and  comfort  in  his  distress,  because 
he  was  the  victim  of  a  law  they  abhorred.  Upon  the  triumph  of 
the  Hi-publican  party,  he  came  to  Jefferson,  asking  as  a  reward  for 
party  Cervices  the  Richmond  post-office,  worth  fifteen  hundred  dol 
lars  a  year.  Jefferson  relieved  his  necessities  with  money,  but 
ivlused  him  the  place,  simply  because  he  was  unfit  for  it,  and  thus 
gained  one  of  the  most  implacable  and  indecent  vituperators  a  pub 
lic  servant  ever  had.  George  Rogers  Clarke,  too,  a  hero  whom  he 
revered,  he  often  longed  to  employ,  as  the  most  skilful  manager  of 
all  Indian  a  flairs  the  country  possessed.  But  he  did  not.  The 
reason  was,  Whiskey.  He  gave  General  Clarke's  brother  a  commis 
sion  and  an  appointment;  but  not  the  man  who  had  aided  to  give 
his  country  liberty,  only  to  become  himself  a  slave.  Nor  did 
Thomas  Paine  realize  his  joke  of  shocking  the  bishops  and  old  ladies 
of  tin-  English  court  by  going  as  secretary  of  legation  to  London. 
Jefferson  gave  him  a  safe  passage  home  in  a  man-of-war,  received 
him  with  honor  at  the  White  House,  with  cordiality  at  Monticello, 
and  exchanged  philosophic  news  with  him;  but  did  not  send  him 
to  do  what  he  could  not  do,  —  rfjm'st>nt  a  clean,  sober,  orderly  peo 
ple  in  a  foreign  land.  And  when  it  became  apparent  that  Chancel 
lor  Livin^>t"ii'>  growing  deafness  rendered  him  an  inefficient 
minister  at  the  court  of  Napoleon,  Jefferson  risked  losing  the  sup- 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  607 

ort  of  the  State  of  New  York,  first,  by  sending  Monroe  to  help 

rn,  and  afterwards  by  recalling  him.     But  the  most  remarkable 

ase  was  that  of  John  Randolph,  the  sharp-tongued  leader  of  the 

epublican  party  in  the  House  of  Representatives.     He  was  sug- 

ested  by  a  friend  for  the  English  mission.  ^.Mr.  Jefferson  was  silent. 

'.r.  Madison  also  waived  the  subject.     Then  the  friend  pressed  his 

aims,  and  other  members  of  the  House  added  solicitations.     The 

resident  withheld-  the  appointment.       John  Randolph  went    into 

>position,  in  which  his  single  small  talent  shone  like  a  thin,  keen 

pier  in  the  sun.     The  only  objection  to  his  appointment  was,  that 

e  was  ludicrously  unfit  for  a  post  requiring   patience,  prudence, 

If-control,  industry,  and  address. 

Jefferson  took  great  care  to  get  the  right  man  for  the  right  place. 

In  fact,  a  ruler  of  men,  whether  he  is  a  private  or  a  public  person, 

as  but  two  duties  to  perform,  — to  select  the  right  assistants,  and 

treat  them  so  as  to  get  out  of  them  the  best  service  they  have  in 

lem.     That  is  the  whole  art  of  governing,  and  Jefferson  knew  it. 

There  is  nothing,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  May,  1801,  "I  am  so 

nxious    about    as    making  the  best  possible  appointments.'''     But 

ow  difficult  the  task  in  a  country  so  extensive  as  the  United  States, 

lere  personal  knowledge  is  impossible  !     His  chief  reliance  seems 

have  been  upon  the  unsolicited  recommendation  of  men  in  whom 

had  confidence.  Thus,  he  wrote  to  Nathaniel  Macon  of  North 
arolina  very  early  in  his  first  year:  "  In  all  cases  when  an  office 
comes  vacant  in  your  State,  I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  you  to 
commend  the  best  characters."  Jefferson  was  curiously  happy  in 
s  appointments;  and  the  reason  was,  that  he  never  slighted  this 
ief  duty,  and  was,  from  the  first,  on  his  guard  against  the  recom- 
endations  of  thoughtless,  unprincipled  good-nature.  He  would 
ave  made  more  successes  of  this  kind  even  than  he  did,  but  for  the 
adequate  compensation  attached  to  the  most  important  posts; 
lich  limits  a  president's  choice  to  a  few  individuals  exceptionally 
rcumstanced.  Many  of  his  letters  offering  appointments  show 
w  much  he  lamented  his  inability  to  offer  "due  remuneration." 
He  would  not  give  an  appointment  to  a  relative. 
At  the  first  view,  this  seems  unjust  to  the  honorable  and  capable 
milies  who  were  related  to  the  president.  It  has  the  air  of  court- 
g  cheap  and  easy  popularity,  and  it  is  open  to  the  objection  of 
tching  the  note  too  high  for  the  limited  range  of  human  nature. 


608  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

But  his  convictions  on  the  point  were  clear  and  strong;  and  Profes 
sor  Tiu-ker  records  that  lie  acted  on  this  principle  throughout  life  in 
the  administration  of  trusts.  Thus,  as  rector  of  the  University  of 
Virginia,  he  opposed  the  appointment  of  a  nephew  to  a  professor 
ship,  though  he  was  well  qualified  for  the  place;  dreading  lest  it 
should  open  a  door  to  the  system  which  has  made  universities  and 
chuivh  endowmenta  in  other  lands  mere  appendages  to  the  estates 
of  governing  families.  He  was  nobly  seconded  in  his  resolution  by 
his  own  kindred.  Imagine  his  delight  on  receiving  from  one  of 
them,  George  Jefferson,  a  few  days  after  his  inauguration,  a  letter 
.'aneously  declining  to  be  a  candidate  for  a  Federal  office  to 
whieli  his  neighbors  and  friends  desired  to  recommend  him.  "  The 
publir,"  wrote  the  president,  "will  never  be  made  to  believe  that  an 
appointment  of  a  relative  is  made  oh  the  ground  of  merit  alone, 
uninfluenced  by  family  views ;  iior  can  they  ever  see  with  approba 
tion  offices,  the  disposal  of  which  they  intrust  to  their  presidents  for 
public  purposes,  divided  out  as  family  property."  He  owned  that 
the  rule  bore  hardly  upon  a  president's  relations;  but  the  public 
'.  he  thought,  required  the  sacrifice,  for  which  their  share  in  the 
public  esteem  might  be  considered  some  compensation.  "I  could 
n«»t  !»••  satisfied,"  said  he,  "until  I  assured  you  of  the  increased 
esteem  with  which  this  transaction  fills  me  for  you." 

II '-  t  wo  sons-in-law  did  not  suffer  from  the  rule,  since  their  nei<*h- 
bon  kept  them  both  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Here,  again, 
the  president  showed  his  nice  regard  for  the  mental  integrity  of 
others.  In  his  intercourse  \vith  these  gentlemen,  it  was  a  thing 
understood  Let  ween  them,  that  measures  pending  in  their  House 
not  to  be  a  topic  of  conversation;  and  if,  by  chance,  conversa 
tion  took  that  turn,  "I  carefully  avoid,"  says  Jefferson,  "expressing 
an  opinion  on  them  in  their  presence,  that  we  may  all  be  at  our 
The  rule,  happily,  did  not  exclude  friends;  and  he  thus  had 
the  pleasure  of  appointing  to  the  place  of  commissioner  of  loans  at 
Richmond  the  beloved  comrade  of  his  youth,  John  1'age. 

I  *>ut   he  would  not  exempt  friends  from  the  operation  of  a  good 
rule. 

in  old  opinion  of  his,  which  now  became  a  rule  of  his 
administration,  that  a  foreign  minister  should  not  remain  abroad 
more  thun  seven  or  eight  years,  lie  drew  this  opinion  from  his  own 
experience.  '•  When  I  returned  from  France,"  he  once  explained, 


JEFFERSON   PRESIDENT.  609 

after  an  absence  of  six  or  seven  years,  I  was  astonished  at  the 
change  which  I  found  had  taken  place  in  the  United  States  in  that 
irae.  No  more  like  the  same  people :  their  notions,  their  habits 
and  manners,  the  course  of  their  commerce,  so  totally  changed,  that 
",  who  stood  in  those  of  1784,  found  myself  not  at  all  qualified  to 
peak  of  their  sentiments,  or  forward  their  views,  in  1790."  Hence 
he  rule.  But  it  excluded  from  the  public  service  two  of  his  oldest 
•riends,  David  Humphreys  and  William  Short,  both  of  whom  had 
erved  under  him  as  secretary  of  legation  before  attaining  the  rank 
)f  plenipotentiary  which  they  then  held.  Humphreys  had  been 
ibsent  from  home  eleven  years,  and  Short  seventeen  years.  One  of 
Tefferson's  first  acts  was  to  recall  Humphreys;  which  he  soon  fol- 
owed  by  declining  to  transfer  Short  to  Paris,  where  he  felt  the  need 
f  just  such  a  tried  and  vigilant  minister.  "Your  appointment,"  he 
vrote  to  Mr.  Short,  "  was  impossible  a-fter  an  absence  of  seventeen 
'•ears.  Under  any  other"  circumstances,  I  should  never  fail  to  give 
;o  yourself  and  the  world  proofs  of  my  friendship  for  you  and  of  my 
onfidence  in  you." 

He  turned  no  man  out  of  office  because  he  was  opposed  to  him  in 
)olitics. 

And  yet  he  did,  during  the  first  two  years  of  his  first  term, 
emove  twenty-six  Federalists,  and  appoint  Republicans  in  their 
tead.  After  that,  there  were  scarcely  any  removals  ;  and  Republi- 
ans  were  only  appointed  to  vacancies  created  by  death  or  resigna- 
ion.  And  now  with  regard  to  those  twenty-six.  The  result  of  the 
•residential  election  of  1800  was  known  in  Washington  on  the  12th 
f  December,  a  little  less  than  three  months  before  the  end  of  Mr. 
Adams's  term.  During  that  interval  some  valuable  life-offices  fell 
•acant,  twenty-four  judgeships  were  created,  and  several  places  held 
.uring  the  president's  pleasure  were  vacated.  Mr.  Adams  hastened 

fill  these  offices,  from  that  of  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
o  postmaster,  leaving  not  one  of  them  to  his  successor.  Such  was 
he  primitive  condition  of  the  political  mind  in  1801,  that  Kepubli- 
ans  regarded  this  conduct  as  the  last  degree  of  indecency,  and 
efferson  shared  the  feeling.  Indeed,  for  so  placid  and  placable  a 
•entleman,  he  was  highly  indignant;  and  two  or  three  years  passed 
efore  he  could  "heartily  forgive"  his  old  friend  Adams  for  yielding, 

so  unworthy  a  manner,  to  the  "pressure"  of  his  partisans.  He 
^solved  not  to  regard  those  appointments  j  which,  he  said,  Mr. 

89 


610  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Adams  knew  he  was  not  making  for  himself,  but  for  a  successor. 
"This  outrage  on  decency,"  he  wrote  to  his  old  colleague,  General 
Knox,  who  had  written  to  congratulate  him  on  his  election,  "should 
not  have  its  effect  except  in  the  life-appointments,  which  are  irremo 
vable  ;  but,  as  to  the  others,  I  consider  the  nominations  as  nullities, 
and  will  not  view  the  persons  appointed  as  even  candidates  for  their 
office,  much  less  as  possessing  it  by  any  title  meriting  respect." 
The.-e  offices  were,  sixteen  in  number.  Their  incumbents  were  all 
removed  during  the  first  year,  and  Republicans  appointed  to  fill 
them.  The  other  ten  removals,  most  of  whicht  occurred  in  the 
secoii'l  v<  ;ir.  \vereforthree  causes:  1,  Official  misconduct;  2,  "Ac 
tive  and  hitter  opposition"  (to  use  the  president's  own  words)  "to 
the  order  of  things  which  the  public  will  has  established."  There 
was  ;i  third  reason  for  removal,  which  the  president  thus  explained: 
"The  courts  being  so  decidedly  Federal  and  irremovable,  it  is 
believed  that  Republican  attorneys  and  marshals,  being  the  doors  of 

ince  into  the  courts,  are  indispensably  necessary  as  a  shield  to 
tin-  Republican  part  of  our  fellow-citizens,  which,  I  believe,  is  the 

:  body  of  the  people."  Accordingly,  although  the  expiration 
of  tin-  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  rendered  the  Federal  courts  less 
dan^'Toiis  to  freedom  than  they  had  been,  four  or  five  of  these 
officials  were  removed. 

The  outcry  caused  by  this  moderate  exercise  of  the  president's 
]><>\\er  cannot  be  imagined  by  readers  of  the  present  day.  Jefferson, 
indeed,  -tood  between  two  fires,  —  the  Federalists  shrieking  with 
vigorous  unanimity  as  each  head  dropped  into  the  basket;  and 
the  Hi-publican  host  muttering  remonstrance  that  the  decapitating 
instrument  worked  so  slowly.  The  denunciation  of  tin-  Federalists 
he  omid  n., t  avoid  ;  but  he  showed  much  tact  in  reconciling  his  own 
])arti.-a*:s  to  this  moderate  course.  To  mere  partisans,  he  would  show 
how  much  better  it  was  to  have  an  able  Federalist  passive  and 
acqtiie ...  -.-lit  In  office,  and  all  his  circle  of  friends  quiet  for  his  sake, 
than,  by  turning  him  out  of  office,  to  convert  him  and  his  family 
into  vigilant,  Lmbittered  opponents.  To  men,  who,  like  himself, 
desired  to  B66  the  whole  body  of  citizens  restored  to  good  humor,  his 
appeal  wta  to  their  sen-e  (.f  the  just  and  the  becoming.  The  Tam 
many  Society  of  Baltimore  deputed  a  young  member,  who  was  going 
to  Monticrllo,  to  make  known  to  the  president  the  discontent  of  the 
y  a:  seeing  so  many  FedcralUts  still  in  office.  The  following 
conversation  is  reported  by  the  deputy  :  — 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  611 

PRESIDENT.  I  should  be  very  glad  to  gratify  my  friends  in  Balti- 
nore  by  turning  the  Federalists  out  of  office,  and  filling  their  places 
with  men  of  my  o\vn  party..  But  there  is  an  obstacle  in  the  way 
rhich  I  cannot  remove,  —  a  question  which  I  have  not  been  able  to 
olve.  Perhaps  you  can  do  this  for  me. 

YOUNG  TAMMANY.  I  despair  of  solving  any  problem  that  puzzles 
VEr.  Jefferson,  but  I  desire  to  hear  what  it  is. 

PRESIDENT.  Well,  sir,  we  are  Republicans,  and  we  are  contending 
or  the  extension  of  the  right  of  suffrage.  Is  it  not  so  ? 

YOUNG  TAMMANY.  Yes,  sir. 

PRESIDENT  (who  had  not  read  his  Plato  for  nothing).  We  would 
ot,  therefore,  put  any  restraint  upon  the  right  of  suffrage  as  it 
1  ready  exists  ? 

YOUNG  TAMMANY  (unwarned  by  the  fate  of  those  who  sought 
visdom  from  Socrates).  By  no  means,  sir. 

PRESIDENT.  Tell  me,  then,  what  is  the  difference  between  deny- 
ng  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  punishing  a  man  for  exercising  it  by 
urning  him  out  of  office? 


612  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

age  to  be  used  to  overthrow  that  cause."  We  must  always  beware 
of  demanding  too  much  of  human  nature.  P>ut  I  wish  he  could 
have  .-aid,  "Kail  on,  Federalist  postmasters  and  Hamiltonian  col 
lectors  !  Mount  the  stump  !  Beratq  the  administration  !  You  are 
not  my  servants,  nor  the  administration's  servants,  but  the  servants 
of  the  people.  It  is  only  my  concern  to  see  that  you  do  faithfully 
the  duty  of  your  places.  After  office-hours,  you  differ  in  no  respect 
from  citizens  engaged  in  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  private  life."  It 
is  easy  to  be  wise  for  other  people;  nor  have  we  a  victorious  party 
at  our  back  to  make  wisdom  difficult ;  and  who  could  have  foreseen 
such  an  abuse  of  the  precedent  as  infuriate  Jackson  made  in  1829? 
N«>  man. 

Jefferson  reduced  the  patronage  of  the  government  to  the  mini 
mum. 

The  strongest  organization  on  earth  is,  as  we  all  know,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  Viewed  merely  as  an  organization,  it  has  but  one 
defect, — there  is  no  provision  in  itself  for  limiting  its  expansion, 
and  pn-venting  its  becoming  an  insupportable  burden.  And  this 
grievous  fault  belongs  to  all  the  ancient  governments,  whether  eccle- 
•ic;J  or  secular.  When  Louis  XIV.  passed  a  few  weeks  at 
Versailles,  accommodation  had  to  be  provided  in  the  palace  for  three 
thousand  persons ;  and  I  have  myself  possessed  an  octavo  volume 
of  four  hundred  pages  which  was  filled  with  the  mere  catalogue  of 
the  servants  of  George  III.,  stating  only  their  titles,  duties,  and 
salaries.  Burke's  Reform  Bill  abolished  six  hundred  court  offices, 
without  making  a  gap  in  the  mighty  host  large  enough  to  attract 
the  notice  of  a  disinterested  public.  Nobody  appears  to  have  missed 
any  of  them.  This  tendency  of  governments  to  become  excessive 
is  so  strong,  constant,  and  insidious,  that  no  head  of  a  government 
will  ever  re>ist  it  unless  the  ambition  that  controls  him  is  something 
nobler  than  personal.  Jefferson  was  one  of  those  who  gave  this  he>t 
proof  of  a  disinterested  love  of  ri^lif  principles.  Every  office  in 
his  control  that  was  not  nrc'-ssary  was  suppressed  ;  and  the  whole 
apparatus  of  government  —  military,  naval,  judicial,  executive  —  was 
reduced  in  quantity.  \Yc  mi-hr  sum  up  his  policy  in  this  particular 

sentence:  The  men  you  <i<>  employ,  pay  adequately ;  make  it 

worth  the  ablest  men's  while  to  serve  the  government,  but  employ 
HO  two  men  to  do  one  man  -  work. 

Thus,  while  no  branch  of  the  public  service  was  increased  in  cost 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  613 

r  in  importance,  most  departments  were  diminished.  Mr.  Gallatin 
o-operated  heartily  with  the  president  in  reducing  the  extensive 
orps  of  officials  which  Colonel  Hamilton  had  created.  In  1802 
office  of  commissioner  of  internal  revenue  and  that  of  super- 
ntendent  of  stamps  were  suppressed ;  which  only  whetted  the 
resident's  appetite  for  further  reductions.  "  It  remains,"  he  wrote 

Gallatin,  "  to  amalgamate  the  comptroller  and  auditor  into  one,  and 
educe  the  register  to  a  clerk  of  accounts ;  and  then  the  organization 
will  consist,  as  it  should  at  first,  of  a  keeper  of  money,  a  keeper  of 
ccounts,  and  the  head  of  the  department."  Details  do  not  concern 
s  now :  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  administration  which  I  desire  to 
xhibit.  "  Let  us  deserve  well  of  our  country,"  he  concluded,  "  by 
naking  her  interests  the  end  of  all  our  plans,  and  not  our  pomp, 
atronage,  and  irresponsibility."  It  is  this  disinterested  spirit, 
vliich  shines  from  all  the  documents,  the  correspondence,  the  hasty 
otes,  of  the  president  and  his  cabinet,  that  renders  the  administra- 
ion  of  Jefferson  so  remarkable.  Bitter  John  Randolph  conceded 
his  merit  to  Jefferson.  "I  have  never  seen,"  said  he  in  1828,  "but 
ne  administration,  which,  seriously  and  in  good  faith,  was  disposed 
o  give  up  its  patronage,  and  was  willing  to  go  farther  than  Con- 
ress,  or  even  the  people  themselves,  so  far  as  Congress  represents 
lieir  feelings,  desired ;  and  that  was  the  first  administration  of 
"homas  Jefferson.  He,  sir,  was  the  only  man  I  knew,  or  ever  heard 
f,  who  really,  truly,  and  honestly,  not  only  said,  Nolo  episcopari, 
ut  actually  refused  the  mitre." 

He  endeavored  to  simplify  the  apparatus  and  the  operations  of 
government,  so  that  the  rural  member  of  Congress  and  his  constitu- 
nts  might  understand  them. 

His  heart  was  much  set  on  this,  particularly  in  the  finances, 
,Thich,  he  thought,  Hamilton  had  purposely  complicated.  What  we 
an  now  all  see  was  merely  a  defect  of  Hamilton's  mind  (or  the 
nevitable  failure  of  a  third-rate  man  in  a  first-rate  place),  Jefferson, 
.tung  by  his  calumnious  vituperation,  and  alarmed  at  the  pernicious 
endency  of  his  influence,  regarded  as  intentional  mystification, 
thought  that  Hamilton  began  by  puzzling  the  president  and 
Congress,  and  ended  by  getting  the  finances  into  such  a  snarl  that 
could  not  "unravel"  them  himself.  Thus  he  explained  his 
neaning  to  Mr.  Gallatin  :  "Hamilton  gave  to  the  debt,  in  the  first 
nstance,  ir  funding  it,  the  most  artificial  and  mysterious  form  he 


614  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

could  devise.  He  then  moulded  up  his  appropriations  of  a  numbed 
of  scraps  and  fragments,  many  of  which  were  nothing  at  all,  and 
applied  them  to  different  objects  in  reversion  and  remainder,  until 
the  whole  system  was. involved  in  an  impenetrable  fog;  and,  while  he 
wa-  Diving  himself  the  airs  of  providing  for  the  payment  of  the 
debt,  he  left  himself  free  to  add  to  it  continually,  as  he  did,  in  fact, 
instead  of  paying  it."  Jefferson's  idea  was  to  let  the  money  re 
ceived  into  the  treasury  form  one  mass,  from  which  all  payments 
should  be  made,  only  giving  precedence  to  such  claims  as  involved 
the  honor  of  the  nation :  that  is,  reserve,  first,  the  interest  of  the 
public  debt;  next,  any  portion  of  the  principal  of  the  debt  due 
within  the  year;  then  pay  the  expenses  of  the  year;  and  finally,  if 
there  is  any  money  left,  discharge  part  of  the  debt  payable  at 
pleasure.  This  was  his  idea,  which  he  desired  the  secretary  to 
"  approach  by  every  tack  which  previous  arrangements  force  upon 
us;"  until  the  finances  should  be  "as  clear  and  intelligible  as  a 
men-hunt's  books;  so  that  every  member  of  Congress,  and  every  man 
of  any  mind  in  the  Union,  should  be  able  to  comprehend  them,  to 
investigate  abuses,  and  consequently  to  control  them." 

J[e  abolished  court  etiquette,  and  every  usage  that  resembled  it. 

Any  one  who  passed  an  hour  at  the  head-quarters  of  a  command 
ing  general  during  the  late  war  had  an  opportunity  of  discovering 
that  court  etiquette  originated  in  necessity.  So  many  people  desire 
access  to  the  officer  in  command  of  a  large  force  in  active  service, 
that  unless  he  is  hedged  about  by  rules,  usages,  sentinels,  aides-de 
camp,  he  would,  not  merely  be  useless  as  an  officer,  but  he  would 
soon  be  destroyed.  Kingship  began  in  generalship.  The  king  was 
once  the  ablest  man  in  defending  his  people,  who  were  always  men 
ace. I  by  other  barbarians.  The  first  time  an  ancient  border  chief 
told  one  of  his  tribe  to  answer  questions  for  him  while  he  devoured 
his  dinner,  or  persuaded  two  or  three  to  stand  guard  over  him  with 
their  clubs  while  he  caught  an  hour's  sleep  between  two  tights,  court 
etiquette  began.  It  was  the  invention  of  "Divine  Eight,"  that 
'•\a  the  necessary  regulations  of  a  camp  into  a  system  of 

adulation  ai.d  semi-worship.  I  Tow  absurd,  how  oppressive,  how 
impious,  how  ridiculous,  it  had  become  in  the  last  century,  we  can 
still  partly  see  by  t lie  n  lies  of  it  that  remain.  We  know  how  it 
"riled*1  the  generous  mind  <.f  Thackeray  (who  was  no  democrat)  to 
see  Prince  Albert  attended  in  shooting  by  a  gentleman-equerry  to 


JEFFEKSON   PRESIDENT.  615 

hand  the  prince  his  gun,  when  it  had  been  loaded  by  a  servant,  and 
give  it  back  to  the  servant  after  it  had  been  discharged.  This  trifle 
represents  the  system  which  was  founded  on  the  assumption  that 
the  king,  and  the  class  whom  the  king  honored,  were  of  an  essence 
or  blood  superior  to  others,  as  the  Brahmin  is  supposed  to  be 
innately  and  eternally  superior  to  the  pariah.  It  all  grew  out  of  the 
theory,  that  the  king  is  the  divinely  designated  master.  Jefferson 
regarded  himself  as  the  chosen  servant  of  the  people  of  his  country, 
entitled,  if  he  was  faithful  to  his  trust,  to  the  honor  due  from 
all  the  worthy  to  all  the  worthy,  and  to  no  more.  His  person,  his 
time,  his  house,  could  justly  claim  the  protection  which  is  the  right 
and  necessity  of  all  men  engaged  in  affairs  numerous  and  important, 
and  no  more. 

Accordingly  the  weekly  levee  was  at  once  abolished.  On  two 
days  in  the  year,  the  4th  of  July  and  the  1st  of  January,  when 
houses  and  hearts  are  usually  open  in  the  United  States,  he  opened 
his  to  all  who  chose  to  visit  him.  On  other  days  he  was  accessible 
to  visitors  on  the  terms  and  conditions  which  his  duties  imposed: 
all  were  welcome  who  had  claims  upon  his  attention  or  regard, 
except  so  far  as  the  superior  claim  of  the  whole  people  restricted  him. 
Some  of  the  Federalists  in  Washington,  we  are  told,  hit  upon  an 
expedient  to  balk  the  president's  intention  of  abolishing  the  levee. 
On  the  usual  day,  at  the  usual  hour,  —  two  in  the  afternoon,  — 
ladies  and  gentlemen  began  to  arrive  at  the  president's  house, 
attired  in  the  manner  customary  at  the  levees.  The  president  was 
not  at  home.  He  was  enjoying  his  regular  two  hours'  ride  on 
horseback,  which  nothing  but  absolute  necessit}'-  could  make  him 
forego.  When  he  returned  at  three  o'clock,  and  learned  that  the 
great  rooms  were  filled  with  company  waiting  to  see  him,  he  guessed 
their  object,  and  frustrated  it  gracefully,  and  with  perfect  good- 
humor,  by  merely  going  among  them,  all  accoutred  as  he  was, 
booted,  spurred,  splashed  with  mud,  riding-whip  in  hand,  and 
greeting  them  as  though  the  conjunction  of  so  many  guests  were 
merely  a  joyous  coincidence.  They,  in  their  turn,  caught  the  spirit 
of  the  joke,  and  the  affair  ended  happily.  But  it  was  the  last  of 
the  levees. 

In  the  great  matter  of  dinnerSj  he  adopted,  or  rather  he  continued, 
the  style  of  Old  Virginia,  which  proved  to  be  to  him  a  grievous,  if 
not  a  ruinous  burden,  as  it  had  been  to  many  a  wealthier  planter. 


616  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Tin-  Virginia  style  was  simply:  Come  one,  come  all,  come  again, 
keep  coming,  and  bring  your  friends.  In  President  Washington's 
time,  tin-  business  of  entertaining  members  of  Congress,  officers  of  the 
riiim-nt,  and  distinguished  strangers,  had  been  assumed  by  the 
four  members  of  the  cabinet;  and  it  became  so  oppressive,  Jefterson 
tells  us,  that  "it  was  among  the  motives  for  their  retirement." 
Their  successors,  he  adds,  profited  by  the  experiment,  and  lived 
altogether  as  private  individuals,  leaving  to  the  president  the  whole 
burden  of  that  representative  hospitality  supposed  then  to  be  incum 
bent  upon  the  head  of  a  government.  In  Washington,  too,  the 
president  \v;is  then  the  only  man  who  had  a  house  large  enough  for 
the  entertainment  of  a  dozen  people  at  dinner,  or  fifty  persons  in 
the  evening;  and  hence  there  could  be  little  social  life  in  the  place, 
unless  the  president  kept  open  house.  Shut  out  from  all  the  world, 
ill-lodged  and  ill-attended,  the  circle  of  officials,  the  foreign  legations, 
and  members  of  Congress,  could  only  meet  in  an  agreeable  manner  at 
the  president's  mansion.  To  the  last  year  of  Jefferson's  second  term, 
Washington  was  still  only  a  spoiled  wilderness.  Francis  Jackson, 
I'.njish  plenipotentiary,  described  it,  in  1809,  as  more  resem 
bling  I  lampstead  Heath  than  any  place  he  had  ever  seen  ;  consisting 
of  scattered  houses,  intersected  with  heath,  forest,  and  gravel-pits. 
HI-  declares  that  he  started  a  covey  of  partridges  "about  three 
hundred  yards  from  the  House  of  Congress."  In  such  circum 
stances,  what  could  a  hospitable  Virginian  do  but  convert  his 

nee  into  a  general  rendezvous  and  free  club  ? 

All  would  have  gone  well  but  for  the  dinners,  to  which  the  salary 
was  fatally  inadequate.  We  get  an  insight  into  the  way  of  life  at 
tlie  White  House  from  the  recollections  of  Edmund  Bacon  of  Ken 
tucky  (.Jefferson  at  Monticello,  p.  113),  who  was,  for  twenty  years, 
Mr.  .lelVerson's  manager.  He  visited  Washington  several  times,  and 
always  lived  at  the  White  House  during  his  stay,  diningdaily  at  the 
pre>ident"s  table.  There  wen-  eleven  servants  in  the  house  from 
Monticcllo,  be  tells  us,  besides  a  French  cook,  a  French  steward,  and 
an  Irish  coachman.  "When  I  was  there,"  Mr.  Bacon  reports,  "the 
]<r>  -ident's  house  was  surrounded  by  a  high  rock  wall,  and  there  was 
an  iron  gate  immediately  iii  front  of  it,  and  from  that  gate  to  the 
Capitol  the  street  was  just  as  straight  as  a  gun-barrel.  Nearly  all 
the  house-;  \\eiv  on  that  street/'  This  is  Mr.  Bacon's  recollection 
of  the  dinners  :  — 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  617 

"Mr.  "Jefferson  often  told  me  that  the  office  of  vice-president  was 
far  preferable  t<j  that  of  president.  He  was  perfectly  tired  out  with 
company.  He  had  a  very  long  dining-room,  and  his  table  was  chock- 
full  every  one  of  the  sixteen  days  I  was  there.  There  were  Con 
gressmen,  foreigners,  and  all  sorts  of  people,  to  dine  with  him.  He 
dined  at  four  o'clock,  and  they  generally  sat  and  talked  until  night. 
It  used  to  worry  me  to  sit  so  long;  and  I  finally  quit  when  I  got 
through  eating,  and  went  off  and  left  them.  The  first  thing  in  the 
morning  there  was  to  go  to  market.  Mr.  Jefferson's  steward  was  a 
very  smart  man,  well  educated,  and  as  much  of  a  gentleman  in  his 
appearance  as  any  man.  His  carriage-driver  would  get  out  the 
wagon  early  in  the  morning,  and  Lamar  would  go  with  him  to 
Georgetown  to  market.  I  have  all  my  life  been  in  the  habit  of  get 
ting  up  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  I  went  with  them 
very  often.  Lamar  told  me  that  it  often  took  fifty  dollars  to  pay  for 
what  marketing  they  would  use  in  a  day." 

At  these  dinners,  which  so  wearied  the  soul  of  Mr.  Bacon,  there 
was  no  etiquette  except  that  which  would  have  been  observed  at  the 
table  of  any  private  person  of  the  time.  Mr.  Jefferson,  however,  as 
his  friend  Professor  Tucker,  reports,  was  well  aware  of  the  sensi 
tiveness  of  self-love,  and  was  most  careful  never  to  wound  it.  At 
his  more  public  dinners,  if  he  found  that  he  could  not  recall  the 
name  of  a  member  of  Congress  who  was  present,  he  would  give  a 
sign  to  his  secretary  to  go  into  the  next  room,  where  the  president 
would  join  him  to  get  the  information  desired. 

The  system  of  precedence  was  abolished. 

This  was  settled  at  a  cabinet  meeting  early  in  the  first  term,  when 
the  whole  barbarous  code  of  precedence  was  swept  awa}7.  These 
Rules  were  substituted  :  1.  Residents  to  pay  the  first  visit  to  stran 
gers  ;  and  among  strangers,  whether  native  or  foreign,  first  coiners  call 
first  upon  later  coiners.  To  this  rule  there  was  allowed  one  exception  : 
"  Foreign  ministers,  from  the  necessity  of  making  themselves  known, 
pay  the  first  visit  to  the  secretary  of  state,  which  is  returned." 
2.  "  When  brought  together  in  society,  all  are  perfectly  equal, 
whether  foreign  or  domestic,  titled  or  untitled,  in  or  out  of  office." 
The  president  amplified  these  rules  thus:  "The  families  of  foreign 
ministers,  arriving  at  the  seat  of  government,  receive  the  first  visit 
from  those  of  the  national  ministers,  as  from  all  other  residents. 


618  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Members  of  the  legislature  and  of  the  judiciary,  independent  of 
their  oHices,  have  a  right  as  strangers  to  receive  the  first  visit.  No 
title  being  admitted  here,  those  of  foreigners  give  no  precedence. 
Difference  of  grade  among  the  diplomatic  members  gives  no  prece 
dence.  At  public  ceremonies  to  which  the  government  invites  the 
nee  of  foreign  ministers  and  their  families,  a  convenient  seat  or 
station  will  be  provided  for  them,  with  any  other  strangers  invited, 
and  the  families  of  the  national  ministers,  each  taking  place  as  they 
arrive,  and  without  any  precedence.  To  maintain  the  principle  of 
(•quality,  or  of  pele  inele,  and  prevent  the  growth  of  precedence  out 
of  conri".»y.  the  members  of  the  executive  will  practise  at  their  own 
;d  recommend  an  adherence  to,  the  ancient  usages  of  the 
country,  of  gentlemen  in  mass  giving  precedence  to  the  ladies  in 
ma>s,  in  pa>sing  from  one  apartment  where  they  are  assembled  into 
another." 

All  this,  with  the  friendly,  humane  usages  that  grew  out  of  it,  or 

akin  to  it,  agreeable  as  it  was  to  most  persons,  shocked  some 

ladies,  and  offended  all  men  who  owed  their  importance  solely  to 

rank  or  office.     Mr.   Jackson,  English  minister  in  1809,  being    a 

1' man  of  sense  and  good-humor,  was  amused  and  pleased,  dur- 
his  first  d-nf -reiice  with  President  Madison  (which  proved  to  be  very 
long),  when  a  "  negro  servant  brought  in  some  glasses  of  punch  and 
a  seed-cake,"  just  as  might  have  been  done  in  a  farm-house  of  the 
day  ;  but  his  wife  lamented  that  her  husband,  alter  having  been 
accustomed  "to  treat  with  the  civilized  governments  of  Europe," 
should  have  to  negotiate  with  the  "savage  democrats"  of  America. 
It  so  chanced  that  the  British  minister  from  1803  to  1800,  with 
wh"  >:i  had  most  to  do,  Merry  by  name  but  not  by  nature, 

\\a>  a  fanatic  of  etiquette;  and  it  appears,  that,  previous  to  his  pres- 

•  i«-n  to  the  president,  lie  had  not  heard  of  the  business-like  manner 
in  which  the  a  Hairs  of  the  White  House  were  conducted.  He  was 
stunned  at  the  manner  of  his  reception.  It  made  an  impression 
upon  his  mind  which  neither  explanation  nor  the  lapse  of  years  could 
soften,  much  less  obliterate.  And,  really,  when  we  consider 
that  he  had  pa»ed  his  life  at  courts  wlu-iv  the  nod,  the  smile,  the 
frown,  the  glance,  the  ton.-,  tin-  silence,  the  presence,  the  absence, 
of  the  head  of  tin-  government,  were  matters  of  importance,  to  be 

I,  ivi-.irdrd,  transmitted,  and  weighed,  we  ought  not  to  laugh  at 
this  Mr.  Merry  as  we  do.  J>e>ide>;  as  Mr.  Jefferson  remarks,  '"Poor 


JEFFEESON   PRESIDENT.  G19 

Merry  had  learned  nothing  of  diplomacy  but  its  suspicions,  without 
head  enough  to  distinguish  when  they  were  misplaced."  Nevertheless, 
he  comes  down  to  us  borne  on  a  billow  of  laughter,  and  he  remains  to 
this  day  one  of  the  stock-jests  of  Washington.  Thus  he  recounted 
his  woes,  three  years  after  the  event,  to  Mr.  Josiah  Quincyof  Massa 
chusetts,  the  ablest  Federalist  in  Congress  and  one  of  the 
worthiest :  — 

"I  called  on  Mr.  Madison,  who  accompanied  me  officially  to  intro 
duce  me  to  the  president.  We  went  together  to  the  mansion-house1 
I  being  in  full  official  costume,  as  the  etiquette  of  my  place  required 
on  such  a  formal  introduction  of  a  minister  from  Great  Britain  to  the 
president  of  the  United  States.  On  arriving  at  the  hall  of  audi 
ence,  we  found  it  empty;  at  which  Mr.  Madison  seemed  surprised, 
and  proceeded  to  an  entry  leading  to  the  president's  study.  I  fol 
lowed  him,  supposing  the  introduction  was  to  take  place  in  the  ad 
joining  room.  At  this  moment  Mr.  Jefferson  entered  the  entry  at 
the  other  end,  and  all  three  of  us  were  packed  in  this  narrow  space, 
from  which,  to  make  room,  I  was  obliged  to  back  out.  In  this  awk 
ward  position  my  introduction  to  the  president  was  made  by  Mr. 
Madison.  Mr.  Jefferson's  appearance  soon  explained  to  me  that  the 
general  circumstances  of  my  reception  had  not  been  accidental,  but 
studied.  I,  in  my  official  costume,  found  myself  at  the  hour  of 
reception  he  had  himself  appointed,  introduced  to  a  man  as  president 
of  the  United  States,  not  merely  in  an  undress,  but  ACTUALLY 

STANDING  IN  SLIPPERS  DOWN  AT  THE  HEELS,  and    both    pantaloOHS, 

coat,  and  under-clothes  indicative  of  utter  slovenliness  and  indiffer 
ence  to  appearances,  and  in  a  state  of  negligence  actually  studied.  I 
could  not  doubt  that  the  whole  scene  was  prepared  and  intended  as 
an  insult,  not  to  me  personally,  but  to  the  sovereign  I  represented." 
It  is  just  possible  that  Mr.  Jefferson  thought,  that  morning,  of 
the  time  when  Gouverneur  Morris  kicked  his  heels  four  mouths  in 
London  waiting  for  the  promised  answer  of  the  British  government 
to  as  reasonable  and  urgent  a  communication  from  President  Wash 
ington  as  one  government  ever  made  to  another,  and  then  had  to 
leave  England  without  getting  it.  Possibly,  also,  it  did  happen  to 
occur  to  his  memory,  that  Mr.  Adams  had  been  kept  vainly  waiting 
three  years  in  England  'for  a  reply  to  the  same  proposals.  Perhaps, 
too;  he  remembered  the  period  when  he  was  himself  presented  to 


620  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  king  of  England  by  Mr.  Adams,  and  the  king  froze  to  them 
botli ;  an  example  which  was  followed  by  the  "king's  friends,"  and 
society  generally,  so  that  it  required  courage  for  a  courtier  to  show 
tin-in  any  thing  more  than  cold  civility  at  an  evening  party.  And 
this,  while  they  were  only  asking  the  king  to  stay  the  bloody 
ravages  of  the  Indians  by  giving  up  the  seven  posts  within  the 
boundaries  of  their  country.  He  may,  too,  have  thought  of  the 
time  when  he,  as  secretary  of  state,  would  send  an  important  com 
munication  to  the  British  minister  at  Philadelphia,  and  wait  many 
months  for  an  answer;  but  if  he  failed  to  answer  a  letter  within 
three  or  four  days,  he  would  be  "goaded  by  a  second.  Perhaps 
he  thought  the  time  had  come  to  show  the  Federalists  that  he  did 
not  accept  Great  Britain  at  her  own  valuation,  and  did  not  believe 
she  \\a-  lighting  the  battle  of  man  and  liberty  against  Bonaparte. 
It  may  be,  too,  that  he,  knowing  the  childish  politics  of  Europe,  and 
what  ridiculous  importance  was  attached  there  to  trifles,  may  have 
paused  before  ringing  for  a  pair  of  shoes  not  down  at  the  heels,  and 
wondered  if  his  old  slippers,  duly  reported  to  Bonaparte,  might  not 
drive  another  nail  into  the  bargain  for  Louisiana,  just  concluded 
by  Mr.  Livingston  and  Mr.  Monroe,  to  the  great  joy  of  president 
and  people.  All  these  thoughts  may  have  flitted  through  the  presi- 
t'a  mind,  and  held  back  his  hand  from  the  bell-rope  ;  but,  in  all 
probability,  he  had  no  thoughts  of  the  kind,  and  only  wore  the 
clothes  he  usually  did  while  at  work. 

A  fe\v  \\eeks  after  arrived  in  Washington  the  young  Irish  poet, 
Thomas  Moore,  who  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  same  ship  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Merry.  To  him,  also,  the  affronted  Briton  related 
his  sorrows,  and  even  exhibited  the  president  clad  in  the  same 
.  Mr.  Merry  presented  Mr.  Moore  to  the  president  at  the 
"\Yliit"  House.  "I  found  him,"  the  poet  records,  "sitting  with  < 
eral  iVarborn,  and  one  or  two  other  officers,  and  in  the  same  homely 
[fine,  comprising  slippers  and  Connemara  stockings,  in  which 
Mr.  M.-rry  had  heen  received  by  him,  much  to  that  formal  minister's 
horror,  when  waiting  on  him  in  full  dress  to  deliver  his  credentials. 
My  .-ingle  interview  with  this  remarkable  person  was  of  very  sh«.rt 
duration  ;  but  to  have  seen  and  spoken  to  the  man  who  drew  up  the 
iVrlaration  of  Independence  was  an  event  not  to  be  forgotten." 
The  port  did  not  approve  of  the  president,  and  said  so  in  several 
satirical  stanzas  and  poems  in  his  next  publication  j  at  which  Mr. 


JEFFEESON  PRESIDENT.  621 

Jefferson  was  amused  and  even  surprised,  for  he  had  not  hefore  heard 
of  this  new  light  in  literature.  Mr.  Randall  relates  a  pleasing  inci 
dent  to  show  how  little  he  had  come  to  regard  the  stings  and  arrows 
of  outrageous  politics.  A  few  years  after  his  retirement,  a  grand 
daughter  placed  in  his  hands  Moore's  Irish  Melodies,  as  the  book  of 
the  season,  which  was  having  a  great  run  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 
The  young  lady,  curious  and  expectant,  watched  him  as  he  opened 
the  work  and  turned  over  the  leaves.  Said  Jefferson,  "  This  is  the 
little  man  who  satirized  me  so."  Beading  on,  he  was  won  by  the 
flowing  music  and  patriotic  feeling  of  the  verse.  "  Why"  he  said  at 
length,  "  he  is  a  poet  after  all  ;  "  and  ever  after,  even  to  the  end  of 
his  life,  he  was  fond  of  reading  certain  favorites  among  the  poems 
of  Thomas  Moore. 

But  poor  Merry's  troubles  were  not  yet  at  an  end.  He  and  his 
wife  dined  one  day  at  the  White  House  ;  and,  when  dinner  was 
announced,  the  president  offered  his  arm  to  the  lady  nearest  him  at 
the  moment,  Mrs.  Madison  —  not  to  Mrs.  Merry,  who  was  on  the 
other  side  of  the  room  !  Insult  upon  insult !  "  Poor  Merry  "  made 
sucli  an  outcry  at  this  in  Washington,  that  Mr.  Madison  deemed  it 
best  to  explain  the  circumstances  to  Monroe,  the  American  minis 
ter  in  London,  that  he  might  be  prepared  to  meet  Merry's  version. 
Mr.  Merry  did  relate  his  grievances  to  the  English  minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs  ;  who,  however,  -forbore  to  mention  it  to  Monroe. 
If  he  had,  Monroe  was  ready  for  him  ;  for,  besides  being  fully  alive 
to  the  humor  of  the  affair,  he  had  seen,  a  few  weeks  before,  in  an 
official  London  drawing-room,  the  wife  of  an  under-secretary  of 
state  accorded  precedence  over  his  own.  Mrs.  Merry  went  no  more 
to  the  White  House,  and  her  husband  only  went  when  official  duty 
compelled.  But  nothing- could  tire  the  placable  good-nature  of 
Jefferson.  Some  time  after,  desirous  to  restore  social  intercourse, 
he  caused  Mr  Merry  to  be  informally  asked  whether  he  and  his 
wife  would  accept  an  invitation  to  a  family  dinner  at  the  president's 
house  ;  and  receiving,  as  he  understood,  an  affirmative  intimation, 
Mr.  Jefferson  sent  the  invitation,  written  with  his  own  hand. 
Merry  rose  to  his  opportunity.  He  wrote  to  the  secretary  of 
state,  asking  whether  the  president  of  the  United  States  had 
invited  him  as  a  private  gentleman  or  as  British  plenipotentiary; 
for,  if  as  a  private  gentleman,  he  must  obtain  the  king's  permission 
before  he  could  accept  j  if  in  his  official  character,  he  must  have  an 


022  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

nice  that  ho  would  be  treated  with  the  respect  due  to  it. 
Madison,  with  short  civility,  waived  the  solution  of  this  problem, 
and  the  matter  dropped.  But  it  was  not  till  1809  that  British  inter- 
\  ,-nerica  were  confided  to  abler  hands. 

S  -me  other  points  of  public  etiquette  were  now  settled  on  rational 
principles  once  and  forever.  The  fussy  incompetents  recently  in 
power  had  been  concerned  to  know  the  relation  which  the  president 
sustained  to  the  governors  of  States, — precisely  how  much  more 
exalte.d  a  president  was  than  a  governor,  the  exact  degree  of  defer 
ence  a  governor  should  show  a  president,  and  the  forms  in  which 
def« -rence,  should  be  expressed.  In  July,  1801,  the  governor  of 
Virginia  asked  the  president  to  indicate  the  etiquette  which  he 
thought  should  regulate  the  communications  between  the  State  gov 
ernments  and  the  general  government.  His  reply  in  substance  was: 
Let  there  be  no  special  etiquette.  Between  president  and  governor, 
each  being  the  supreme  head  of  an  independent  government,  no 
difference  of  rank  can  be  admitted.  They  are  equals.  Let  us  con 
tinue  then,  as  in  General  Washington's  time,  to  write  freely,  just 
as  public,  business  requires,  and  with  no  more  ceremon}'  than  obvious 
propriety  and  convenience  dictate.  "  If  it  be  possible,"  he  said,  "  to 
b.'  eertaiuly  conscious  of  any  thing,  I  am  conscious  of  feeling  no 
difference  between  writing  to  the  highest  and  lowest  being  on 
earth." 

The  two  miles  of  tenacious  yellow  mud  that  lay  "straight  as  a 
pun-barn-l"  between  the  White  House  and  the  Capitol  assisted  to 
icile  all  but  the  extreme  Federalists  to  a  change  in  the  mode 
of  intercourse,  between  the  president  and  Congress.  Hitherto  the 
lent  had  opened  Congress  by  a  speech,  framed  on  the  model 
of  a  king  of  England's  speech,  and  delivered- it  to  both  Houses  assem 
bled  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  He  had  been  wont  to  ride  to  and  from 
the  Capitol  in  a  coach  and  six,  which  was  followed  by  coaches  and 
four  hearing  members  of  the  government  and  others,  the  whole  form 
ing  a  considerable  procession.  When  the  president  had  retired,  the 
Houses  separated,  and  each  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  an 
address  in  reply.  Of  late  years  the>e  addresses  had  furnished  the 
pretext  for  l"n_:  and  impassioned  debates  on  party  politics,  lasting 
on.-.  t\v..,  and  ev.-n  three  weeks,  the  minority  always  striving  to 
reduce  the  eulogy  of  the  address  to  the  minimum.  When,  after  this 
desperate  struggle,  an  address  had  been  agreed  upon,  the  House 


JEFFERSON   PRESIDENT.  623 

voting  it  rode  in  such  state  as  members  could  command  to  the  abode 
of  the  president,  and  stood  around  him  in  a  solemn  semicircle,  while 
one  of  their  number  read  to  him  what  he  had  already  read  fifty  times 
for  himself,  besides  fifty  columns  of  debate  upon  it.  Then  the  pres 
ident  read  a  short,  formal  acknowledgment  of  the  address,  after 
which  the  members  returned  to  their  chamber,  and  began  the  busi 
ness  of  the  session. 

Federalist  gentlemen  discovered,  on  the  morning  of  December  8, 
1801,  that  this  fine  opportunity  for  oratorical  display  and  partisan 
recrimination  was  not  to  be  afforded  them.  Scene:  the  Senate 
Chamber;  the  chairman  in  his  revolving  chair;  members  in.  their 
seats.  Enter  a  young  gentleman,  Meriwether  Lewis  perhaps,  pri 
vate  secretary  to  the  president,  bearing  a  mass  of  documents,  and  a 
note  from  the  president  to  the  vice-president:  — 
• 

"  SIR,  —  The  circumstances  under  which  we  find  ourselves  at  this 
place  rendering  inconvenient  the  mode  heretofore  practised,  of 
making  by  personal  address  the  first  communications  between  the 
legislative  and  executive  branches,  I  have  adopted  that  by  message, 
as  used  on  all  subsequent  occasions  through  the  session.  In  doing 
this,  I  have  had  principal  regard  to  the  convenience  of  the  legisla 
ture,  to  the  economy  of  their  time,  to  their  relief  from  the  embarrass 
ment  of  immediate  answers  on  subjects  not  yet  fully  before  them, 
and  to  the  benefits  thence  resulting  to  the  public  affairs.  Trusting 
that  a  procedure  founded  on  these  motives  will  meet  their  approba 
tion,  I  beg  leave  through  you,  sir,  to  communicate  the  enclosed  copy, 
with  the  documents  accompanying  it,  to  the  honorable  the  Seriate, 
and  pray  you  to  accept  for  yourself  and  them  the  homage  of  my 
high  regard  and  consideration." 

Thus  the  present  usage  was  established,  to  the  great  content  of 
all  rational  beings.  He  was  himself  well  pleased  with  the  first 
results  of  the  experiment.  "  Our  winter  campaign,"  he  wrote  to  Dr. 
Rush,  "has  opened  with  more  good-humor  than  I  expected.  By 
sending  a  message,  instead  of  making  a  speech,  at  the  opening  of 
the  session,  I  have  prevented  the  bloody  conflict  to  which  the 
making  an  answer  would  have  committed  them." 

Other  changes  of  this  nature  were  these :  He  discontinued  the 
practice  of  assigning  a  frigate  for  the  conveyance  of  ministers  across 


G24  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  ocean.  He  declined  to  write  official  letters  of  condolence  to  the 
widows  or  families  of  deceased  officers.  He  would  not  have  his 
l)irthd;iv  celebrated  by  the  usual  balls;  and,  to  prevent  this,  refused 
to  1ft  the  date  of  his  birth  be  communicated.  He  would  not  deny 
himself  any  innocent  pleasure,  such  as  attending  the  races  near 
Wellington,  from  any  false  ideas  of  official  dignity.  He  refused  to 
appoint  days  of  fasting  or  thanksgiving,  on  the  ground  that  to  do 
so  would  be  indirectly  to  assume  an  authority  over  religious  exer- 
.  which  the  Constitution  has  expressly  forbidden.  A  recommen 
dation  from  the  chief  magistrate,  he  thought,  would  carry  with  it  so 
much  authority,  that  any  person  or  sect  disregarding  it  would  .suffer 
some  decree  of  odium.  "  Fasting  and  prayer,"  said  he,  "are  ivli- 
gious  exercises;  the  enjoining  them  an  act  of  discipline."  "And 
does  the  change  in  the  nature  of  the  penalty  make  the  recommenda 
tion  less  a  law  of  conduct  for  those  to  whom  it  is  directed?"  He 
declined  to  make  any  thing  resembling  an  official  tour  or  progress, 
or  to  receive  wjiile  travelling  attentions  directed  to  his  office.  To 
seculari/e  and  to  republicanize  the  government  ro/»/y/r/V/y,  remain 
ing  himself  a  plain  American  citizen,  —  these  were  among  the 
objects  which  he  steadily  pursued  and  which  he  accomplished. 

Hi-  was  resolved  not  to  be  a  personage.  He  would  be  Thomas 
Jefferson,  and  nothing  else.  Pleasing  anecdotes  are  those  which 
Mr.  Kandall  relates  in  illustration  of  this  point,  particularly  that 
one  in  which  the  president  figures  as  the  thoughtful  and  affectionate 
grandfather  to  his  namesake,  Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph,  who 
stopped  at  Washington  a  few  days  on  his  way  to  attend  the  scientific 
lectures  at  Philadelphia.  The  president  came  into  his  room  one 
day.  had  him  unpack  his  trunk,  took  pencil  and  paper,  and  made  a 
list  of  things  he  still  lacked,  saying,  "You  will  need  this  and  this  at 
Philadelphia; "  and  then  going  about  among  the  stores  of  Washing 
ton  with  the  lad,  and  buying  the  articles  required;  finishing  the 
performance  by  asking  to  see  his  pocket-book,  and  handing  it  back 
to  him  much  better  furnished  than  when  he  had  taken  it.  That 
story,  too,  of  th-  president  carrying  the  rough  Kentuckiun  over  a 
river  on  his  horse  is  interesting.  This  Kcntuckian,  sitting  solitary 
on  the  bank  of  a  >\\ollen  >?ivam,  let  the  gay  young  men  of  the  pres 
ident's  party  all  pass  on  and  flounder  across  the  river,  without 
making  known  his  desire.  Last  of  all  rode  the  president.  Him 
the  rough  wayfarer  aoMre.-»ed,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  took  him  up  behind 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  625 

without  ado.  Being  asked  why  he  selected  that  particular  individ 
ual  of  the  party,  the  Kentuckian  replied,  "  I  reckon  a  man  carries 
Yes  or  No  in  his  face.  The  young  chaps'  faces  said,  No ;  the  old 
man's  said,  Yes."  And  one  day,  in  his  daily  ride  near  Washington, 
the  president  fell  into  conversation  with  a  stranger.  Politics 
becoming  a  topic,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing,  not  only  his  meas 
ures  roundly  denounced,  but  his  character  most  indecently  reviled. 
"  Do  you  know  Mr.  Jefferson  personally  ?  "  he  asked.  "  No,  nor  do 
I  want  to."  "  But  is  it  fair  play  to  believe  and  repeat  such  stories, 
and  then  not  dare  to  meet  the  subject  of  them  face  to  face,  and  trust 
to  your  own  senses?"  "I  will  never  shrink  from  meeting  Mr. 
Jefferson  if  he  comes  in  my  way."  "  Will  you  go  to  his  house  to 
morrow,  and  be  introduced  to  him,  if  I  will  meet  you  there?"  He 
consented,  and  Jefferson  galloped  on.  Instantly  it  occurred  to  the 
traveller,  that  it  was  the  president  himself  with  whom  he  had  been 
conversing.  But  he  kept  his  appointment,  appearing  at  the  hour, 
attired  in  his  best.  "I  have  called,  Mr.  Jefferson,"  said  he,  "to 
apologize  for  having  said  to  a  stranger "  —  Here  the  president, 
laughing,  broke  in  and  finished  the  sentence  —  "  hard  things  of  an 
imaginary  personage  who  is  no  relation  of  mine."  The  stranger 
tried  to  get  in  his  apology ;  but  the  president  laughed  it  down, 
insisted  on  his  staying  to  dinner,  and  made  a  friend  of  him  and  all 
his  family. 

He  declined  to  receive  presents  while  in  office. 

But  he  made  one  exception.  In  1806  he  received  a  present  of  a 
bust  of  the  new  Emperor  of  Russia,  Alexander,  with  whom  he  had 
much  friendly  intercourse  during  his  second  term.  He  thus 
acknowledged  the  receipt  of  this  work  :  "  I  had  laid  down  as  a  law 
for  my  conduct  while  in  office,  and  hitherto  scrupulously  observed, 
to  accept  of  no  present  beyond  a  book,  a  pamphlet,  or  other  curiosity 
of  minor  value ;  as  well,  to  avoid  imputation  on  my  motives  of  action, 
as  to  shut  out  a  practice  susceptible  of  such  abuse.  But  my  partic 
ular  esteem  for  the  character  of  the  Emperor  places  his  image,  in 
my  mind,  above  the  scope  of  law.  I  receive  it,  therefore,  and  shall 
cherish  it  with  affection.  It  nourishes  the  contemplation  of  all  the 
good  placed  in  his  power,  and  of  his  disposition  to  do  it." 

An  instance  of  his  scrupulousness  with  regard  to  deriving  per 
sonal  advantage  from  his  office  has  only  lately  come  to  light.  A 
private  letter  of  his  to  General  Muhlenberg,  collector  at  Philadel- 
40 


6:20  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

phia,  concerning  a  purchase  of  wine,  was  found,  a  few  years  ago,  by 
remlant  of  that  officer,  and  sent  to  Mr.  Greeley'for  publication. 
If  I  were  a  collector,  I  would  have  it  printed,  framed,  and  hung  up 
in  my  custom-house.     It  is  dated  February  6,  1803 :  — 

"!)EAII  SIR, — Mons.  d'Ymjo,  the  Spanish  minister  here,  has  been 
so  kind  as  to  spare  me  two  hundred  bottles  of  Champagne,  part  of 
a  larger  parcel  imported  for  his  own  use,  and  consequently  privi 
leged  from  duty;  but  it  would  be  improper  for  me  to  take  the 
benefit  of  that.  I  must  therefore  ask  the  favor  of  you  to  take  the 
proper  measures  for  paying  the  duty  ;  for  which  purpose  I  enclose 
you  a  bank-check  for  twenty-two  and  a  half  dollars,  the  amount  of 
it.  If  it  could  be  done  without  mentioning  my  name,  it  would  avoid 
ill-intended  observations,  as  in  some  such  way  as  this,  <  By  duty 
paid  on  a  part  of  such  a  parcel  of  wines  not  entitled  to  privilege,7 
or  in  any  other  way  you  please.  The  wine  was  imported  into  Phila 
delphia  probably  about  midsummer  last.  Accept  assurances  of  my 
gmit  esteem  and  respect. 

"In.  JEFFERSON. 

'    (  i  r.XEKAL   MUHLENBERG." 

It  would  be  absurd  to  praise  such  an  act  as  this,  because  it  was 
simply  right.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  within  the  choice  of  any  public 
officer,  of  any  grade  whatever,  to  do  otherwise.  It  will  doubtless, 
befoiv  many  years  have  passed,  be  an  impeachable  offence  for  any 
man  holding  a  public  office  to  accept  so  much  as  a  free  ride  on  a 
h"i-M-i-ar.  This  is  a  point  that  comes  home  to  the  suffering  sons  of 
Manhattan,  who  remember  that  a  system  of  plunder  which  reached 
an  average  of  ten  millions  a  year  began  in  aldermen  pocketing  bun 
dles  of  rigars  and  quires  of  note-paper  in  the  old  corporation  "tea 
room." 

He  used  the  prestige  and  the  opportunities  of  his  office  for  the 
public  advantage. 

His  introduction  of  better  breeds  of  domestic  animal.-  into  Vir 
ginia  is  a  case  in  point.  With  the  aid  of  Mr.  Livingston,  minister 
at  Paris,  alter  a  long  course  of  manoeuvring  and  trouble,  he  man- 
to  j^et  six  merino  sheep  as  far  on  their  way  to  Albemarle  as 
Predericksburg,  half  for  himself,  half  for  Madison,  and  all  for  Vir 
ginia;  and  wrote  to  his  manager  to  go  with  Mr.  Madison's  head 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  627 

man  to  get  them  home.  The  two  managers,  when  they  caught 
sight  of  these  animals,  so  renowned  at  the  time  throughout  the 
country,  were  wofully  disappointed.  "  The  sheep  were  little  bits 
of  tilings," reports  Mr.  Bacon;  "and  Graces  said  he  would  not  give 
his  riding-whip  for  the  whole  lot."  Their  instructions  were  to 
divide  them  by  tossing  up  for  the  first  choice.  "  So,"  says  Mr. 
Bacon,  "  I  put  my  hand  into  my  pocket,  and  drew  out  a  dollar,  and 
said,  'Head  or  tail  ?'  I  got  the  best  buck.  He  was  a  little  fellow, 
but  his  wool  was  as  fine  almost  as  cotton.  When  I  got  home,  I  put 
a  notice  in  the  paper  at  Charlottesville,  that  persons  who  wished  to 
improve  their  stock  could  send  us  two  ewes,  and  we  would  keep  them 
until  the  lambs  were  old  enough  to  wean,  and  then  give  the  owners 
the  choice  of  the  lambs,  and  they  leave  the  other  lamb  and  both  of 
the  ewes.  We  got  the  greatest  lot  of  sheep,  more  than  we  wanted,  — 
two  or  three  hundred,  I  think  ;  and  in  a  few  years  we  had  an 
immense  flock.  People  came  long  distances  to  buy  our  full-blooded 
sheep.  At  first  we  sold  them  for  fifty  dollars,  but  they  soon  fell  to 
thirty  and  twenty ;  and,  before  I  left  Mr.  Jefferson,  merino  sheep 
were  so  numerous,  that  they  sold  about  as  cheap  as  common  ones." 

Next  he  imported  some  of  the  broad-tailed  sheep  from  Barbary, 
which  made  splendid  mutton,  but  would  riot  thrive  in  Virginia.  He 
introduced  also  a  superior  kind  of  Guinea  pigs.  Himself,  Mr.  Madi 
son,  and  General  Dearborn  joined  in  importing  six  hogs  of  a  kind 
which  Mr.  Bacon  tells  us  were  called  Calcutta  hogs ;  black  and 
white,  short-legged,  long-bodied,  easily  kept,  and  not  given  to  root 
ing,  —  a  very  great  success  in  every  respect.  "  Mr.  Jefferson," 
remarks  Mr.  Bacon,  "didn't  care  about  making  money  from  his 
imported  stock.  His  great  object  was  to  get  it  widely  scattered 
over  the  country,  and  he  left  all  these  arrangements  to  me.  I  told 
the  people  to  bring  three  sows,  and  when  they  came  for  them  they 
might  take  two  and  leave  one.  In  this  way  he  soon  got  a  large 
number  of  hogs,  and  the  stock  was  scattered  over  that  whole 
country." 

His  neighbors  derived  benefit  even  from  his  salary,  which,  to  the 
imagination  of  primitive  Virginia,  seemed  inexhaustible.  A  larger 
mill  was  among  the  urgent  wants  of  the  neighborhood,  Mr.  Bacon 
relates;  and  the  people  thought,  that,  "as  Mr.  Jefferson  had  a  large 
salary,  he  was  better  able  to  build  it  than  anybody  else."  He  under 
took  the  work,  since  "he  was  .always  anxious  to  benefit  the  com- 


628  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

munity  as  much  as  possible ; "  and  Mr.  Bacon,  assisted  by  an 
engineer  from  the  North,  superintended  the  construction.  In  his 
homelv,  excellent  way,  the  manager  relates  the  hopeful  rise  of  the 
structure,  "built  of  rock>"  four  stories  high,  with  "four  run  of 
stone,"  and  a  dam  and  race  that  cost  a  thousand  dollars  ;  and  he 
tells  us  what  minute  directions  Mr.  Jefferson  kept  sending  from 
\Yashington  about  it,  and  how  he  preferred  it  to  all  the  works  in 
impress  on  his  estate.  The  mill  complete,  grain  came  in,  in  sur- 
pri>ing  quantities,  until  eleven  thousand  bushels  were  stored,  await 
ing  their  turn  to  be  ground.  Coopers,  millers,  and  teamsters  were 
all  in  full  activity;  when,  alas!  in  the  midst  of  a  great  freshet,  Mr. 
Bacon  saw  the  dam  swept  away  by  the  torrent  of  waters.  "  I 
thought  we  were  ruined,",  he  says :  "I  never  felt  worse.  I  did  not 
know  what  we  should  do."  Mr.  Jefferson  being  at  home  at  the 
time,  P.acon  hurried  off  to  the  mountain-top  to  convey  to  him  the 
dreadful  news.  There  he  met  the  lord  of  the  mansion  just  from  the 
breakfast-table,  calm  as  a  May  morning.  He  asked,  "Have  you 
lu-ard  from  the  river?"  "Yes,  sir,"  replied  the  doleful  manager:  "  I 
have  just  come  from  there  with  very  bad  news.  The  mill-dam  is 
all  swept  away."  "  Well,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Jefferson,  with  perfect  seren 
ity  of  manner,  "  we  can't  make  a  new  dam  this  summer;  but  we  will 
get  Lewis's  ferry-boat,  with  our  own,  and  get  the  hands  from  all 
the  (jiiarters,  and  boat  in  rock  enough  in  place  of  the  dam  to  answer 
for  the  present;  and,  next  summer,  I  will  send  to  Baltimore  and 
get  ship-bolts,  and  make  a  dam  that  the  freshet  can't  wash  away." 
Which  was  done.  "You  never  saw  his  countenance  ruffled,"  Mr. 
Bacon  observes.  "No  odds  what  happened,  it  always  maintained 
the  same  expression." 

How  eagerly  he  availed  himself  of  his  opportunities  for  increasing 
the  sum  of  knowledge,  his  letters  exhibit ;  and  the  fact  is  part  of  the 
history  of  that  age.  It  was  his  thought  that  sent  Meriwether  Lewis 
and  William  Clarke  up  the  Missouri  to  its  sources  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  across  those  mountains  to  the  Columbia  River,  and 
down  tlhe  Columbia  until  huge  waves  rolling  in  from  the  ocean  and 
tossing  high  their  light  canoes  notified  them  that  they  had  reached 
the  Pacific.  Counting  from  the  time  when  Captain  John  Smith 
sailed  up  the  Chickahominy  in  search  of  the  South  Sea,  the  world 
had  waited  two  hundred  years  for  this  exploration.  Never  was  a 
piece  of  work  of  that  kind  better  done  or  better  chronicled ;  for  it 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  629 

was  Jefferson  who  selected  the  two  heroes  that  conducted  it.  Cap 
tain  Lewis  was  the  son  of  one  of  his  most  valued  Albemarle  neigh 
bors.  Lieutenant  Clarke  was  the  brother  of  that  General  George 
Rogers  Clarke  who  held  back  the  Indians  from  joining  in  the  war 
of  the  Revolution ;  and  both  of  them  were  such  masters  of  all  fron 
tier  arts,  that  the  perilous  expedition  of  two  years,  four  months,  and 
ten  days,  was  one  joyous  holiday-excursion  to  them.  Returning  to 
St.  Louis  laden  with  spoils  and  trophies,  Captain  Lewis,  besides 
his  journals  and  other  official  results,  sends  off  exultingly  to  the 
president  "sixty-seven  specimens  of  earths,  salts,  and  minerals,  and 
sixty  specimens  of  plants."  It  was  Jefferson,  too,  who  set  on  foot 
the  two  exploring  expeditions  of  Lieutenant  Zebulon  Montgomery 
Pike,  whose  name  lives  in  that  of  the  peak  which  he  discovered,  and 
and  in  those  of  ten  counties  of  the  United  States.  Pike  was  the 
first  American  who  explored  the  Upper  Mississippi  beyond  the  Falls 
of  St.  Anthony ;  noting  the  sites  of  the  cities  now  rising  011  its 
banks,  and  shaking  hands  on  the  way  with  "Monsieur  Dubuque," 
who  was  working  the  lead-mines,  and  lording  it  over  a  wide  domain. 
Lieutenant  Pike  was  the  first  American  to  explore  the  valley  of 
the  Arkansas.  He  said  truly,  in  one  of  his  letters,  that  the  regions 
which  he  had  traversed  were  little  more  known  to  the  world  than 
the  wilds  in  the  interior  of  Africa.  In  seventy  years  we  behold 
them  populous,  and  more  familiar  to  our  knowledge  than  the  next 
county. 

It  was  Jefferson  who  encouraged  Astor  to  attempt  his  scheme  of 
North-western  trade,  —  a  scheme  which  was  as  feasible  as  it  was 
audacious,  and  which  only  the  war  of  1812  frustrated.  It  is  inter 
esting  to  observe,  in  view  of  the  present  importance  of  the  Western 
silver-mines,  that,  in  1808,  the  secret  of  their  existence,  "  seventeen 
hundred  miles  from  St.  Louis,"  was  confided  to  the  president,  who, 
however,  considering  the  menacing<  attitude  of  Spain,  could  only 
give  verbal  encouragement  to  the  exploration  sought.  He  jocularly 
writes  to  Gallatin :  "  I  enclose  for  your  information  the  account  of  a 
silver-mine  to  fill  your  treasury."  As  for  the  bones  of  the  mam 
moth,  he  had  enough  of  them  at  last,  and  kept  the  Philosophical 
Society,  of  which  he  was  still  the  president,  abundantly  supplied 
with  objects  of  curiosity  and  investigation.  And  was  there  ever 
such  an  indefatigable  recorder?  Among  his  papers  is  a  leaf  thus 
entitled :  "  Statement  of  the  vegetable  market  of  Washington  during 


630  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

a  jx-riod  of  eight  years,  wherein  the  earliest  and  latest  appearance  of 
each  article  within  the  whole  eight  years  is  noted."  One  small  page 
suffices,  hut  it  is  complete:  the  list  embraces  thirty-seven  articles. 
He  could  tell  at  a  glance  that  the  earliest  appearance  of  "  sprouts  " 
was  "ii  the  22d  of  February,  and  the  latest,  May  20;  and  that  the 
extremes  of  the  strawberry  season  were  May  8  and  July  9.  He 
refutes  Dickcns's  satire  of  red-tape.  In  a  minute  or  two  he  could 
put  his  hand  upon  any  letter  or  document,  any  entry  or  memoran 
dum,  of  the  tens  of  thousands  which  he  possessed;  and  of  all  this 
myriad  mass  of  details  he  was  the  master,  not  the  slave. 

He  preserved  perfect  harmony  in  his  cabinet  during  the  whole  of 
both  terms. 

One  reason  was  this  :  there  was  not  an  egotist  among  them.  The 
pugnacious  traits,  such  as  vanity,  jealousy,  personal  ambition,  and 
the  other  commonplace  forms  of  self-love,  were  extinguished,  or,  at 
least,  subordinated  in  them  all.  "  Our  administration,"  wrote  Jef- 
>n  once,  "  now  drawing  to  a  close,  I  have  a  sublime  pleasure  in 
believing  will  be  distinguished  as  much  by  having  placed  itself 
above  all  the  passions  which  could  disturb  its  harmony  as  by  the 
great  operations  by  which  it  will  have  advanced  the  well-being  of 
the  nation."  All  of  them  were  modernized  persons.  The  masters 
of  the  past  were,  of  necessity,  soldiers  and  men  of  the  soldierly 
spirit.  The  masters  of  our  modern  world  are  educated  men  of  busi 
ness.  Tlie<e  five  gentlemen,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Gallatin,  Dear 
born,  and  Roberjb  Smith,  were  all  of  this  description ;  for  Dearborn 
was  only  a  soldier  while  his  country  was  invaded;  just  as  the  most 
pea,  ct'iil  citizen  becomes  warlike  when  attacked  by  a  ruffian.  The 
military  type  of  man,  valuable  as  it  was  and  is,  was  not  represented 
in  the  cabinet  at  all.  It  is  also  true,  that  the  Jeffersonian  theory  of 
government  is  precisely  the  one  that  tasks  the  intellect  and  stirs  the 
passions  least,  Keeause  it  excludes  even  from  consideration  seven- 
tenths  of  the  questions  which  usually  most  perplex  governments,  its 
chief  object  being  to  protect  rights,  not  interests.  Interests  are 
complex  ;  rights  are  simple.  The  tariff  question  is  a  puzzler  if  you 
view  it  as  affecting  existing  interests;  but  if  you  put  the  ca<e  thus: 
Has  an  American  citi/en  a  /•//////  to  buy  a  pair  of  Sunday  t nuiscrs, 
London  made,  for  four  dollars,  instead  of  paying  twenty-two  for 
the  1'roadway  article?  —  the  case  is  within  Unite  comprehension. 
Kalph  Waldo  Emerson  and  John  G.  Whittier  go  to  Wellington 


JEFFERSON  PEESIDENT.  631 

demanding  to  be  protected,  at  home  and  abroad,  in  their  rifjht  to 
the  product  of  their  lifetime's  arduous  and  noble  toil.  Pirate  pub 
lisher  meets  them  there  with  the  thieves'  natural  plea :  Stolen  books 
are  cheaper  than  books  honestly  paid  for.  Republican  government 
waives  all  that  complicated  nonsense  out  of  hearing,  and  considers 
but  two  points,  both  easy:  1,  Does  the  Constitution  give  us  juris 
diction  ?  2,  Is  the  demand  of  these  ornaments  of  their  country 
just  ?  How  adapted  to  human  capacity  such  questions !  A  way 
faring  man,  unless  a  book-peddler,  need  not  err  therein. 

But  there  never  was  a  time  when  the  politics  of  the  world  were 
so  difficult  as  then.  "Every  country  but  one,"  as  Jefferson  said, 
"  demolished ;  a  conqueror  roaming  over  the  earth  with  havoc  and 
destruction,  a  pirate  spreading  misery  and  ruin  over  the  face  of  the 
ocean.  Indeed,  my  friend,  ours  is  a  bed  of  roses.  And  the  system 
of  government  which  shall  keep  us  afloat  amidst  this  wreck  of  the 
world  will  be  immortalized  in  history."  It  was  a  bed  of  roses, 
because  the  simple  aim  of  the  republican  administration  was  to 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  this  prodigious  and  astounding 
broil,  except  to  sell  refreshing  provisions  to  both  combatants,  and 
pick  up  any  thing  in  the  way  of  a  Louisiana  or  so  that  might  get 
loose  in  the  contest. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  the  Arnold  who  makes  the  Rugby ;  it  is  the 
Fellenberg  who  renders  possible  the  "  self-governing  college/'  so 
pleasingly  revealed  to  us  by  Mr.  Robert  Dale  Owen ;  and  it  was  the 
large,  benign,  commanding  intelligence  of  the  chief  whic^h  alone 
could  have  united  and  exalted  a  group  of  men  to  the  height  main 
tained  by  this  peerless  administration.  Washington,  Adams,  and 
Madison,  all  had  dissension  in  their  cabinets.  Jefferson , alone  had 
none.  He  gave  them  his  confidence  without  reserve.  "If  I  had 
the  universe  to  choose  from,"  he  said  to  them  all  in  1801,  "  I  could 
not  change  one  of  my  associates  to  my  better  satisfaction ; "  arid  in 
1809,  he  said  the  same,  with  only  a  change  of  tense.  Nor  did  any 
thing  like  a  serious  difference  of  opinion  ever  arise  among  them. 
"  All  matters  of  importance  or  difficulty,"  he  once  wrote,  "  are  sub 
mitted  to  all  the  heads  of  departments  composing  the  cabinet,  some 
times  by  the  president  consulting  them  separately  and  successively, 
as  they  happen  to  call  upon  him ;  but,  in  the  greatest  cases,  by  call 
ing  them  together,  discussing  the  subject  maturely,  and  finally  tak 
ing  the  vote,  in  which  the  president  counts  himself  but  as  one.  So 


632  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

that,  in  all  important  cases,  the  executive  is  in  fact  a  Directory, 
which  certainly  the  president  might  control;  but  of  this  there 
•  \v;is  an  example,  either  in  the  first  or  the  present  administra 
tion." 

In  his  use  of  the  pardoning  power,  he  was  governed  by  principles 
that  rendered  that  absurd  relic  of  Divine  Eight  comparatively  harm 
less. 

These  principles  are  two  in  number.  In  a  letter  to  Edmund 
Randolph,  of  1808,  he  stated  them  both  :  1.  To  entitle  a  criminal  to 
the  remission  of  a  penalty,  "  extraordinary  and  singular  considera- 
tions  are  necessary;"  otherwise,  the  pardon  of  the  criminal  would 
be  "  to  repeal  the  law"  that  condemned  him.  2.  <;  The  opinion  of 
the  judges  who  sat  in  the  cause  I  have  ever  required  as  indispensa 
ble-  to  Around  a  pardon." 

He  submitted  to  the  outrages  of  the  press. 

\V-  are  now  too  familiar  with  this  policy  to  appreciate  either  its 
novelty  or  its  difficulty  in  the  early  years  of  the  present  century. 
Jefferson  both  believed  and  proved  that  a  public  man,  fit  for  his 
place  and  doing  his  duty,  cannot  be  injured  by  a  hostile  press. 
This  truth  we  now  all  know,  and  have  seen  it  tested  many  .times; 
but  in  1801  it  was  a  discovery.  Nor  was  there  then  in  Christendom 
out-  government  besides  that  of  the  United  States  strong  and  able 
enough  to  permit  freedom  of  the  press.  Bonaparte's,  of  course,  was 
not.  Pitt's  was  not.  Nor  was  there  a  government  in  all  Europe 
win-re  the  idea  of  a  free  press  could  be  entertained.  And  what 
made  Jeffejwon'l  triumph  the  more  remarkable  was,  that  the  Feder 
alists  were  the  "vocal  class."  It  was  they  who  tilled  most  pulpits, 
wrote  most  books,  edited  most  papers,  presided  in  most  courts, 
j»l«'ad«-d  most  causes,  and  taught  in  most  colleges.  They  were 
denominated  the  educated  class.  Education,  at  that  day,  did  not 
inran  tin'  acquisition  of  knowledge,  but  of  scholarship  ;  which,  while 
it  cultivates  the  communicating  talents,  may  leave  the  prejudices 
intact,  ami  is  compatible  with  the  last  degree  of  mental  servility 
and  narrowness.  A  man  may  become  a  genuine  scholar  and  remain 
a  Jesuit.  The  Federal  i-t  leaders,  too,  were  exasperated  beyond 
mortal  endurance.  Their  sell-love  was  torn  all  to  pieces.  They 
La<l  predicted  their  own  speedy  return  to  power:  they  saw  their 
minority  dwindling  at  every  election.  They  foretold  anarchy:  they 
saw  universal  order  and  general  content.  They  had  prophesied 


JEFFERSON  PRESIDENT.  633 

financial  chaos:  they  saw  every  obligation  of  the  governmen  met, 
its  debt  steadily  diminished,  its  credit  perfect,  its  only  embarrass 
ment  a  surplus.  They  had  expected  a  suppression  of  the  navy : 
they  now  saw,  for  the  first  time,  the  navy  put  to  its  legitimate  use 
in  terminating  the  piracies  of  the  Algerines.  They  had  dreaded  an 
expulsion  from  office  of  all  their  adherents:  they  saw  the  right  of 
opinion  respected,  and  no  man  disturbed  in  his  place,  except  for  a 
reason  that  did  not  include  his  political  creed.  They  had  predicted 
a  reign  of  loafers  and  scallawags  :  they  saw  the  great  offices  filled 
with  men  who  were  both  refined  by  scholarship  and  enlarged  by 
knowledge.  They  had  foretold  a  base  subserviency  to  France  :  they 
saw  the  president  win  from  France  the  most  valuable  acquisition 
that  one  country  ever  gained  from  another  since  the  creation,  and 
this  without  bloodshed.  They  had  predicted  insult  and  rash  hostil 
ity  to  Great  Britain  :  they  saw"  the  moment  come  when,  with  uni 
versal  acclamation,  Jefferson  could  have  had  a  war  with  England, 
and  yet  he  held  back  the  conflict  for  another  four  years,  every 
month  of  which  made  that  conflict  less  unequal. 

It  is  not  in  mortals  to  behold  with  equanimity  such  brilliant  and 
triumphant  wisdom  in  the  career  of  a  person  against  whom  they 
are  publicly  committed.  The  leading  Federalists  seem  to  have  been 
equally  puzzled  and  indignant.  C.  C.  Pinckney  could  only  attrib 
ute  the  strengthening  hold  Jefferson  had  of  the  public  confidence 
to  "  tjbe  infatuation  of  the  people."  John  Quincy  Adams  thought 
that  Jefferson's  success  was  owing  to  an  unaccountable  run  of  good 
luck.  "  Fortune,"  said  he,  "  has  taken  a  pleasure  in  making  Jeffer 
son's  greatest  weaknesses  and  follies  issue  more  successfully  than  if 
he  had  been  inspired  with  the  profoundest  wisdom."  (This  in  1804. 
Before  Mr.  Jefferson  went  out  of  office  Adams  was  a  Republican.) 
Gouverneur  Morris,  the  jovial  and  witty  aristocrat,  set  it  down, 
Froude-fashion,  to  the  natural  baseness  of  merchants  and  traders. 
It  was  a  favorite  fiction  of  the  class  of  Tories  represented  by  Morris, 
that  the  counting-room  is  the  centre  and  resort  of  all  that  is  sordid 
and  contemptible.  But  Morris  did  not  despair  of  the  republic. 
"  When  the  people,"  said  he,  "  have  been  long  enough  drunk,  they 
will  get  sober ;  but  while  the  frolic  lasts,  to  reason  with  them  is 
useless.  Their  present  leaders  take  advantage  of  their  besotted 
condition,  and  tie  their  hands  and  feet ;  but  if  this  prevents  them 
from  running  into  the  fire,  why  should  we,  who  are  their  friends, 


G34  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

complain  ?"  Fisher  Ames  thought  it  was  all  a  piece  of  impudent, 
reckless  imposture,  which  just  happened  to  succeed.  "Never 
before,"  wrote  he,  "  was  it  attempted  to  play  the  fool  on  so  great  a 
scale."  Hamilton  solved  the  enigma  with  the  utmost  ease,  in  his 
old  manner;  his  central,  immutable  principle  being  this,  Man  is 
an  ass.  In  his  usual  high-stepping  style,  he  remarks,  "  Mankind 
are  forever  destined  to  be  the  dupes  of  bold  and  cunning  imposture." 
Old  John  Adams,  "  nursing  his  wrath  to  keep  it  warm,"  fulminated 
comparative  histor}r,  but  thought  the  people  would  open  their  eyes 
at  last.  "  If,"  said  he,  "the  talents,  the  policy,  the  address,  the 
power,  the  bigotry  and  tyranny,  of  Archbishop  Laud  and  the  court 
of  Charles  the  First  were  not  able  to  destroy  or  discredit  sound 
principles  in  1G30  or  1635,  there  is  little  cause  of  apprehension  for 
them  from  the  feeble  efforts  of  the  frivolous  libertines  who  are 
combining,  conspiring,  and  intriguing  against  them  in  1802." 

How  instructive  is  all  this  !  How  eloquent  it  is  against  intrust 
ing  the  rights  of  a  nation  to  the  custody  of  a  class  ! 

If  the  uppermost  men  of  the  opposition  wrote  thus  in  their  confi 
dential  correspondence,  we  can  imagine  the  tone  and  style  of  the 
party  press.  The  falsehoods  which  had  been  accumulating  for 
three  presidential  elections,  with  the  new  atrocities  of  Callender 
ami  others,  formed  a  mass  of  calumny  from  which  the  mildest  and 
the  fiercest  county  editor  could  draw  every  week  the  slanders  most 
congenial  to  his  disposition.  They  did  so.  The  State  courts  gave 
members  of  the  administration  a  fair  means  of  redress,  and  some  of 
them  appear  to  have  thought  of  bringing  suits  for  libel.  Jefferson 
avowed  their  right  to  do  so;  but  said  he,  in  various  forms  of  expres 
sion,  "  Let  us  prove  to  the  world  that  an  administration  which  has 
nothing  to  conceal  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  press."  It  is  the 
means  which  the  press  has  of  giving  publicity  to  events  which 
makes  it  one  of  the  great  powers  of  the  modern  world.  When  it 
utters  fals. -1). >...!.  the  party  injured  is  itself.  "  I  admit,"  he  wrote  to 
an  oLl  friend  in  1808,  "  that  restraining  the  press  to  truth,  as  the 
presi-nt  laws  do,  is  the  only  way  of  making  it  useful.  But  I  have 
thought  it  necessary  first  to  prove  that  it  can  never  be  dangerous.'/ 
Again,  in  his  second  inaugural,  lie  spoke  of  the  importance  to  man 
kind  of  this  experiment  to  ascertain  whether  a  government  that 
did  no  act  which  it  would  be  unwilling  the  whole  world  should 
witness  could  be  written  down.  "  The  experiment  has  been  tried," 


JEFFERSON   PRESIDENT.  635 

aid   he.       "  You   have    witnessed   the    scene ;    our   fellow-citizens 

x>ked  on,  cool  and  collected ;    they   saw   the   latent    source    from 
hich  these  outrages  proceeded ;  they  gathered  around  their  public 

unctionaries ;  and,  when  the  Constitution  called  them  to  the  decis- 

>n  by  suffrage,  they  pronounced  their  verdict,  honorable  to  those 
ho  had  served  them,  and  consolatory  to  the  friend  of  man,  who 
Sieves  he  may  be  trusted  with  the  control  of  his  own  affairs." 
Such  were  some  of  the  preliminary  and  minor  excellences  of  this 

nique  administration.     Of  themselves,  they  would  not  have  car 
ed  it  far.     We  are  familiar  with  the  theological  student  of  tradi- 

on,  who  advertised  for  a  home  in  a  family  where  a  pious  example 

ould    be    considered    an    equivalent    for   his    board.     Of    similar 

>surdity  we  might  accuse  the  head  of  a  nation  who  should  expect 

satisfy  the  people  by  being  a  virtuous,  attentive,  and  rational 

lan.     That,  indeed,  is  highly  desirable;  but  it  was  for  something 
se  that  the  people  assigned  to  Mr.   Jefferson  quarters   in   their 

Vhite  House  at  Washington. 


CHAPTER  LXIII. 

THE    ALGERIXE   PIRACIES. 

How  rapidly  the  face  of  the  world  changes  in  these  modern1 
times  !  As  recently  as  1794,  it  was  a  common  occurrence  for  such 
a  letter  as  the  following  to  be  read  out  in  church  at  seaport  towns, 
like  Boston,  Salem,  Newburyport,  where,  perhaps,  the  writer  had 
been  known  from  his  boyhood,  and  where  his  family  still  lived:  — 

"  I  was  captured  on  the  18th  of  October  by  an  Algerine  corsair, 
and  stripped  of  every  thing.  On  arriving  at  Algiers,  I  was  con 
ducted  to  the  dey's  house;  and  in  the  morning  was  sent  to  the 
slaves'  bagnio,  and  there  received  an  iron  shackle  round  my  leg,  and 
a  chain  of  twenty  pounds,  and  three  loaves  of  coarse  bread  for 
twenty- four  hours,  and  some  water,  and  was  immediately  put  to  hard 
labor.  My  situation  is  so  deplorable,  that  to  mention  but  a  small 
part  of  it  would  require  much  longer  time  than  I  am  allowed."'* 

And  the  great  cost  of  ransoming  a  captured  brother  and  fellow-jj 
citizen  must  have  been  most  discouraging  to  a  congregation 
acquainted  only  with  simple  manners  and  frugal  habits,  —  codiish 
t'<>r  Saturday's  dinner,  baked  beans  on  Sunday,  and  a  best  coat  worn 
for  twenty  years.  Here  is  the  bill  sent  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  plenipo 
tentiary  at  Paris,  in  1786,  for  the  first  American  crews  ever  cap 
tured  by  tin-  Harbary  pirates:  — 

For  3  captains,  $6,000  each     .         .        .    .    •        .         .        $18,000 
2  inati-s,  $4,000  each.         .         .         .         .         .         .  8,000 

2  pumngera,  94,000  eadi .       .       .       .       .       .  8,000 

14  scumcn,  $1,400  each       .        .        .        .        .        .          29,600 

$53,600 
For  custom,  11  percent  .•»....  5,896 


630 


$59,496 
*  History  of  Newburyport,  by  Mrs.  E.  Vale  Smith,  p.  146. 


THE  ALGERINE   PIEACIES.  637 

If  he  was  appalled  at  such  a  demand  (Congress  only  empowered 
lim  to  offer  two  hundred  dollars  a  man),  what  must  have  been  the 
"eeling  of  a  Newburyport  family  in  average  circumstances,  on 
.earning  that  the  release  of  a  father,  husband,  brother,  son, 
depended  on  their  raising  six  thousand  hard  dollars !  Many  a 
lomestead  was  deeply  mortgaged,  and  many  sold,  to  procure  the 
money,  which  sometimes  reached  Algiers  or  Tripoli  only  to  find  the 
)bject  of  compassion  in  a  captive's  grave.  Nor  did  the  price  mate 
rially  decline  during  the  next  ten  years.  In  1794  we  find  super 
cargoes  quoted  at  four  thousand  dollars,  cabin  passengers  at  four 
thousand,  and  cabin-boys  at  fourteen  hundred.  Business,  it  is 
brue,  could  always  be  done  on  more  favorable  terms  if  the  ransom 
was  paid  in  guns,  powder,  sail-cloth,  rope,  fast-sailing  schooners, 
and  naval  stores  generally ;  but  against  this  Jefferson,  from  first 
to  last,  set  his  face,  though  all  the  other  powers  complied.  Two 
Moors  would  sometimes  be  taken  in  exchange  for  one  Christian,  and 
a  single  Turk  was  regarded  as  equivalent  to  half  a  dozen  Christian 
dogs ;  but  it  was  necessary  first  to  catch  your  Turk.  This  traffic  in 
Christians  was  very  profitable.  In  1786  the  number  of  captives  in' 
Algiers  alone  was  officially  reported  to  Mr.  Jefferson  at  twenty-two 
hundred;  and  during  the  early  autumn  of  1793  ten  American  ves 
sels  were  taken  by  the  Barbary  corsairs,  for  the  release  of  the  crews 
of  which  a  collection  was  taken  in  every  church  in  New  England 
on  Thanksgiving  Day  of  that  year.  People  gave  liberally  (one  gen 
tleman  subscribed  four  thousand  dollars,  "enough  to  redeem  a  master 
or  supercargo")  ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  general  ransom  by  Congress, 
in  1796,  that  the  poor  fellows  saw  their  homes  again.  A  million 
dollars  it  cost  the  government  to  buy  that  shameful  peace,  and 
another  million  during  the  four  years  of  Mr.  Adams's  term  to  keep 
the  peace,  a  large  part  of  which  was  paid  to  the  pirates  in  naval 
stores  and  ammunition.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  one  item  in  this 
account  was  officially  described  as  "a  frigate  to  carry  thirty-six 
guns,  for  the  Dey  of  Algiers."  But  it  was- even  so.  The  bill  that 
Congress  paid  for  her  construction,  equipment,  and  navigation  to 
Algiers,  amounted  to  $99,727 ;  and  she  went  crammed  with  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  powder,  lead,  timber,  rope, 
shells,  canvas,  and  other  means  of  piracy.  One  hundred  and 
twenty-two  captives,  however,  came  home  in  that  year,  — 1796,—— 
among  whom  were  ten  who  had  been  in  slavery  for  eleven  years. 


638  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

And  how  can  we  sufficiently  admire  the  impudence  of  those  cor 
sairs  ?  A  man-of-war,  one  would  think,  went  very  far  in  merely 
saluting  their  flag;  but  that  was  only  a  small  part  of  the  infamy. 
The  pirates  returned  the  salute,  and  then  demanded  from  the  man-  ' 
of-war  one  barrel  of  powder  for  every  gun  they  had  fired  !  Every 
power  seems  to  have  conceded"  this,  as  a  matter  of  course,  until  the 
American  consul  in  1798  refused.  The  conversation  that  occurred 
on  this  subject  between  the  Bey  of  Tunis  and  Consul  William 
Eaton  is  a  curiosity  of  negotiation.  The  consul  endeavored,  at 
first,  to  pass  it  over  as  something  too  trifling  for  a  sovereign  prince 
to  regard. 

BEY.  However  trifling  it  may  appear  to  you,  to  me  it  is  impor 
tant.  Fifteen  barrels  of  powder  will  furnish  a  cruiser,  which  may 
capture  a  prize,  and  net  me  a  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

CONSUL.  The  concession  is  so  degrading,  that  our  nation  will 
not  yield  to  it.  Both  honor  and  justice  forbid;  and  we  do  not 
doubt  that  the  world  will  view  the  demand  as  they  will  the  con- 
ion.  » 

BEY.  You  consult  your  honor,  I  my  interest;  but,  if  you  wish  to 
save  your  honor  in  this  instance,  give  me  fifty  barrels  of  powder 
annually,  and  I  will  agree  to  the  alteration. 

CONSUL.  We  shall  not  expend  a  thought  upon  a  proposition 
which  aims  at  making  us  tributary.  We  will  agree  to  pay  for  the 
powder  you  burned  in  the  salute. 

Ur.v  (addressing  his  minister  in  Turkish).  These  people  are 
Cheribeenas  (Persian  merchants).  They  are  so  hard  there  is  no 
dealing  with  them 

In  a  spirit  not  unlike  this,  the  Dey  of  Algiers  said,  in  1793,  tak 
ing  the  tone  of  an  injured  being,  "If  I  make  peace  with  every 
body,  what  shall  I  do  with  my  corsairs?  What  .shall  I  do  with  my 
soldiers  ?  They  would  take  off  my  head  for  want  of  other  prizes, 
not  being  ab'e  to  live  upon  their  miserable  allowance."  In  .1801, 
when  Mr.  Jefferson  came  to  the  presidency,  the  time  had  arrived, 
he  thought,  to  place  the  intercourse  of  the  United  States  and  the 
Burbury  Towers  on  a  different  footing. 

The  practice  of  electing  to  the  presidency  a  man  grown  gray  in  the 


THE   ALGERINE  PIRACIES.  639 

service  of  the  public  had  this  advantage :  An  intelligent  and  patri- 
itic  person,  while  serving  in  subordinate  stations,  acquires  a  great  deal 
if  special  knowledge,  gets  a  particular  insight  into  weak  places  in 
:he  system  of  which  he  is  a  part,  and  perfects  in  his  mind  schemes 
)f  change  or  reform.  He  has  often  said  to  himself,  "  If  /  were 
president,  I  would  recommend  such  a  plan,  or  adopt  such  a  meas- 
are."  Of  all  this  knowledge,  experience,  and  reflection,  the  country 
lerives  the  benefit,  if  the  tried  servant  of  the  State  happens  to  be 
me  of  those  rarely-gifted  men  who  possess  the  strength  to  execute, 
n  the  presence  of  mankind,  what  they  have  meditated  in  seclu 
sion. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  national  part  of  his  public  life,  Jeffer 
son's  attention  had  been,  of  necessity,  drawn  to  this  fell  business 
)f  capturing  Christians  for  ransom.  To  the  reams  of  despatches 
md  reports  which  he  wrote  on  the  subject  as  plenipotentiary  in 
Paris,  he  was  obliged  to  add  annual  quires  as  secretary  of  state  in 
Philadelphia.  Frustration  followed  frustration,  until  at  length, 
when  he  was  no  longer  in  office,  the  government,  in  its  extreme 
lesire  to  procure  the  release  of  men  wearing  out  their  lives  in  bond 
age,  yielded  to  the  pirates'  demands,  and  got  the  captives  home  at 
the  prodigious  cost  of  money  and  dignity  just  named.  But  now  he 
was  president.  The  Federalists  had  availed  themselves  of  the 
;ransient  delusion  of  the  people  in  1797,  with  regard  to  the  inten 
tions  of  the  French  government,  to  create  a  navy ;  which  Jefferson 
immediately  reduced  by  putting  all  but  six  vessels  out  of  commis 
sion.  His  first  important  act  as  president  was  to  despatch  four  of 
the  six,  —  three  frigates  and  a  sloop,  —  to  the  Mediterranean  to 
Dverawe  the  pirates,  and  cruise  in  protection  of  American  commerce. 
Thus  began  the  series  of  events  which  finally  rendered  the  com 
merce  of  the  world  as  safe  from  piracy  in  the  Mediterranean  as  it 
was  in  the  British  Channel.  How  brilliantly  Decatur  and  his 
gallant  comrades  executed  the  intentions  of  the  government,  and 
bow,  at  last,  the  tardy  naval  powers  of  Europe  followed  an  example 
they  ought  to  have  set,  every  one  is  supposed  to  know.  Commo 
dore  Decatur  was  the  Farragut  of  that  generation.  There  was 
something  really  exquisite  in  Jefferson's  turning  the  infant  navy 
of  the  infant  nation  to  a  use  so  legitimate,  but  also  so  unexpected 
and  so  original.  What  in  1785  he  had  urged  the  combined  naval 


G40  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 

powers  to  attempt,  he  was  enabled  to  begin  to  effect  in  1805  by  the 
confidence  of  Congress  and  the  valor  of  a  few  heroes.  There  is 
something  peculiarly  pleasing  in  the  spectacle  of  a  peace-man's 
making  a  successful  fight,  when  that  fight  is  clearly  forced  upon 
him  by  an  essential  difference  in  the  grade  of  civilization  between 
himself  and  his  enemy,  —  the  only  justification  of  a  war  that  will 
stand  modern  tests. 


CHAPTER  LXIV. 

LOUISIANA    PURCHASED. 

THE  acquisition  of  Louisiana  was,  also,  the  completion  of  much 
which  Jefferson  had  meditated  years  before.  He  may  have  heard 
Dr.  Franklin  repeat,  in  1784,  th<f  remark  which  the  acute  old  man 
once  made  to  Mr.  Jay,  "  I  would  rather  agree  with  the  Spaniards 
to  buy  at  a  great  price  the  whole  of  their  right  on  the  Mississippi, 
than  sell  a  drop  of  its  waters.  A  neighbor  might  as  well  ask  me 
to  sell  my  street-door."  Whether  he  heard  it  or  not,  his  public  acts 
and  utterances  show  that  he  agreed  with  Dr.  Franklin.  As  secre 
tary  of  state  in  1790,  when  there  appeared  some  danger  of  Great 
Britain  seizing  New  Orleans,  he  gave  it  as  his  official  opinion  to 
President  Washington,  that,  rather  than  see  Louisiana  and  Florida 
added  to  the  British  Empire,  the  United  States  should  brave  the 
risks  of  joining  actively  in  the  general  war  then  supposed  to  be 
impending.  But  not  less  averse  to  the  French  possessing  it,  he 
warned  them  also,  in  the  same  year,  to  let  it  alone.  The  French 
minister  in  Philadelphia  was  supposed  to  have  indulged  a  dream  of 
planting  a  new  colony  of  his  countrymen  somewhere  within  the 
vast  and  vague  Louisiana  that  was  once  all  their  own.  The  secre- 
taiy  of  state  gave  him  Punch's  advice,  DON'T.  !He  caused  it  to  be 
softly  intimated  to  him  after  his  return  to  France,  through  the 
American  minister  there,  that  such  a  project  could  not  be  advan 
tageous  to  France,  and  would  not  be  pleasing  to  the  United  States. 
France,  he  owned,  might  sell  a  few  more  yards  of  cloth  and  silk  in 
that  country ;  but,  said  he,  the  Count  de  Moustier  did  not  take  into 
consideration  "what  it  would  cost  France  to  nurse  and  protect  a 
colony  there  till  it  should  be  able  to  join  its  neighbors,  or  to  stand  by 
itself,  and  then  what  it  would  cost  her  to  get  rid  of  it."  And  there 
was  something  else  the  Count  did  not  think  of.  "  The  place  being 

41  641 


i'A-2  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

ours,"  added  Mr.  Jefferson,  "their  yards  of  cloth  and  silk  would  be 
as  freely  sold  as  if  it  were  theirs."  This  in  1790,  twelve  years 
before  there  there  was  any  expectation  of  the  place  being  ours. 

The  war-cloud  of  1790  blew  over,  and  the  Spaniards  remained 
in  possession.  Trouble  enough  they  gave  the  government  during 
the  rest  of  Jefferson's  tenure  of  office.  Holding  both  Florida  and 
Louisiana,  they  sometimes  stirred  up  the  Creeks  to  war,  they 
always  interposed  obstacles  to  the  free  outlet  of  the  products  of 
Kentucky,  and  they  occasionally  threatened  to  close  the  mouth  of 
the  river  altogether  to  American  commerce.  In  many  a  vigorous 
despatch,  Jefferson  remonstrated  with  the  Spanish  government, 
warning  them  that  a  spark  might  kindle  a  flame  in  the  breasts  of 
"our  borderers,"  which  could  not  be  controlled.  "In  such  an 
event,"  lie  wrote  in  1791,  "Spain  cannot  possibly  gain;  and  what 
may  >he  not  lose  ?  "  Next  year  he  demanded  a  frank  and  complete 
concession  of  the  right  to  navigate  the  river;  appealing,  finally,  to 
the  law  of  nature,  written  on  the  heart  of  man  in  the  deepest  char- 

-.  that  the  ocean  is  free  to  all  men,  and  the  rivers  to  all  who 
inhabit   their  shores.     The  treaty    was   concluded;  but  there   was 

i  a  year  thereafter  in  which  the  Kentuckians  were  not  in  feud, 
«r  less  violent,  with  the  Spanish  authorities  at  New  Orleans. 
There  were  times  when  only  the  strong,  instinctive  regard  for  law 
and  «!ecorum  which  marks  men  who  own  no  laws  but  of  their  own 
making,  prevented  "our  borderers"  from  seizing  New  Orleans,  and 
setting  the  Spaniards  floating  down  toward  the  sea. 

.left'. -r>( m  had  not  been  president  two  mouths  before  Louisiana 
became  again  a  subject  of  anxious  concern  with  him.  A  despatch 
from  Kut'us  King,  American  minister  in  London,  dated  March  29, 
1801,  contained  an  intimation  of  startling  import.  It  was  whis- 
peivd  about,  he  said,  in  diplomatic  circles,  that  Spain  had  ceded 
iana  and  Florida  to  France!  Can  it  be  true?  Some  weeks 
later  Mr.  King,  who  felt  all  the  import  of  such  a  change,  conversed 
with  Lord  Hawksbury  on  the  subject,  using  as  a  text  Montesquieu's 
remark,  "  It  is  happy  for  the  commercial  powers  that  God  has  per 
mitted  Turks  and  Spaniards  to  be  in  the  world,  since  of  all  nations 
they  an-  the  most  proper  to  possess  a  great  empire  with  insignifi 
cance."  ••  \\Y  are  contented,"  said  Mr.  King,  "that  the  Floridas 
should  remain  in  the  hands  of  Spain,  but  should  not  be  willing  to 
see  them  transferred,  except  to  ourselves."  \\\  Floridas  he  meant 


LOUISIANA   PURCHASED.  643 

Louisiana  and  Florida.  Lord  Hawksbury  proved  on  this  occasion 
that  he  perfectly  divined  Bonaparte's  object.  He  said  in  June, 
1801,  what  Bonaparte  avowed  in  April,  1803,  that  the  acquisition  of 
Louisiana  was  the  beginning  of  an  attempt  to  undo  the  work  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War.  During  all  the  rest  of  the  year  1801,  we  see 
Mr.  Madison  writing  anxiously  to  the  American  ministers  in  Paris, 
London,  and  Madrid  :  How  is  it  about  this  rumored  cession  of 
Louisiana?  Inquire.  Send  us  information. 

Those  gentlemen  inquired  diligently.  Mr.  King,  in  December, 
1801,  was  all  but  sure  the  cession  had  been  made,  and  sent  what  he 
believed  to  be  a  true  copy  of  one  of  the  treaties  involving  the  ces 
sion.  Mr.  Livingston  had  "broken  the  subject"  to  two  of  Bona 
parte's  ministers.  Both  denied  that  the  province  had  been  ceded. 
One  of  them,  in  reply  to  an  intimation  that  the  United  States  would 
buy  it,  said,  "ISTone  but  spendthrifts  satisfy  their  debts  by  selling 
their  lands ; "  adding,  after  a  pause,  "  but  it  is  not  ours  to  give." 
Talleyrand  also  (December,  1801)  declared  that  the  cession  had  only 
been  talked  of.  In  March,  1802,  when  Mr.  Livingston  had  been 
several  months  in  Paris,  he  was  still  unable  to  get  official  informa 
tion  of  a  treaty  which  had  then  been  in  existence  a  year.  But  he 
had  no  serious  doubts.  "It  is  a  darling  object  with  the  First  Con 
sul,''  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Madison,  March,  24,  "  who  sees  in  it  a  means 
to  gratify  his  friends  and  to  dispose  of  his  armies.  There  is  a  man 
here  who  calls  himself  a  Frenchman,  by  the  name  of  Francis  Tater- 
gem,  who  pretends  to  have  great  interest  with  the  Creek  nations. 
He  has  been  advanced  to  the  rank  of  a  general  of  division.  He 
persuades  them  that  the  Indians  are  extremely  attached  to  France, 
and  hate  the  Americans;  that  they  can  raise  twenty  thousand 
warriors  ;  that  the  country  is  a  paradise.  I  believe  him  to  be  a  mere 
adventurer,  but  he  is  listened  to." 

This  news,  confirmed  from  many  quarters  and  inferred  from  many 
facts,  was  alarming  indeed.  Nor  could  it  be  longer  confined  to 
official  circles.  Kentucky  was  in  a  flame.  The  president  was 
deeply  stirred ;  for  he  was  as  well  aware  as  Rufus  King  that  the 
new  master  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  was  not  a  person  whom 
an  eloquent  despatch  could  intimidate.  The  Spaniards  had  retained 
Louisiana  on  sufferance :  the  United  States  could  have  it  at  any 
time  from  them;  but  the  French  would  be  likely  to  hold  their 
ancient  possession  with  a  tighter  clutch,  and  not  content  themselves 


644  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

with  two  or  three  trading-posts  in  a  fertile  territory  large  enough 
f»r  :in  empire.  Jefferson,  from  the  hour  when  the  intelligence 
'ied  him,  had  only  this  thought:  The  French  must  not  have 
X'".v  Orleans;  no  one  but  ourselves  must  own  our  own  street-door. 
II-  had  been  a  year  in  pursuit  of  his  object  before  the  public  sus- 
peeted  that  the  peace  of  Amiens  was  only  a  truce ;  and  he  was  pre- 
pan-d  to  join  the  next  coalition  against  Bonaparte,  rather  than  not 
accomplish  it.  So  far  was  Mr.  Livingston  from  anticipating  Jeffer 
son's  scheme,  that  he,  as  he  himself  reports,  "on  all  occasions 
deelared,  that,  as  long  as  France  conforms  to  the  existing  treaty 
1>  \veen  us  and  Spain, -the  government  of  the  United  States  does 
not  consider  herself  as  having  any  interest  in  opposing  the  ex- 
chai  These  words  were  written  January  13,  1802.  The 

despatches  which  he  received  from  Washington  in  May  must  have 
sin-prised  him,  for  they  notified  him  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  was  resolved  to  prevent  the  exchange. 

Besides  the  formal  and  official  despatches  which  Mr.  Madison 
wrote  on  the  subject,  the  president  himself  addressed  to  Mr.  Living 
ston  one  of  those  letters  of  fire  which  he  occasionally  produced  when 
his  whole  soul  was  set  upon  accomplishing  a  purpo.se.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  United  States  could  not  let  the  French  control  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi ;  on  the  other,  the  president  felt  that  a  conflict  with 
Napoleon  would  finally  necessitate  an  "entangling  alliance"  with 
•  I  Britain.  The  one  chance,  he  thought,  of  avoiding  both  these 
giant  evils  lay  in  an  appeal  to  the  reason  of  Napoleon,  for  whose 
understanding  he  had  then  some  respect.  This  powerful  letter, 
though  directed  to  the  American  minister,  was  evidently  aimed  at 
the  intellect  of  the  First  Consul.  He  began  by  saying,  that,  of  all 
the  nations  in  the  world,  France  was  the  one  with  which  the  United 
1  the  fewest  points  of  probable  collision,  and  the  most  of  a 
communion  of  interests;  and  for  this  reason  we  had  ever  esteemed 
her  our  if  i tn r'i J  friend,  viewing  her  growth  as  our  own,  her  misfor 
tunes  ours.  BUT  — 

"  There  is  on  the  globe  one  single  spot,  the  possessor  of  which  is 
our  natural  and  habitual  enemy.  It  is  New  Orleans,  through  which 
the  produce  of  three-eighths  of  our  territory  must  pass  to  market; 
and  from  its  fertility  it  will  ere  long  yield  more  than  half  of 
our  whole  produce,  and  contain  more  than  half  our  Inhabitants. 


LOUISIANA  PUKCHASED.  645 

France,  placing  herself  in  that  door,  assumes  to  us  the  attitude  of 
defiance.  Spain  might  have  retained  it  quietly  for  years.  Her 
pacific  dispositions,  her  feeble  state,  would  induce  her  to  increase 
our  facilities  there,  so  that  her  possession  of  the  place  would 
be  hardly  felt  by  us ;  and  it  would  not,  perhaps,  be  very  long  before 
some  circumstance  might  arise  which  might  make  the  cession  of  it 
to  us  the  price  of  something  of  more  wortli  to  her.  Not  so  can  it 
ever  be  in  the  hands  of  France  :  the  impetuosity  of  her  temper ;  the 
energy  and  restlessness  of  her  character,  placed  in  a  point  of  eternal 
friction  with  us ;  and  our  character,  which,  though  quiet,  and  loving 
peace  and  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  is  high-minded,  despising  wealth 
in  competition  with  insult  or  injury,  enterprising  and  energetic  as 
any  nation  on  earth,  —  these  circumstances  render  it  impossible  that 
France  and  the  United  States  can  continue  long  friends  when  they 
meet  in  so  irritating  a  position.  They,  as  well  as  we,  must  be  blind 
if  they  do  not  see  this ;  and  we  must  be  very  improvident  if  we  do 
not  begin  to  make  arrangements  on  that  hypothesis.  The  day  that 
France  takes  possession  of  New  Orleans  fixes  the  sentence  which  is 
to  restrain  her  forever  within  her  low- water-mark.  It  seals  the 
union  of  two  nations,  who,  in  conjunction,  can  maintain  exclusive 
possession  of  the  ocean.  From  that  moment  we  must  marry  our 
selves  to  the  British  fleet  and  nation.  We  must  turn  all  our  atten 
tions  to  a  maritime  force,  for  which  our  resources  place  us  on  very 
high  ground;  and  having  formed  and  connected  together  a  power 
which  may  render  re-enforcement  of  her  settlements  here  im 
possible  to  France,  make  the  first  cannon  which  shall  be  fired  in 
Europe  the  signal  for  tearing  up  any  settlement  she  may  have 
made,  and  for  holding  the  two  continents  of  America  in  sequestra 
tion  for  the  common  purposes  of  the  United  British  and  American 
nations." 

His  conclusion  was,  that  it  was  for  the  most  obvious  interest  of 
both  nations  for  France  to  cede  Louisiana  to  the  United  States ;  but 
if  that  could  not  be,  then,  at  least,  the  island  of  New  Orleans  and 
Florida,  making  the  Mississippi  River  the  boundary  between  the 
possessions  of  the  two  countries.  "  But  still,"  added  the  president, 
"  we  should  consider  New  Orleans  and  the  Floridas  no  equivalent 
for  the  risk  of  a  quarrel  with  France  produced  by  her  vicinage."  At 
this  time  the  rumor  prevailed  that  Florida  also  had  been  ceded  to 


LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

which  proved  to  be  not  the  case,  much  to  the  cost  of  the 
United  Suites  a  quarter  of  a  century  later. 

It  happened  that  an    ancient   French   friend   of  Jefferson's,  M. 
Dupont  de  Nemours,  a  republican  exile  of  the  Revolution,  was  go 
ing  home,  in  the  spring  of  1802,  after  a  long  residence  in  the  United 
States,  to  spend  the  evening  of  his  life  in  his  native  country.     To 
him  the  president  intrusted  this   letter   open,  urging   him,  before 
scaling  it,  to  possess  himself  thoroughly  of  its  contents,  in    order 
that  he  might  aid  in  "i'nforming  the  wisdom  of  Bonaparte"  and 
enlightening  the  circle  that  surrounded  him.     "In  Europe,"  wrote 
rson  to  this  republican  statesman  and  author,  "nothing   but 
F<n  rope  is  seen;"  a  remark  nearly  as  true  in  1873  as  it  was  in  1802. 
'•  lint."  lit-  continued,  "this  little  event,  of  France's  possessing  her 
self  of  Louisiana,  which  is  thrown  in  as  nothing,  as  a  mere  make- 
Wright  in  the  general  settlement  of  accounts, — this  speck  which 
now  appears  as  an  almost  invisible  point  in  the  horizon,  —  is  the 
emhryo  of  a  tornado  which  \vill  burst  on  the  countries  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  involve   in   its  effects  their  highest  destinies." 
He  a-l<ed  another  service  of  this  friend,  who  was  not  less  a  friend  to 
tin    United  States  than  to  the  president.     Talleyrand,  Minister  for 
Foreign  A  Hairs,  was  at  this  moment,  if  we  may  believe  M.  Thiers, 
tin-  minister  who  could  do  most  to  soothe  the  blinding  passions  of 
•  Iron,  and  dispose  him  to  a  reasonable  view  of  things.      I>ut 
Talleyrand    was    supposed    to    be    out    of   humor  with  the  United 
•  11  account  of  the  explosion  of  1707,  commonly  called  the 
X   Y  /  affair;  when  it  was  a  point  of  party  tactics  with  the  Federal- 
to  maintain  that  Talleyrand  was  the  person  who  "struck"  the 
Amrriraii  envoys  for  twelve  hundred  thousand  francs.     The  presi 
dent  rei|ue>ted  M".  Dupont  to  endeavor  to  talk  Talleyrand  out  of  this 
ill-humor,  by  assuring  him  that  the  people  who  spread  abroad  that 
had  been  consigned  to  private  life,  while  those  now  in  power 
were  ••  pi-eiv-ely  those  who  disbelieved  it,  and  saw  nothing  in   it  but 
an    attempt    to    deceive   our   country.".    He   had    even   another  re- 
ijur.-.!.    BO   intent    was  he   upon    this    vital    business.      He   begged   M. 
I  >  iponl  to  deliver  the  letter  to  Chancellor  Livingston  with    his  own 
hands,    and  to  charge    Madame    Dup.mt,   if  any  accident  happened 
to  him.  to  deliver  it  witli  her  own  hands. 

The  letter  and  Mr.  Madi-on's  despatches  reached  Mr.   Livingston 
in  due  time.      M.  Dupont  could  nut  do  much  toward  "  informing  the 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASED.  647 

wisdom  of  Bonaparte."  He  did  himself  the  honor  of  detesting 
Bonaparte  and  all  his  works  ;  refused  to  serve  under  him  when  office 
was  offered ;  and  at  last,  when  the  tyrant  returned  from  Elba,  the 
old  man,  past  seventy-five  then,  despairing  of  his  country,  declared 
he  would  no  longer  be  exposed  to  pass,  in  a  day,  from  one  master  to 
another,  comme  une  courtisane  ou  un  court  isan,  took 'ship  for  the 
United  States,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  on  his  son's  farm  in 
Delaware. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  Mr.  Livingston  made  much  impression 
upon  Bonaparte's  wisdom.  Bonaparte  had  no  wisdom  to  inform. 
He  was  fully  resolved  upon  his  scheme  of  colonizing  Louisiana  on  a 
grand  scale  :  the  ships  were  designated,  and  officers  were  appointed. 
The  expedition  was  to  consist  of  two  ships-of-the-ljne,  "  several 
frigates,"  three  thousand  troops,  and  three  thousand  workmen. 
Bernadotte  was  first  thought  of  for  governor  of  the  colony  ;  but  the 
appointment  finally  fell  to  Lieutenant-General  Victor,  who  after 
wards  bore  the  ridiculous  title  of  Due  de  Bellune,  and  survived  all 
that  histrionic  pageant  nearly  long  enough  to  see  its  mimicry  mim 
icked  in  our  own  day.  Mr.  Livingston  could  make  no  head  against 
the  infatuation  of  the  First  Consul.  He  wrote  an  "essay,"  of  which 
he  had  twenty  copies  printed,  and  extracted  from  Talleyrand  a  prom 
ise  to  "give  it  an  attentive  perusal."  But  he  could  not  so  much  as 
prevail  upon  him  to  submit  the  case  to  his  master.  It  would  be 
"premature,"  said  the  minister  ;  "for  the' French  government  has 
determined  to  take  possession  first."  Mr.  Livingston  felt  the  useless- 
ness  of  all  attempts  to  prevent  the  departure  of  the  fleet.  "  There 
never  was,  "  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Madison,  September  1, 1802,  "&  govern 
ment  in  which  less  could  be  done  by  negotiation  than  here.  There 
is  no  people,  no  legislature,  no  counsellors.  One  man  is  every  thing. 
He  seldom  asks  advice,  and  never  hears  it  unasked.  His  ministers 
are  mere  clerks ;  and  his  legislature  and  counsellors  are  parade 
officers.  Though  the  sense  of  every  reflecting  man  about  him  is 
against  this  wild  expedition,  no  one  dares  to  tell  him  so." 

The  whole  twenty-eight  volumes  of  the  correspondence  of  Napo 
leon,  recently  given  to  the  world,  might  be  cited  in  proof  of  Mr. 
Livingston's  remarks;  but  the  man  never  appears  to  have  lived  in 
quite  such  a  tumult  of  business  and  passion  as  during  that  year  and 
a  half  of  "peace."  In  turning  over  the  other  volumes,  the  reader 
hears,  from  first  to  last,  the  steady  roll  of  the  drum,  the  rattle  of  mus- 

42 


648  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Ivotry,  the  thunder  of  cannonade,  the  short,  sharp  word  of  command  ; 
and  he  marks  everywhere  an  assumption  that  fighting  is  the  chief 
end  of  man,  to  which  all  other  pursuits  are  immeasurably  inferior. 
Hut  in  these  two  volumes  of  the  year  X,  vulgarly  styled  1802,  there 

;<-h  a  rush  of  projects  and  topics  demanding  notice  of  the  head 
of  the  nation,  that  we  cannot  discover  a  gap  large  enough  to  admit 
a  modest  and  polite  old  gentleman,  hard  of  hearing,  with  a  request 
that  the  First  Consul  would  please  to  be  so  good  as  to  relinquish  his 
Louisiana  scheme,  and  cede  all  those  uncounted  and  unknown  square 
miles  to  a  country,  which,  according  to  Talleyrand,  was  of  no  more 
account  in  general  politics  that  Genoa.  Suppose  it  was  on  the  4th 
of  May  that  Mr.  Livingston  desired  a  hearing.  That  daj7,  in  the 
linjjo  of  the  Revolution,  which  Bonaparte  still  employed,  was  culled 
Floreal  14,  An  X.  It  was  a  busy  day,  indeed,  with  the  First  Consul ; 
for  he  was  disposing  the  minds  of  men  to  view  his  next  step  toward 
an  imperial  throne,  without  an  unmanageable  excess  of  consternation. 
How  sweetly  this  great  histrionic  genius  discoursed  to  the  Council 
of  State  that  morning  !  "  In  all  lands,  force  yields  to  civic  qualities. 
Bayonets  fall  before  the  priest  who  speaks  in  the  name  of  Heaven, 
and  before  the  man  whose  learning  inspires  respect.  I  have  said  to 
military  men  who  had  scruples,  that  a  military  government  could 

•r  prevail  in  France  until  the  nation  had  become  brutalized  by 
fifty  years  of  ignorance.  Soldiers  are  only  the  children  of  the  citi 
zens.  The  army,  it  is  the  nation."  Turn  over  a  few  leaves,  and  you 
catch  him  scolding  Berthier  for  not  pushing  the  conscription  vigor 
ously  enough.  "Reendtvng"  he  adds,  "  is  the  first  and  moat  imjior- 
tmif  rnnwrn  of  the  natwn"  Meanwhile,  we  see  him  thanking  the 

ite  for  a  new  proof  of  their  confidence,  in  having  made  him 
l'ir>t  <  '"iisul  for  ten  years  longer.  "  You  judge  that  I  owe  a  new 
sacrifice  to  the  people.  I  shall  make  it  if  the  will  of  the  people  com 
mands  that  which  your  suffrage  authorizes." 

Tins  new  lease  of  absolute  power  brought  with  it  a  world  of 
urgent  business,  in  the  intervals  of  which  there  was  nothing  too 
high  for  him  to  meditate  and  no  detail  too  trifling  for  him  to  rule. 
It  was  a  case  of  one  mind  trying  to  govern  a  country,  instead  of  all 
tin'  mind  in  if,  which  alone  is  competent  to  the  task.  If  a  general 
fights  u  duel,  it  is  the  First  Consul  who  exiles  him  to  that  dn-ad 
Siberia  of  the  French  of  that  age,  "thirty  leagues  from  Paris."  A 
soldier  kills  himself  for  love :  it  is  the  First  Consul  who  issues  an 


LOUISIANA  PUE CHASED.  649 

Order  of  the  Daj7  on  the  subject:  "A  soldier  should  know  how  to 
bear  up  under  the  grief  and  melancholy  of  the  passions  :  there  is  as 
much  true  courage  in  enduring  anguish  of  mind  with  constancy  as 
in  standing  firm  under  the  steady  fire  of  a  battery."  A  young  lady 
is  attentive  to  the  poor  during  an  epidemic;  and  it  is  still  the  First 
Consul  who  sends  her  twenty  thousand  francs,  and  a  note  telling 
her  what  a  good  girl  she  is. 

In  his  strong  desire  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  his  government, 
Mr.  Livingston  had  recourse,  like  many  other  anxious  diplomatists, 
to  Joseph  Bonaparte.  Joseph  told  him  that  his  brother  was  his 
own  counsellor,  but  at  the  same  time  an  affectionate  brother,  to 
whom  he  had  access  at  all  times,  and  whose  attention  he  could  call 
to  any  subject.  He  assured  the  American  minister  that  his  brother 
had  read  with  attention  the  essay,  or  memoir,  upon  Louisiana,  which 
Mr.  Livingston  had  prepared.  Perhaps  he  had.  One  thing  is 
certain :  the  First  Consul  held  to  his  purpose.  The  expedition  was 
delayed,  but  not  abandoned.  December  19,  1802,  Victor  was  or 
dered  to  despatch  a  member  of  his  staff  to  Washington  to  notify  the 
French  minister  there  that  the  French  government  was  about  to 
take  possession  of  Louisiana;  and  February  3,  1803,  there  was  an 
order  given  (8  Correspondence,  199)  showing  that  the  expedition 
was  still  under  sailing-orders,  and  soon  to  depart.  Livingston 
despaired  of  getting  New  Orleans  by  negotiation.  His  earnest 
"notes"  to  Talleyrand  remained  unnoticed.  His  opinion  was  this  : 
If  we  want  New  Orleans,  we  must  seize  it  first,  and  negotiate  after 
wards.  To  Madison  he  wrote  in  November,  1802 :  Nothing  can 
now  prevent  the  sailing  of  the  expedition ;  it  will  be  off  in  twenty 
days ;  two  and  a  half  millions  of  francs  are  appropriated  to  it  For 
tify  Natchez,  strengthen  all  the  upper  posts. 

All  these  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  administration  to  solve  this 
problem  by  peaceful  methods  were  unknown  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  Kentucky  saw  the  right  of  deposit  denied  by  a 
foolish  Spanish  governor,  and  heard  rumors  of  the  French  expedition, 
which  magnified  it  four  times,  making  its  three  thousand  troops  and 
three  thousand  workmen,  "  twenty  thousand  troops."  The  press 
and  stump  of  Kentucky,  it  is  said,  began  to  utter  words  like  these : 
"The  Mississippi  is  ours  by  the  law  of  nature,  by  the  authority  of 
numbers,  and  by  the  right  of  necessity.  If  Congress  cannot  give  it 
to  us,  we  must  take  it  ourselves.  No  protection,  no  allegiance ! " 


LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Tin-  FederalN-N  wore  not  backward  to  take  up  this  promising  cry. 
"The  French  troops  are  already  at  sea,"  said  Gouverneur  Morris: 
••their  arrival  should  be  anticipated;  it  is  time  to  come  to  an  open 
rupture."  With  all  his  own  fine  patience,  the  president  bore  in 
sih nee,  for  a  whole  year,  the  outcry  of  the  Kentuckians  and  the 
misinterpretation  of  the  Federalists.  But  only  a  few  days  of  the 
new  year,  1803,  had  passed  before  he  perceived  the  necessity  of  some 
measure  which  the  people  could  know,  discuss,  and  observe.  He 
wrote  to  his  old  friend,  Monroe,  January  10 :  — 

"I  have  but  a  moment  to  inform  you  that  the  fever  into  which 
the  Western  mind  is  thrown  by  the  affairs  at  New  Orleans  (denying 
the  right  of  deposit),  stimulated  by  the  mercantile  and  generally 

the  Federal  interest,  threatens  to  overbear  our  peace I  shall 

to-morrow  nominate  you  to  the  Senate  for  an  extraordinary  mission 

to  France Pray  work  night  and  day  to  arrange  your  affairs 

for  a  temporary  absence,  perhaps  for  a  long  one.? 

Two  months  later  Mr.  Monroe  was  travelling  post-haste  from 
Havre  to  Paris,  charged  with  the  president's  fullest  instructions, 
authorized  to  give  two  millions  of  dollars,  if  he  could  do  no  better,  for 
the  inland  of  New  Orleans  alone,  and  empowered  by  Congress  to  pay 
cash  down  on  the  conclusion  of  the  bargain.  X  Y  Z  was  not  forgot 
ten.  Ready  money  might  still  have  a  certain  weight  in  Paris,  the 
president  thought,  when  he  recommended  the  appropriation. 

How  changed  the  situation  in  April,  1803,  from  the  time  when 
the  ] incident  stunned  Mr.  Monroe  with  the  announcement  of  his 
nomination!  For  some  months,  as  we  see  so  plainly  in  his  Corre 
spondence,  I.onaparte  had  been  working  himself  up  to  the  point  of 
breaking  the  peace  of  Amiens;  fuming  about  Malta,  about  the 
assaults  of  the  London  press,  about  the  Count  D'Artois  wearing  the 
decorations  of  the  old  monarchy  at  a  dress-parade  in  England,  and 
all  tlio.M-  other  silly  half-pretexts  which  he  afterwards  enumerated; 
while  urging  his  minister  of  war  to  take  every  man  from  the 
village-  which  a  merciless  conscription  could  extort.  At  length, 
February  l!>.  ISD.'i,  there  fell  from  his  pen,  while  lie  was  writing  his 
imitation-message  to  his  sham  legislature,  the  taunt,  once  so  famil 
iar  to  all  the  world.  l>  In  Fngland,  two  parties  contend  for  power. 
One  has  made  peace  with  us,  and  seems  decided  to  maintain  it.  The 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASED.  651 

ither  lias  sworn  implacable  hate  against  France.  While  this 
truggle  lasts,  it  is  but  prudence  on  our  part  to  have  five  hundred 
housand  men  ready  to  defend  and  avenge  ourselves.  However  the 
ntrigue  in  London  may  issue,  no  other  people  will  be  drawn  into 
he  contest;  and  the  government  says  with  just  pride,  ALONE 

NGLAND    CANNOT    TO-DAY    HOLD    HER    OWN    AGAINST     FRANCE  !  " 

The  very  next  day  the  order  went  to  the  Louisiana  expedition  at 
Dunkirk  :  Don't  sail  till  further  orders.  George  III.  was  prompt 
nough  with  his  retort.  He  read  Bonaparte's  message  about  Febru- 
iry  23;  and  on  March  8  he  sent  to  the  House  of  Commons  the 
umbering  message  in  twenty  lines,  that  gave  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
he  pretext  he  longed  for,  and  began  the  war  that  ended  at  — Sedan, 
ihe  king  merely  acquainted  his  faithful  Commons,  that,  as  consider 
able  military  preparations  were  going  on  in  France,  England,  too, 
nust  begin  to  think  of  "  additional  measures  of  precaution."  Bona- 

arte  continued  the  contest  by  storming  at  the  English  ambassador 
n  the  Tuileries,  at  a  Sunday  reception,  in  the  sight  and  hearing  of 
he  whole  diplomatic  corps,  two  hundred  in  number.  In  a  word, 
>oth  parties  meant  war;  and  war  they  had,  to  their  hearts'  content. 
A  month  passed  of  intensest  preparation  on  both  sides.  Bona- 
>arte's  plan  was  to  invade  England,  —  a  thing  of  immense  difficulty 
irid  vast  expense.  He  wanted  money,  and  dared  not  press  the 

'rench  people  further  at  the  beginning  cf  a  war.  On  Easter 
Sunday,  April  10,  in  the  afternoon,  after  having  taken  conspicuous 
•art  in  the  revived  ceremonies  of  the  occasion  (Mr.  Monroe  being 
till  many  leagues  from  Paris,  but  expected  hourly),  the  First 
Consul  opened  a  conversation  with  two  of  his  ministers  upon 
jouisiana.  One  of  these  ministers,  who  reports  the  scene,  was  that 
•Id  friend  of  Jefferson's,  Barbe-Marbois,  for  whom,  twenty-six  years 
>efore,  he  had  compiled  his  Notes  on  Virginia, — a  gentleman  ten 
rears  resident  at  Philadelphia,  where  he  married  the  daughter  of  a 
;overnor  of  Pennsylvania.  The  other  minister  had  served  in 
America  under  Bochambeau  during  the  Revolutionary  War. 

"I  know,"  said  the  First  Consul,  speaking  with  "passion  and 
rehemence,  —  "I  know  the  full  value  of  Louisiana,  and  I  have  been 
iesirous  of  repairing  the  fault  of  the  French  negotiator  who  aban- 
loned  it  in  1763.  A  few  lines  of  a  treaty  have  restored  it  to  me,  and 

have  scarcely  recovered  it  when  I  must  expect  to  lose  it.  But,  if  it 
^scapes  from  me,  it  shall  one  day  cost  dearer  to  those  who  oblige  me 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

to  strip  myself  of  it  than  to  those  to  whom  I  wish  to  deliver  it. 
The  English  have  successively  taken  from  France,  Canada,  Cape 
Breton,  Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  richest  portions  of 
Asia.  They  shall  not  have  the  Mississippi,  which  they  covet.  I 
have  not  a  moment  to  lose  in  putting  it  out  of  their  reach  :  I  think 
of  ceding  it  to  the  United  States.  I  can  scarcely  say  that  I  cede  it 
to  them,  for  it  is  not  yet  in  our  possession.  If,  however,  I  leave  the 
least  time  to  our  enemies,  I  shall  only  transmit  an  empty  title  to 
those  republicans  whose  friendship  I  seek.  They  only  ask  of  me 
one  town  in  Louisiana:  but  I  already  consider  the  colony  as  entirely 
lost ;  and  it  appears  to  me.  that,  in  the  hands  of  this  growing  power, 
it  will  be  more  useful  to  the  policy,  and  even  to  the  commerce  of 
France,  than  if  I  should  attempt  to  keep  it." 

Hi-  paused  to  hear  the  opinion  of  the  two  ministers.  Barbe-Mar- 
bois  said,  in  a  long  discourse,  The  province  is  as  good  as  gone. 
I.  the  Americans  have  it.  The  other  said  at  great  length,  No; 
there  is  still  a  chance  of  our  being  able  to  keep  it ;  it  will  be  time  to 
give  up  so  precious  a  possession  when  we  must.  The  three  contin 
ued  to  converse  on  the  subject  till  late  at  night,  and  the  master 
broke  up  the  conference  without  announcing  his  decision.  The 
ministers  >jemained  at  St.  Cloud.  At  daybreak  Barbe-Marbois 
ived  a  summons  to  attend  the  First  Consul  in  his  cabinet. 
patches  had  aimed  from  England,  showing  that  the  king  and 
ministry  were  entirely  resolved  upon  war,  and  were  pushing  prepa 
rations  with  extraordinary  vigor.  When  M.  Marbois  had  read  these3 
Bonaparte  resumed  the  subject  of  the  evening's  conversation  :  — 

"  Irresolution  and  deliberation,"  he  said,  "are  no  longer  in  reason. 
I  renounce  Louisiana.  It  is  not  only  New  Orleans  that  I  will  cede  :  it 
is  the  whole  colony,  without  any  reservation.  I  renounce  it  with  tli€ 
greatest  regret.  To  attempt  obstinately  to  retain  it  would  be  folly 
I  direct  you  to  negotiate  this  affair  with  the  envoys  of  the  United 
t-s.  Do  not  even  await  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Monroe:  have  ar 
interview  this  very  day  with  Mr.  Livingston.  But  I  require  a  jrreal 
deal  of  money  for  this  war,  and  I  would  not  like  to  commence  il 
with  new  contributions.  If  I  should  regulate  my  terms  according 
to  the  value  of  those  vast  regions  to  the  United  States,  the  indem 
nity  would  have  no  limits.  I  will  be  moderate,  in  consideration  of 
the  necessity  in  which  I  am  of  making  a  sale  ;  but  keep  this  to  your 
self.  I  want  fifty  millions  of  francs,  and  for  less  than  that  sum  ] 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASED.  653 

will  not  treat :  I  would  rather  make  a  desperate   attempt  to  keep 
those  fine  countries.     To-morrow  you  shall  have  your  full  powers." 

The  deed  was  done.  The  rest  was  merely  the  usual  cheapening 
and  chaffering  that  passes  between  buyer  and  seller  when  the  com 
modity  has  no  market-price.  Mr.  Monroe's  arrival  was  well  timed ; 
for  Mr.  Livingston  had  lost  all  faith  in  the  possibility  of  getting 
New  Orleans  by  purchase,  and  was  unprepared  even  to  consider  a 
proposition  for  buying  the  whole  province.  He  evidently  thought 
that  the  French  ministers  were  all  liars  together ;  and  he  looked 
upon  this  sudden  change  of  tone,  after  so  many  months  of  neglect  or 
evasion,  as  a  mere  artifice  for  delay.  "  If  M!r.  MpT^flft  ap!"rpf  fl 
me  "  said  Livingston  to  Talleyrand^  a  (Thy  or  two  before 
arrival,  jlljKe  shalLj^ffotiate  no  further  on  the  subject,  but  ao^yi'sft  OJJT 
government  to  take  possession.  The  times  are  critical ;  and,  though 
I  do  not  know  what  instructions  Mr.  Monroe  may  bring,  I  am  per 
fectly  satisfied  they  will  require  a  precise  and  prompt  notice.  I  am 
fearful,  from  the  little  progress  I  have  made,  that  my  government 
will  consider  me  a  very  indolent  negotiator."  Talleyrand  laughed. 
"  I  will  give  you  a  certificate,"  said  he,  "  that  you  are  the  most  im 
portunate  one  I  have  yet  met  with.'' 

But  Mr.  Livingston  soon  discovered  that  all  had  really  changed 
with  regard  to  Louisiana.  On  the  day  after  Monroe's  arrival,  while 
sitting  at  dinner  with  him  and  other  guests,  Livingston  espied  M. 
Barbe-Marbois  strolling  about  in  his  garden.  During  the  interview 
that  followed,  business  made  progress.  Marbois  took  the  liberty  of 
telling  a  few  diplomatic  falsehoods  to  the  American  minister. 
Instead  of  the  "  fifty  millions,"  which,  in  his  History  of  Louisiana, 
he  says  Napoleon  demanded,  he  told  Mr.  Livingston  that  the  sum 
required  was  one  hundred  millions.  He  represented  the  First  Consul 
as  saying,  "  Well,  you  have  charge  of  the  treasury  :  make  the 
Americans  give  you  one  hundred  millions,  pay  their  own  claims,  and 
take  the  whole  country."  Mr.  Livingston  was  aghast  at  the  magni 
tude  of  the  sum.  After  a  long  conversation,  Marbois  dropped  to 
sixty  millions ;  the  United  States  to  pay  its  own  claimants,  which 
would  require  twenty  millions  more.  "  It  is  in  vain  to  ask  such  a 
thing,"  said  Livingston  :  "  it  is  so  greatly  beyond  our  means."  He 
thought,  too,  that  his  government  would  be  perfectly  satisfied  with 
New  Orleans  and  Florida,  and  had  no  disposition  to  extend  across 
the  river." 


C54  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Then  it  was  that  Mr.  Monroe,  fresh  from  Washington,  and  know 
ing  tin-  full  extent  of  the  president's  wishes,  knowing  his  aversion  to 
the  mere  proximity  of  the  French,  came  upon  the  scene  with  deci 
sive  and  most  happy  effect.  In  a  few  days  all  was  arranged.  M. 
Larbu-Marbois's  offer  was  accepted.  Twenty  days  after  the  St. 
Cloud  conference,  and  eighteen  days  after  Mr.  Monroe's  arrival,  the 
convention  was  concluded  which  gave  imperial  magnitude  and  com 
pleteness  to  the  United  States,  and  supplied  Napoleon  with  fifteen 
millions  of  dollars  to  squander  upon  a  vain  attempt  to  invade  and 
ravage  another  country.  M.  Marbois  relates,  that,  as  soon  as  the 
three  negotiators  had  signed  the  treaties,  they  all  rose  and  shook 
hands.  Mr.  Livingston  gave  utterance  to  the  joy  and  satisfaction  of 
them  all. 

"  We  have  lived  long,"  said  he,  "but  this  is  the  noblest  work  of 
our  whole  lives.  The  treaty  which  we  have  just  signed  has  not  been 
obtained  by  art  nor  dictated  by  force,  and  is  equally  advantageous  to 
tin-  two  contracting  parties.  It  will  change  vast  solitudes  into  flour 
ishing  districts.  From  this  day  the  United  States  take  their  place 
among  the  powers  of  the  first  rank.  The  United  States  will  re 
establish  the  maritime  rights  of  all  the  world,  which  are  now  usurped 
by  a  single  nation.  The  instrument*  which  we  have  just  signed 
will  cause  no  tears  to  be  shed  :  they  prepare  ages  of  happiness  for 
innumerable  generations  of  human  creatures.  The  Mississippi  and 
Missouri  will  see  them  succeed  one  another  and  multiply,  truly  worthy 
of  the  regard  and  care  of  Providence,  in  the  bosom  of  equality,  under 
just  laws,  freed  from  the  errors  of  superstition  and  bad  government." 
parte  was  so  well  pleased  with  the  bargain,  that  he  gave  M. 
Marbois  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  thousand  francs  of  the  pro- 
Is.  Sixty  millions,  he  said,  was  a  pretty  good  price  for  a  province 
of  which  lu-  hud  not  taken  possession,  and  might  not  be  able  to  retain 
twenty-lour  hours.  He  also  said,  "  This  accession  of  terr 

-ill. -us  inrever  the  power  of  the  United  States  ;  and  I  have  just 
given  to  Kngland  a  maritime  rival  that  will  sooner  or  later  humble 
her  pridi'."  Strange  to  relate,  the  British  government  expressed 
approval  of  the  cession.  All  the  world,  indeed,  rejoiced  or  acqui 
esced  in  it.  «-\i-.'pting  alone  the  irreconcilable  fag-end  of  the  Feder- 
ali>t  party,  who,  from  the  first  rumor  of  the  purchase  *;o  the  voting 
ol  the  ia>t  dollar  nece.-sary  to  complete  it,  opposed  the  acquisition. 

One  of  the  Federalist  members,  Josiah  Quincy  of  Massachusetts, 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASED.  655 

objected  to  it  on  grounds  that  were  elevated  and  patriotic.  Looking 
into  the  future  with  wise  but  only  mortal  forecast,  he  dreaded  so 
vast  an  increase  to  the  territory  out  of  which  many  slave-States 
could  be  made.  His  son  relates,  that,  during  the  happiest  years  of 
;he  Era  of  Good  Feeling  under  Monroe,  he  would  say,  "You  and  I 
may  not  live  to  see  the  day;  but,  before  that  boy  is  off  the  stage,  he 
will  see  this  country  torn  in  pieces  by  the  fierce  passions  that  are 
now  sleeping."  Both  father  and  son  lived  to  "see  the  day;"  and 
the  father,  in  1864,  his  ninety-second  year  and  his  last,  must  have 
clearly  seen  that  slavery,  which  vitiated  all  our  politics,  spoiled 
jvery  measure,  and  injured  every  man,  was  an  evanescent  thing. 
Slavery  passed,  but  Louisiana  remains.  "If  slavery  is  not  wrong,'7 
Mr.  Lincoln  said,  in  that  homely,  vivid  way  of  his,  "nothing  is 
wrong."  It  was  so  wrong,  that,  while  it  lasted;  nothing  in  America 
could  be  quite  right,  except  war  upon  it. 

One  consideration  embarrassed  the  president  amid  the  relief  and 
triumph  of  this  peaceful  solution  of  a  problem  so  alarming.  He,  a 
strict  constructionist,  had  done  an  act  unauthorized  by  the  Consti 
tution.  He  owned  and  justified  it  thus :  "  The  Constitution  has 
made  no  provision  for  our  holding  foreign  territory,  still  less  for 
incorporating  foreign  nations  into  our  Union.  The  executive,  in 
seizing  the  fugitive  occurrence  which  so  much  advances  the  good  of 
their  country,  have  done  an  act  beyond  the  Constitution.  The  legis 
lature,  in  casting  behind  them  metaphysical  subtleties,  and  risking 
themselves  like  faithful  servants,  must  ratify  and  pay  for  it,  and 
throw  themselves  on  their  country  for  doing  for  them  unauthorized, 
what  we  kuo\v  they  would  have  done  for  themselves  had  they  been 
in  a  situation  to  do  it.  It  is  the  case  of  a  guardian,  investing  the 
money  of  his  ward  in  purchasing  an  important  adjacent  territory; 
and  saying  to  him  when  of  age,  I  did  this  for  your  good ;  I  pretend 
to  no  right  to  bind  you;  you  may  disavow  me,  and  I  must  get  out 
of  the  scrape  as  I  can  ;  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  risk  myself  for  yon. 
But  we  shall  not  be  disavowed  by  the  nation  ;  and  their  act  of  indem 
nity  will  confirm  and  not  weaken  the  Constitution,  by  more  strongly 
marking  out  its  lines."  He  proposed  that  the  case  should  be  met 
by  an  additional  article  to  the  Constitution.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  this  was  not  done ;  for,  let  us  travel  as  far  away  as  we  will  from 
the  strict  Jeffersonian  rule,  to  strict  construction  we  must  come 
back  at  last,  if  it  takes  a  century  of  heroic  struggle  to  reach  it. 


656  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

It  was  like  Jefferson,  when  he  had  won  Louisiana,  to  think  first 
of  offering  the  governorship  to  Lafayette.  It  had  to  remain  a 
thought  only.  Upon  re-considering  the  situation,  he  deemed  it  best 
not  to  gratify  a  sentiment  by  an  act  which  might  be  construed  as  a 
reflection  upon  the  seller.  Andrew  Jackson,  who  was  then  getting 
tired  of  serving  as  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Tennessee,  was 
strongly  urged  for  the  place ;  and  because  he  had  been  urged,  and 
because  he  would  have  liked  the  appointment,  he  refrained  from  call 
ing  upon  the  president  when  he  was  in  "Washington  in  April,  1804. 
So  I  gathered  in  Nashville  from  a  yellow  and  musty  letter  of  the 
learned  judge,  —  which  was,  perhaps,  the  worst-spelled  and  most 
angrammatical  letter  a  judge  of  a  supreme  court  ever  wrote.  lie 
said,  that,  if  he  should  call  upon  the  president,  it  would  be  regarded 
as  "the  act  of  a  courteorj"  and,  therefore,  he  "travilcdon,  enjoying 
his  own  feelings."  He  confessed,  too,  that  the  governor  of  Louisi 
ana  ought  to  be  acquainted  with  the  French  language.  People  can 
forgive  bad  spelling  when  it  expresses  sentiments  so  honorable ;  and 
happy  the  president  when  the  expectants  of  office  behave  in  so  con 
siderate  a  manner. 


CHAPTER    LXV. 

DOWNFALL    OF   AARO1ST   BURR. 

NOT  long  after  Jefferson  had  entered  into  possession  of  Louisiana, 
rumors  reached  him  that  Aaron  Burr,  for  many  years  his  political 
ally,  and  recently  his  associate  in  the  government,  was  rousing  the 
western  country  to  wrest  the  province  from  the  United  States,  and 
annex  it  to  some  vaguely  imagined  empire  of  Mexico.  Burr's 
scheme  need  not  detain  us  here.  It  is  only  as  a  curious  illustration 
of  the  party  ferocity  of  that  time  that  I  recall  attention  to  it  for  a 
moment.  In  recent  times  we  have  had  nothing  resembling  the 
blind,  malignant  fury  of  party  passion  which  raged  in  the  breasts 
of  men,  otherwise  reasonable,  during  the  decline  of  the  Federalists. 
As  that  party  grew  smaller,  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  sum  of  bitter 
ness  which  had  been  diffused  in  the  brimming  cup  of  1800,  remained 
in  the  lees  and  dregs  at  the  bottom  of  the  vessel.  Jefferson  did 
not  exaggerate  when,  on  sending  his  nephew  to  school  at  Phila 
delphia,  during  the  second  term  of  his  presidency,  he  told  him  that 
the  more  furious  Federalists  were  little  more  sane  than  the  patients 
of  Bedlam,  who  needed  medical  more  than  moral  counsel. 

"  Be  a  listener  only,"  he  continued.  "  Keep  within  yourself,  and 
endeavor  to  establish  with  yourself  the  habit  of  silence,  especially  on 
politics.  In  the  fevered  state  of  our  country  no  good  can  ever  result 
from  any  attempt  to  set  one  of  these  fiery  zealots  to  rights,  either  in 
fact  or  principle.  They  are  determined  as  to  the  facts  they  will 
believe,  and  the  opinions  on  which  they  will  act.  Get  by  them, 
therefore,  as  you  would  by  an  angry  bull:  it  is  not  for  a  man  of 
sense  to  dispute  the  road  with  such  an  animal.  You  will  be  more 
exposed  than  others  to  have  these  animals  shaking  their  horns  at 
you  because  of  the  relation  in  which  you  stand  to  me.  Full  of 
political  venom,  and  willing  to  see  me  and  to  hate  me  as  a  chief  in  the 
42  657 


658  LITE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

an';iU"!iist  party, your  presence  will  be  to  them  what  the  vomit-grass 
tin-  sick  dog,  a  nostrum  for  producing  ejaculation.  Look  upon 
th'-m  exactly  with  that  eye,  and  pity  them  as  objects  to  whom  you 
cm  administer  only  occasional  ease." 

1  Vrsons  familiar  with  the  politics  of  that  period  will  recognize  the 
truth  of  this  picture.  Jefferson  might  well  place  it  among  the  first 
objects  of  his  administration  to  allay  the  fury  of  a  party  spirit;  for  at 
that  time  the  bloody  code  of  the  duellist  was  still  despotic  in  politi 
cal  circles,  and  political  estrangements  were  only  too  apt  to  result  in 
tragedies  that  desolated  families  and  appalled  society.  Duels  more 
groundless,  and,  I  may  say,  more  devilish,  than  some  which  took 
place  in  the  United  States  during  the  first  few  years  of  the  present 
century,  have  seldom  occurred  out  of  Ireland.  Consider,  for  example, 
the  incredible  ferocity  of  the  duel  between  De  Witt  Clinton  and 
John  Swartwout  in  1802,  when  Swartwout,  after  the  fifth  exchange 
of  shots,  arid  while  the  surgeon  was  extracting  from  his  leg  the 
•id  ball, stood  firmly  at  his  post,  and  demanded  a  written  apology 
or  another  fire. 

i.  >>  known,  but  perhaps  more  remarkable,  was  the  duel  which 
occurred  on  the  same  spot  between  the  eldest  son  of  Alexander  Ham 
ilton  and  George  Eacker.  I  have  often  thought,  that,  among  the 
man}'  reasons  which  induced  Alexander  Hamilton  to  submit  to  the 
barbarous  custom  of  duelling,  was  the  .very  fact,  that  his  own  son 
had  recently  done  so,  and  in  circumstances  similar  to  those  of  his 
own  fatal  encounter.  For  although  the  quarrel  between  Philip 
Hamilton  and  his  antagonist  appeared  to  originate  in  a  common 
theatre  brawl,  yet,  in  reality,  such  was  not  the  case:  the  two  young 
men  belonged  to  opposite  political  parties,  and  their  dispute  origi 
nated  in  hostile  political  feeling. 

On  Friday  evening,  November  21,  1801,  a  play  was'  performed 
in  the  only  theatre  then  existing  in  the  city  of  New  York.  In 
one  of  the  stage  boxes,  with  a  party  of  friends,  sat  Mr.  George  I. 
Kacker,  a  young  lawyer  of  some  note  in  the  town,  a  member  of  the 
Republican  party,  then  in  the  first  year  of  its  possession  of  the 
national  government.  II.-  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age.  On  the 
Fourth  of  July  preceding  he  had  delivered  the  oration  at  the  Demo 
cratic  celebration  of  the  day,  in  the  course  of  which  he  had  probably 
spoken  of  thu  Federal  magnates  with  the  freedom  usual  on  such 
occasions  at  that  period.  .Mr.  Kacker  was  a  perfectly  respectable 


DOWNFALL   OF   AAROX  BURR.  659 

and  honorable  gentleman  ;  certainly  he  was  entitled  to  be  treated 
with  respect  in  public  by  his  juniors.  In  the  course  of  the  evening, 
he  heard  loud  conversation  behind  him,  accompanied  with  derisive 
laughter;  and,  upon  looking  round,  he  observed  that  it  came  from 
two  well-known  young  men,  Philip  Hamilton  and  a  Mr.  Price.  It 
was  evident  to  Mr.  Eacker  that  these  young  gentlemen  were  talking 
about  him,  and  laughing  at  him.  Philip  Hamilton,  at  this  time, 
was  twenty  years  of  age,  a  recent  graduate  from  Columbia  College, 
and  just  entering  upon  the  study  of  the  law.  Price,  the  son  of  a 
respectable  gentleman  of  the  city,  was  somewhat  noted  for  his  disso 
lute  habits  and  roystering  ways. 

Mr.  Eacker  at  first  took  no  notice  of  their  behavior.  At  the  end 
of  the  play,  while  the  audience  were  waiting  for  the  after-piece  to 
begin,  the  two  merry  young  blades  crowded  into  the  box  occupied 
by  Eacker  and  his  friends,  where  they  at  once  began  to  make  sarcas 
tic  remarks  upon  the  Fourth  of  July  oration  before  alluded  to,  and 
it  was  but  too  evident  that  their  observations  were  intended  to  be 
heard  by  the  person  who  was  the  subject  of  them.  Backer's  patience 
giving  way,  he  rose  from  his  seat  for  the  purpose,  as  he  said,  of 
remonstrating  with  the  young  men.  As  he  stepped  into  the  lobby, 
and  at  a  moment  when  his  back  was  turned  toward  his  assailants, 
he  exclaimed,  speaking  to  himself,  — 

"  It  is  too  abominable  to  be  publicly  insulted  by  a  set  of  d — d 
rascals." 

Both  men  instantly  asked,  "Whom  do  you  call  d — d  rascals  ?  " 

Mr.  Eacker,  wishing  to  avoid  a  disturbance  in  so  public  a  place, 
said  to  the  two  young  scapegraces,  — 

"  I  live  at  No.  50,  Wall  Street,  where  I  am  always  to  be  found." 

"  Your  place  of  residence,"  said  young  Hamilton,  "  has  nothing 
to  do  with  it." 

Upon  which  the  young  men  rushed  at  one  another,  or,  at  least,  they 
appeared  to  be  about  to  do  so,  when  one  of  their  friends  got  between 
them,  and  compelled  them  to  keep  the  peace.  Eacker  urged  his 
assailants  to  make  less  noise,  and  proposed  that  they  should  go  to  a 
certain  tavern  near  by,  where  they  could  discuss  the  matter  more 
conveniently.  To  the  tavern  they  went;  and  on  the  way  they  con 
tinued  to  converse  in  a  hostile  tone.  When  they  reached  the  tavern, 
both  the  young  men  insisted  upon  Mr.  Backer's  naming  the  individ 
ual  to  whom  he  had  applied  the  word  rascal. 


660  LIFE   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

"  Did  you  come  into  the  box  on  purpose  to  insult  me  ?  "  Eacker 
demanded. 

••  That  is  nothing  to  the  purpose,"  replied  one  of  the  young  men. 
u  We  insist  upon  your  particularizing  the  person  you  meant  to  dis 
tinguish  by  the  appellation  of  rascal." 

.Mr.  Eacker  again  asked  :  "Did  you  mean  to  insult  me  ?  " 

"  We  insist  upon  a  direct  answer,"  repeated  the  angry  youths. 

"Well,  then,"  said  Eacker,  justly  indignant  at  their   conduct, 

;  are  W//  rascals." 

Upon  this  the  young  men,  who  must  have  been  greatly  under  the 
influence  of  drink,  went  roaring  out  of  the  tavern  into  the  street. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  Eacker,  "you  had  better  make  less  noise:  I 
shall  expect  to  hear  from  you." 
"  That  you  shall,"  said  they. 

}Ir.  Kacker  immediately  returned  to  his  box  in  the  theatre.     A 
:  n  i  mites  after,  he  received  the  briefest  possible  note  from  Mr. 
.  challenging  him  to  mortal  combat.     Before  the  evening  clo^-d, 
a  challenge  reached  him  also  from  young  Hamilton.     Eacker  replied 
to  the  person  who  brought  the  last  note,  that  he  had  already  received 
a  message  from  Mr.  Price,  which  he  had  accepted,  and  was  therefore 
-    1  to  him."     After  fulfilling  that  engagement,  he  added,  he 
should  he  prepared  to  receive  a  communication  from  Mr.  Hamilton. 
On  Sunday  afternoon,  between  twelve  and  one  o'clock,  at  the  usual 
duelling-ground  on  the  shores  of  the  Hudson,  Eacker  and  Price  met, 
:n] tanied  by  their  seconds.     They  exchanged  shots  three  times, 
without  doing  one  another  any  harm,  when  the  seconds  interposed, 
and  advised  them  to  make  up  their  quarrel.     Both  the  men,  however, 
insi-ted  mi  a  fourth  shot,  agreeing  that  afterwards  they  would  shake 
and   In.'   friends.     They  fired   a  fourth    time   without   effect  ; 
the  jovial  Price  observed,  "Eacker  is  such  a  lath  of  a 
fellow,  that  I  might  shoot  all  day  to  no  purpose." 

A  mill  the  laughter  occasioned  by  this  lively  sally,  the  antagonists 
fulfilled  their  promise  by  shaking  hands,  ami  both  parties  returned 
to  N'-w  York.  Instantly  on  the  arrival  of  Eacker  in  the  city,  he 
sent  word  to  Philip  Hamilton's  friend,  that,  having  disposed  of  Mr. 
.  li.-  *tt  now  r.-a-ly  to  receive  a  communication  from  Mr.  Ham 
ilton,  which  omld  l»e  transmitted  to  the  friend  whom  he  named. 
The  two  second-  me;.  'They  had  a  long  conversation  together,  both 
of  them  endeavoring  to  hit  upon  some  expedient  for  accommodating 


DOWNFALL  OF  AARON  BURR.  661 

the  absurd  difficulty.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  running  to  and  fro 
that  afternoon  and  evening,  and  many  long  consultations  with  those 
who  were  learned  in  the  art  of  duelling.  Young  Hamilton  knew 
well  that  he  had  been  in  the  wrong,  and  yet,  after  the  events  at 
Hoboken  that  afternoon,  had  not  the  courage  to  say  so;  and,  consid 
ering  the  state  of  public  feeling  at  that  time,  such  a  confessioli  would 
probably  have  blasted  his  prospects  for  life.  All  that  he  could  be 
persuaded  to  do  was,  to  send  a  message  to  Eacker,  "requiring  an 
explanation  of  the  expressions  which  he  had  made  use  of  to  Mr. 
Hamilton  at  the  theatre  on  Friday  night." 

The  gentleman  who  conveyed  this  ridiculous  message -said,  that,  if 
Mr.  Eacker  desired  to  consult  his  friends  before  giving  an  answer,  he 
would  retire  for  a  short  time  to  enable  him  to  do -so.  Mr.  Eacker 
accepted  the  proposal,  and  asked  for  fifteen  minutes.  The  messenger 
returning  at  the  end  of  that  time,  Eacker  at  first  endeavored  to  give 
his  answer  verbally,  but,  after  some  hesitation,  took  from  his  pocket 
a  written  paper,  which  he  read  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  expressions  I  made  use  of  towards  Mr.  Hamilton  at  the 
theatre  on  Friday  night  last  were  produced  by  his  conduct  on  that 
occasion  :  I  thought  them  applicable  then,  and  I  think  so  still." 

This  closed  the  door  to  an  accommodation,  and  the  meeting  was 
appointed  for  Monday.  Young  Hamilton  being  still  convinced  (as 
his  friends  afterwards  avowed  and  published)  that  he  had  been  in 
the  wrong,  determined  to  receive  the  fire  of  his  antagonist,  and  then 
discharge  his  pistol  in  the  air,  —  precisely  as  his  father  resolved  to  do 
three  years  after,  and  with  precisely  the  same  results.  The  men 
were  placed.  The  signal  was  given.  Mr.  Eacker  fired,  and  inflicted 
a  mortal  wound.  Young  Hamilton  could  not  carry  out  his  inten 
tion,  for  the  shock  of  his  wound  discharged  his  pistol  before  he  could 
raise  it  into  the  air.  The  wounded  youth  was  immediately  rowed 
across  the  river,  and  taken  to  a  house  near  the  shore,  to  which  his 
parents  and  friends  were  speedily  summoned.  It  appeared  that  the 
ball  had  entered  the  right  side  just  above  the  hip,  passed  completely 
through  the  body,  and  lodged  in  the  left  arm.  There  is  a  letter  in 
the  New  York  Historical  Magazine,  written  by  one  of  his  young 
friends  a  day  or  two  after  the  event,  which  contains  an  affecting 
description  of  the  scene  round  his  bed  :  — 


G»»2  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

V  All  the  physicians  in  town  were  called  for,  and  the  news  spread 
like  a  conflagration.  At  the  theatre  I  was  informed  of  it  about  nine 
:h  BCondaj  evening.  I  immediately  ran  to  the  house  near  the 
•'s  prison,  from  whence  I  was  told  they  dare  not  remove  him. 
1'  <  ure  to  yourself  the  emotions  which  must  have  assailed  me  on  my 
aiTival'at  his  room,  to  which  I  was  admitted  as  his  old  college  class 
mate  !  On  a  bed  without  curtains  lay  poor  Phil,  pale  and  languid, 
his  rolling,  distorted  eyeballs  darting  forth  the  flashes  of  delirium. 
On  one  side  of  him,  on  the  same  bed,  lay  his  agonized  father  ;  on  the 
other,  his  distracted  mother;  around  him  numerous  relatives  and 
friends,  weeping  and  fixed  in  sorrow.  Blanched  with  astonishment 
and  affright  was  the  countenance,  which,  a  few  minutes  before,  was 
illumined  by  the  smile  of  merriment.  I  could  continue  in  the  room 
l»ut  a  very  short  tinle.  Returning  home,  I  quickened  my  pace 
almost  unconsciously,  hoping  to  escape  the  image  as  well  as  the 
reality  of  what  I  had  witnessed." 

Strange  coincidence  !  Three  years  later,  near  the  same  place, 
surrounded  by  nearly  the  same  company,  lay  the  father  of  this  ill- 
;ed  youth,  dying  from  a  similar  wound,  received  in  a  similar 
encounter,  on  the  same  spot !  The  young  man  lingered  through  the 
night  in  great  agony,  and  died  about  five  o'clock  on  the  following 
nnu-iiing.  His  father  was  so  overcome  by  his  grief,  at  the  funeral, 
that  lu-  had  to  be  supported  to  the  grave  between  two  of  his  friends. 

The  hapless  youth,   whose  life  was  thus  suddenly  extinguishi-d, 

appears  to  have  been  chiefly  noted  for  the  gayety  of  his  disposition, 

wlurli  made  him  a  favorite  with  his  young  friends.     It  was  thought 

a  tine  thing  then  for  a  young  man  to  be  dissolute.     People  fooli>lily 

;drd  it  as  a  proof  of  spirit ;  and,  consequently,  few  thought  the 

of  ••  IMiil   Hamilton"  for  being  "a  gay  boy  about  town."     This 

i>  a  noi  her  proof  that  the  world  is  both  wiser  and  better  than  it  was 

irs  ago.     We  now  know  that  dissipation  in  a  young  man  is 

not  an  indication  of  "spirit,"  but  an  absolute  proof  of  the  want  of  it. 

Dull,  indeed,  must  be  the  youth  who  needs   artificial   aid   to   gayety 

ami  merriment. 

Tin-  standing  of  Aaron  Burr  in  the  Republican  party  was 
destroyed  many  months  before  his  duel  with  General  Hamilton,  and 
it  was  destroyed  by  ralumny.  True  it  is  that  the  man  had  no  right 
to  a  place  in  the  party  at  all ;  for  his  political  convictions,  if  he  had 


DOWNFALL   OF   AAEON   BURR.  663 

any,  and  the  natural  bias  of  his  mind,  were  anti-Republican.  Nev 
ertheless,  the  specific  charge  that  destroyed  him  was  false.  The 
charge  was,  that,  during  the  existence  of  the  tie  in  1801,  he  had 
intrigued  with  the  Federalists  to  be  elected  to  the  first  place  in  the 
government,  instead  of  the  second.  This  was  not  only  morally 
improbable,  but  physically  impossible  ;  but  the  accusation  sufficed, 
in  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  time  and  place,  to  deprive  him 
of  the  confidence  of  his  party. 

In  January,  1804,  the  year  of  the  presidential  election,  and  six 
months  before  the  duel,  he  sought  an  interview  with  Mr.  Jefferson, 
and  conversed  with  him  at  great  length  upon  his  own  position.  He 
frankly  told  the  president,  that,  in  his  opinion,  it  would  be  for  the 
interests  of  the  Republican  party  that  he  should  not  attempt  to  secure 
a  renomination  to  the  vice-presidency.  It  would  divide  the  party,  he 
thought ;  but,  if  he  were  to  retire  voluntarily,  it  would  be  said  that 
he  shrunk  from  the  public  condemnation. 

"  My  enemies,"  said  he,  "  are  using  your  name  to  destroy  me ; 
and  something  is  necessary  from  you  to  prevent  it,  and  deprive  them 
of  that  weapon,  —  some  mark  of  favor  from  you,  which  will  declare 
to  the  world  that  I  retire  with  your  confidence." 

Mr.  Jefferson  replied,  that  as  he  had  never  interfered  with  the 
election  of  1800,  nor  with  the  choice  of  candidates,  so  in  the  election 
then  coming  on,  he  was  observing  the  same  line  of  conduct :  he  held 
no  councils  with  anybody  respecting  it,  nor  suffered  any  one  to  speak 
to  him  on  the  subject,  as  he  believed  it  to  be  his  duty  to  leave  him 
self  to  the  free  discussion  of  the  public. 

"  I  do  not,"  continued  the  president,  "  at  this  moment  know,  nor 
have  ever  heard,  who  were  to  be  proposed  as  candidates  for  the  pub 
lic  choice,  except  so  far  as  can  be  gathered  from  the  newspapers." 

Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  respond  favorably  to  Colonel  Burr's  request 
to  be  appointed  to  one  of  the  great  offices  in  the  president's  gift. 
Politics  make  strange  bedfellows.  Without  liking  or  ever  impli 
citly  trusting  Colonel  Burr,  he  had  been  connected  wth  him  for 
many  years  by  party  ties  ;  and  Burr  had  certainly  contributed  mate 
rially  to  the  success  of  the  Republican  party  in  1800.  He  had  lived 
on  terms  of  perfect  civility  with  the  vice-president,  but  no  more. 
On  this  occasion,  he  distinctly  enough  declined  to  nominate  Burr  to 
the  office  which,  doubtless,  both  of  them  had  in  their  minds  at  the  time, 
—  that  of  minister  to  France.  Colonel  Burr  left  the  matter  with 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  president  for  further  consideration.  The  subject,  however,  was 
never  renewed  between  them. 

l'> i irr  pursued  his  destiny.  Defeated  in  a  contest  for  the  gover- 
.ip  of  New  York,  he  challenged  to  mortal  combat  his  old  rival 
at  the  bar  and  constant  opponent  in  politics,  Alexander  Hamilton, 
whom  he  must  have  regarded  as  the  chief  cause  of  his  late  failure. 
That  fatal  duel  on  the  llth  of  July,  1804,  made  him  a  fugitive  and 
a  wanderer  on  the.  face  of  the  earth.  He  returned,  however,  to 
AVasiiin^iMii,  where  he  completed  with  credit  his  term  of  service  as 
vice-pivsident,  and  then  entered  upon  that  career  of  western  adven 
ture  :md  conspiracy  which  ended  in  his  total  ruin. 

In  the  spring  of  1806,  before  taking  the  irretrievable  step,  being 
in  the  city  of  Washington,  he  again  applied  to  the  president  for  an 
appoint  mi-lit.  He  claimed,  and  justly  claimed,  that  he  had  assisted 
to  place  the  present  administration  in  power.  He  added,  that  he 
could  do  Mr.  Jefferson  much  harm,  but  he  wished  to  be  on  different 
grounds  with  him.  He  was  now  disengaged  from  all  particular 
business,  was  willing  to  engage  in  something,  and  should  be  in 
town  some  days,  if  the  president  should  have  any  thing  to  propose 
to  him. 

The  president  had  nothing  to  propose  to  him.  Mr.  Jefferson 
rcpli.-d,  — • 

"I  have  a' ways  been  sensible  that  you  possessed  talents  which 
might  be  employed  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  public;  and,  as 
to  my.-elf,  I  have  a  confidence,  that,  if  you  were  employed,  you  would 
u-e  y»ur  talents  for  the  public  good.  But  you  must  be  sensible  that 
the  publie  have  withdrawn  their  confidence  from  you;  and  in  a  gov 
ernment  like  ours  it  is  necessary  to  embrace  in  its  administration 
Deal  a  mass  of  public  confidence  as  possible,  by  employing  those 
who  have  a  I'hara.-vr  with  the  public  of  their  own,  and  not  merely 
a  secondary  "lie  through  the  executive." 

"If  we  l^lieve  a  few  newspapers,"  said  Burr,  "it  maybe  sup- 
i  that  1  have  lost  the  public,  conlidence;  but  you  know  how 
:^a^e  new-papers  in  any  thing." 

"  I  do  :  ."  rejoined  the  president,  "to  that  kind  of  evidence 

of  your  having  lost  the  public  confidence,  but  to  the  late  presiden 
tial  eleetion.  when,  though  in  possession  of  the  office  of  vice-presi 
dent,  there  was  not  a  single  voice  heard  for  your  retaining  it.  As 


DOWNFALL  OF  AAEON  BURR.  665 

to  any  harm  you  can  do  me,  I  know  no  cause  why  you  should 
desire  it ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  I  fear  no  injury  which  any  man 
can  do  me.  I  have  never  done  a  single  act,  or  been  concerned  in 
any  transaction,  which  I  fear  to  have  fully  laid  open,  or  which  could 
do  me  any  hurt  if  truly  stated/7 

Burr  remained  in  Washington  for  a  month  after  this  interview, 
during  which  he  dined  with  the  president ;  and,  when  he  was  about 
to  depart,  he  called  to  take  leave.  Soon  after  he  directed  his  course 
westward,  and  was  seen  in  Washington  no  more. 

A  year  passed.  The  disappearance  from  the  scene  of  his  former 
activity  of  so  remarkable  a  person  as  Colonel  Burr  was,  of  itself, 
provocative  of  curiosity.  But  in  September,  1806,  the  president 
began  to  receive  intimations  of  strange  and  suspicious  movements 
in  the  western  country,  in  which  Burr  seemed  to  be  the  chief  per 
son  concerned.  He  deemed  it  best  to  send  to  the  Ohio  George 
Graham,  a  confidential  clerk  in  the  War-Office,  who  was  directed  to 
ascertain  the  nature  and  object  of  these  movements.  Graham 
directed  his  course  to  Blennerhassett  Island,  where  a  few  conversa- 
tions  with  the  credulous  lord  of  the  isle  made  him  acquainted  with 
the  general  purport  of  the  scheme.  Meanwhile  Mr.  Jefferson 
received  from  General  Wilkinson  unquestionable  proofs  that  an 
irregular  and  lawless  project  of  some  kind  was  on  foot,  of  which 
Aaron  Burr  was  the  ruling  spirit.  A  short  proclamation  shattered 
the  scheme  in  an  instant,  and  made  the  adventurer  a  fugitive  in  the 
Alabama  forests.  He  was  arrested,  and  brought  to  Richmond  for 
trial. 

And  now  the  Federalists  gave  another  proof  of  what  I  have 
before  deliberately  asserted,  that,  of  all  the  parties  that  ever  rose  to 
power  in  a  free  country,  this  one,  composed  chiefly  of  the  educated 
portion  of  the  people,  was  the  most  destitute  of  political  morality. 
What  could  Aaron  Burr  have  done  against  the  Federalists  that  he 
had  not  done  ?  He  had  actively  opposed  them  from  th«  first  year 
of  their  existence  as  a  party.  He  had  been  one  of  the  principal 
means  of  their  expulsion  from  power.  He  had  resisted  their  over 
tures  to  reconciliation.  He  had  slain  their  leader.  And  now  he  had 
engaged  in  a  scheme,  winch,  though  it  might  have  stopped  short  of 
treason,  was  known  to  be  improper  and  unlawful.  Nevertheless,  no 
sooner  had  he  reached  Eichmond  a  prisoner,  than  the  Federalists 


666  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

took  him  up,  affected  to  sympathize  with  him  as  a  martyr,  extolled, 
Ctressed,  and  feted  him.  John  Marshall,  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, — even  he,  a  man  punctili 
ously  just  when  politics  were  not  involved,  accepted  an  invitation 
to  a  dinner  given  in  honor  of  Aaron  Burr,  and  which  he  was 
expressly  informed  Aaron  Burr  was  to  attend.  The  judge 
dined  in  company  with  the  man  whom  he  knew  he  was  about  to 
try  on  a  capital  charge.  1'ederalists  in  New  York  made  a  pretence 
raining  a  briefless  barrister,  named  Washington  Irving,  himself 
:i  Federalist,  who  went  to  Richmond,  ostensibly  to  take  part  in  the 
trial,  but  really  to  employ  in  behalf  of  the  prisoner  the  most  ele- 
j>en  of  America.  The  long  list  of  able  advocates  who  assisted 
Burr  i lid  so  quite  as  much  for  party  as  for  professional  reasons. 

Luthur  Martin,  then  the  head  of  the  Maryland  bar,  made  no 
secret  that  the  motive  which  actuated  him  was  political.  This 
.  :ind  now  almost  forgotten  character,  was  born  in  New  Jer 
sey,  in  1744 ;  and,  after  graduating  at  Princeton,  wandered  off  to 
Maryland,  where  he  taught  school,  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to 
practice.  Very  early  in  his  career  he  became  a  man  of  distinction  ; 
for  he  served  in  Congress  during  the  Revolutionary  War  ;  and  by 
the  time  he  was  forty  years  of  age,  he  was,  beyond  all  comparison, 
the  head  of  the  bar  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  At  a  time  \\heii 
learning  was  the  prime  requisite  for  success  at  the  bar,  and  the 
quality  held  in  most  respect  both  by  the  profession  and  the  people, 
lie  WHS  admitted  to  be  the  most  learned  of  lawyers.  At  what  period 
of  his  life  he  fell  under  the  slavery  of  drink,  no  one  has  recorded. 
But  we  know  that  before  he  was  fifty  years  of  age  the  habit  was 
lixed.  and  had  made  serious  depredations  on  his  character  and 
talents. 

When  young  Roger  Taney,  in  1795,  came  up  to  Annapolis  to 
study  law.  and  visited  the  court  where  the  three  judges  still  wore 
Ion;.;  scarlet  cloaks,  and  sat  in  a  solemn  row  in  three  great  chairs  on 
a  l"i;y  plan-Tin,  he  was  all  curiosity  to  see  the  great  Luther  Martin, 
thi-ii  near  the  height  of  his  reputation.  Great  was  the  disappoint 
ment  of  the  youth.  He  saw  before  him  a  coarse-looking,  dirty,  and 
ill-div»ed  man,  who  had  come  into  court  under  the  influence  of 
liquor.  His  attire  wa-  a  distiv»iii<,'  mixture  of  the  gay  and  the 
uiK'leaii.  lie  wore  ruflles  at  his  wrists,  bordered  with  costly  lace, 
although  they  had  long  ago  gone  out  of  fashion  j  and  those  ruffles, 


DOWNFALL   OF   AAEON  BURR.  667 

conspicuously  broad,  were  rumpled  and  dirty.  His  voice,  always 
harsh,  cracked  when  lie  was  much  excited ;  his  arguments  were  full 
of  digressions ;  and,  as  he  indulged  in  constant  repetition,  his 
speeches  were  usually  very  long.  He  was  really  a  very  good  scholar, 
and  wrote  with  classical  correctness ;  but  he  seemed  to  take  a  bar 
barous  pleasure  in  using  such  words  as  cotch  for  caught,  and  sot  for 
sat.  At  a  table,  too,  his  manners  were  coarse  and  disgusting. 

With  all  these  obvious  and  offensive  faults,  which  constantly  grew 
upon  him,  he  held  his  place  at  the  head  of  his  profession  for  at 
least  twenty  years.  The  late  Chief-justice  Taney  explains  this 
mystery :  — 

"  He  was  a  profound  lawyer.  He  never  missed  the  strong  points 
of  his  case ;  and,  although  much  might  have  been  generally  better 
omitted,  everybody  who  listened  to  him  would  agree  that  nothing 
could  be  added.  He  had  an  iron  memory,  and  forgot  nothing  that 
he  had  read ;  and  he  had  read  a  great  deal  on  every  branch  of 
law,  and  took  pleasure  in  showing  it  when  his  case  did  not  require 
it.  Many  years  after  I  came  to  the  bar,  when  I  was  engaged  in  an 
important  case  on  the  same  side  with  Mr.  Shaaff,  and  Mr.  Martin 
was  opposed  to  us,  Mr.  Shaaff  and  myself  went  over  the  case  to 
gether  very  carefully  ;  and  when  we  had  done  with  the  examination, 
he  said,  ( I  think  the  case  is  with  us,  and  I  see  nothing  in  it  to  be 
afraid  of;  but  I  am  always  afraid  of  Martin*  Yet  Mr.  Shaaff 
ranked  then  with  the  foremost  men  in  Maryland." 

The  greatest  of  Luther  Martin's  professional  triumphs  was  afc 
the  trial  of  Judge  Chase  of  the  Supreme  Court,  in  1805,  at  Wash 
ington.  Judge  Chase  was  a  violent,  arrogant  man,  who,  it  was 
charged,  had  allowed  his  prejudices  as  a  politician  to  influence  his 
decisions  as  a  judge.  The  impeachment  created  universal  interest, 
and  attracted  a  great  multitude  of  people  from  all  parts  of  the 
country.  Aaron  Burr,  the  vice-president,  presided  j  and  the  Sen 
ate  Chamber  was  fitted  up  in  grand  style,  with  places  for  the  for 
eign  ambassadors,  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
other  spectators.  The  senators  sat  in  a  great  semicircle  on  each 
side  of  the  vice-president,  and  the  temporary  galleries  were  draped 
with  blue  cloth  ;  the  whole  presenting  a  scene  that  must  have  been 
striking  in  the  extreme.  A  special  interest  was  imparted  to  the 


6G8  LIFE  OP   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

trial   by  the  situation  of  Colonel  Burr.     His  duel  with   Hamilton 

h;i.l   oeVurred  a  few  months  before;   two  indictments   for  murder 

_:iug  over  his  head ;  and  he  had  been  for  months  a  fugitive 

ice.     But  he  bore  himself  on  this  occasion  with  a  coolness 

uii'l  dignity  that  excited  universal  admiration.     He  conducted  the 

trial,  as  an  editor  of  the  day  remarked,   "with   the    dignity  and 

impartiality  of  an  angel,  but  with  the  rigor  of  a  devil." 

The  working  man  of  this  trial,  he  whose  exertions  decided   its 
,  was  Luther  Martin.     He  was  not  only  a  friend  and  fellow- 
n  of  Judge  Chase;  but  he  sympathized  with  him  in  politics 
t<>  the  uttermost.     Martin  was  an  infuriate  Federalist,  or,  as  Jeffer 
son  called  hirfi,  "a  Federal  bull-dog;"  and  he  threw  himself  into 
tin-  defence  with  a  mixture  of  coolness  and  impetuosity,  of  passion- 
.rdor  and  quiet  dexterity,  altogether  peculiar  to  himself.     Every 
sperili.-ution  he  sifted  to  the  bottom,  and  exhausted  every  argument 
tending  to  refute  it.     For  four  weeks,  during  which  the  trial  lasted, 
li«-   was   always   in   his   place,   prompt,   indefatigable,   vigilant.     It 
\\u>  unquestionably  he  who  secured  the  judge's   acquittal.     Many 
of  tin-  charges  were  distinctly  proved;  but  on  no  one  of  them  was 
In-  eondeinned  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  which  the  laws  require.     Ho 

at  once  convicted  and  acquitted. 

Two  years  after  Aaron  Burr  himself  was  on  trial  at  Richmond. 
IT  remembered  the  great  services  of  Luther  Martin,  and  secured 
his  a>-istance  for  his  own  defence.  Into  this  service  Martin 
entered  with  a  zeal  due  more  to  his  hatred  of  Jefferson  than  to 
his  love  of  Burr;  and  for  six  months  he  abandoned  all  his  other 
j,  and  devoted  himself — heart,  soul,  and  purse  —  to  the  deliv- 
eranee  of  his  client.  He  became  one  of  Burr's  sureties;  and  took 
the  opportunity  to  declare,  in  open  court,  that  he  was  glad  to  have, 
this  opportunity  to  give  a  public  proof  of  his  confidence  in  Colonel 
:'>  honor,  and  of  his  conviction  that  he  was  an  innocent  man. 
Tin-  vehemence  of  some  of  his  harangues  at  that  trial,  as  well  as 
their  ind'ven, -y.  wa-  most  remarkable.  On  one  occasion  he  said 
th.it  the  president  and  his  eahinet  were  "  bloodhounds  hunting  Burr 
with  a  ki-.-n  and  savage  thirst  for  bl.i.id."  His  fury  against  Jeffer- 
BOO  WM  >;i.-h  a-  to  excite  the  suspicion  in  the  president's  mind 
that  he  was  one  of  Burr's  aerompliees.  The  truth  i>,  however, 
that  strong  drink  tends  to  de-troy  all  soundness  and  moderation  of 
jud  .:id  at  this  time  there  never  was  a  waking  hour  when  he 

wa,s  not  under  the  influence  of  it 


DOWNFALL  OF  AARON  BURR.  669 

It  was  this  unconcealed  political  character  of  the  trial,  as  well  as 
the  great  number  and  great  ability  of  the  counsel  for  the  defence, 
that  induced  the  president  to  take  that  active  part  in  directing 
the  trial  which  surprises  to  this  day  the  readers  of  his  correspond 
ence.  It  so  happened,  too,  that  George  Hay,  the  attorney-general* 
of  Virginia,  who  conducted  the  prosecution,  was  very  far  from  being 
the  peer  of  the  great  lawyers  on  the  other  side.  It  was  at  Jeffer 
son's  own  request  thafc  the  brilliant  William  Wirt  lent  to  the 
prosecution  the  aid  of  his  respectable  character  and  effective  decla 
mation.  Almost  daily  Jefferson  assisted  the  prosecution  by  letters 
to  the  attorney-general.  It  had  been  more  dignified,  perhaps,  and 
more  proper,  if  he  had  held  himself  aloof  from  all  such  interference. 
Nothing,  however,  can  be  more  evident  than  that  the  object  which 
Martin  and  his  colleagues  had  nearest  their  hearts  was,  not  to  save 
Aaron  Burr,  but  to  damn  Thomas  Jefferson;  and  human  beings 
are  so  constituted,  that  they  do  not  usually  submit  to  be  destroyed 
without  an  effort  to  prevent  it.  Hence  he  gave  to  his  friend, 
George  Hay,  the  benefit  of  his  legal  knowledge.  He  was.  also  con 
vinced  that  the  mind  of  the  chief  justice  was  so  warped  by  political 
prejudice,  that  he  was  disqualified  from  giving  impartial  decisions. 
The  judge's  dining  with  Burr  before  the  trial  was  an  act  which 
the  judge  himself  afterward  regretted.  Nor  can  I  believe  that 
John  Marshall,  in  his  later  years,  would  have  sustained  an  opinion 
which  he  threw  out  in  the  course  of  this  trial,  that  the  president 
could  himself  be  compelled  to  appear  in  the  court  as  a  witness. 
Jefferson's  reply  to  this  appears  unanswerable. 

"  As  to  our  personal  attendance  at  Richmond,"  he  wrote,  "  I  am 
persuaded  the  Court  is  sensible  that  paramount  duties  to  the  nation 
at  large  control  the  obligation  of  compliance  with  their  summons  in 
this  case,  as  they  would,  should  we  receive  a  similar  one  to  attend 
the  trials  of  Blennerhasset  and  others  in  the  Mississippi  territory, 
those  instituted  in  St.  Louis  and  other  places  on  the  western  waters, 
or  at  any  place  other  than  the  seat  of  government.  To  comply 
with  such  calls  would  leave  the  nation  without  an  executive  branch, 
whose  agency,  nevertheless,  is  understood  to  be  so  constantly  neces 
sary,  that  it  is  the  sole  branch  which  the  Constitution  requires  to 
be  always  in  function." 


G70  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

The  course  of  public  events  produced  a  decisive  commentary  on 

tlii.-;    passage   of  the   president's   letter.      Two   days    after   it   was 

written  occurred  the  attack  upon  the  American  frigate  Chesapeake 

in  rhr.-upeake  Bay  by  an  English  vessel  of  war,  which   roused  the 

duidignatioD    of   the  whole    country  to   a   degree    never   surpassed 

re  or  since.     The  mere  absence  of  the  president  from*  the  seat 

of  government  at  that  moment  might  have  precipitated  the  two 

:ries   into  war,  for  which   an   immense  .majority  of  the  people 

prepared. 

Uurr  was  acquitted  on  technical  grounds.  He  left  the  court, 
however,  covered  with  an  opprobrium  which  still  clings  to  his  name. 
Tin-  report  of  the  trial  satisfied  every  reasonable  mind,  that,  in 
anvsiinij  tin-  scheme  and  the  schemer,  the  president  had  done  an 
.  liieh  lie  could  not  have  omitted  without  grievous  fault.  The 
o'li'iuet  «.f  the  Federalists,  during  the  trial  of  Burr,  would  have 
filled  up  the  measure  of  their  ruin,  if  a  new  issue  had  not 
ari.-«-n  that  withdrew  public  attention  from  it,  and  gave  to  the 
roinl'.itive  side  of  human  nature  a  certain  prominence  that  is 
highly  favorable  to  reactionary  ideas.  The  region  of  the  brain 
where  Toryism  has  its  seat  lies  chiefly  behind  the  ears. 


CHAPTER  LXVI. 

THE   EMBARGO. 

JEFFERSON'S  constitutional  aversion  to  war,  and  his  known  prefer 
ence  for  peaceful  methods  of  proceeding,  gave  to  the  anti-Christians 
of  his  day  a  fruitful  theme  of  vituperation.  It  is  amusing  to  read 
the  expressions  of  scorn  to  which  eminent  churchmen  gave  utterance, 
when  they  spoke  of  Jefferson's  principle  of  exhausting  every  expe 
dient  known  to  the  diplomatist's  art  before  entertaining  the  thought 
of  war.  "There  is  just  now,"  wrote  Gouverneur  Morris,  when  he 
heard  of  Monroe's  appointment,  "  so  much  philosophy  among  our 
rulers,  that  we  must  not  be  surprised  at  the  charge  of  pusillanimity. 
And  our  people  have  so  much  of  the  mercantile  spirit,  that,  if  other 
.nations  will  keep  their  hands  out  of  our  pockets,  it  will  be  no  trifling 
insult  that  will  rouse  us.  Indeed,  it  is  the  fashion  to  say,  that,  when* 
injured,  it  is  more  honorable  to  wait  in  patience  the  uncertain  issue 
of  negotiation  than  promptly  to  do  ourselves  right  by  an  act  of  hos 
tility."  These  are  light  words ;  but  the  spirit  which  they  breathe 
has  desolated  many  and  many  a  fair  province,  and  shrouded  in  hope 
less  gloom  millions  upon  millions  of  homes.  All  that  hideous, 
groundless  contest  between  Bonaparte  and  George  III.,  which  added 
sensibly  to  the  burden  of  every  honest  family  throughout  the  whole 
extent  of  Christendom;  which  did  harm  to  every  man,  and  good  to 
no  man,  —  all  sprang  from  the  spirit  which  the  jovial  Morris 
expressed  in  this  gay  letter  to  John  Parish. 

In  the  effort  to  keep  the  United  States  out  of  that  contest,  Jeffer 
son  gave  a  brief  access  of  strength  to  the  anti-Christian  party.  The 
outrages  of  the  English  captains  were,  indeed,  most  hard  to  bear; 
and  the  question  whether  or  not  they  ought  to  be  borne,  was  one 
upon  which  the  wisest  men  might  well  differ.  All  the  Old  Adam, 
and  some  of  the  New,  rises  and  swells  within  us  when  we  read,  even 

671 


572  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

at  tli«-  distance  of  seventy  years,  of  the  Leander  firing  upon  a  coast- 
in-  vessel  Dear  Sandy  Hook,  and  killing  one  of  her  crew.  The 
•  It-lit  felt'  both  the  wrong  and  the  indignity  of  the  act.  He 
«>rd« -ivd  tlie  Leander  and  her  two  companions  out  of  the  waters  of 
the  United  States.  He  called  upon  the  civil  and  military  officers  to 
an.-st  the  offending  captain  if  found  within  their  jurisdiction.  He 
warned  all  persons  against  giving  aid  to  the  vessels  of  the  squadron. 
But  he  did  something  more  difficult  than  such  acts  as  these.  When 
tin-  treaty  reached  his  hands,  early  in  1807,  which  Monroe  and 
1'inckney,  after  a  long  and  difficult  negotiation,  had  concluded  with 
England,  discovering  that  it  contained  no  renunciation  of  the  im- 
pre->nient  claim,  and  no  adequate  concession  of  the  rights  of  neutrals, 
he  \\ould  no;  suhmit  it  to  the  Senate,  but  sent  it  back  to  London  for 
—  to  the  sore  mortification  of  Monroe.  The  more  mon- 
Btrou  ,e  upon  the  Chesapeake  followed,  rousing  the  whole 

people  to  a  degree  seldom  equalled  since  America  was  settled.     The 
i-h   >hip  Leopard  poured  broadsides  into  the  unprepared  and 
iin.-u-p.-ctinx  Che.-apeake  within  hearing  of  the   post  we  now   call 
Monroe,  killed  three  men,  wounded  eighteen,  and  carried 
a\vav  four  .Bailors  charged  with    desertion  from  the  British   navy, — 
three  Americans  and  one  Englishman.    The  Englishman  was  hanged  ; 
and  the  three  Americans  were  pardoned,  on  condition  of  returning 
• 

Parties  ceased  to  exist.     "I  had  only  to  open  my  hand,"  wrote 

01  ico,  "  and  let  havoc  loose."     Only  a  president  with  such  a 

dei-p  bold   upon  the  confidence  of  the  people  could  have  kept  the 

-•:  nor  could  any  but  a  Jefferson  have  done  it,  because,  at  such 

a  tini'-.  tlie  chief  of  the  state  is  apt  to  be  himself  possessed  by  the 

uni\«T-.d     let-ling.     He    is    a    fellow-citizen,  as  well    as    president. 

But    this   benignant   spirit    remained  true  to  itself.      "  If  ever,"  ho 

in    !>]_.  ••  I  was  gratified  with  the  possession  of  power  and  of 

the  confidence  of  those  who  had  intrusted  rne  with  it,  it  was  on  that 

ion  \\ln-n  I  was  enabled  to  use  both   for  the  prevention  of  war 

toward  which  the  torrent  of  paoion  was  directed  Jilmost  irresistibly, 

and  when  not  another  p«r>oM  in  the  Tinted  States  less  supported  by 

authority  and    favor  could   have  it."      \or    was    his   conduct 

Wanting  in  "  spirit,*      He    instantly  sent   a  frigate   to  England  with 

a   d.-iuand    for   reparation.       He    forbade   the   naval  vessels  of    Great 

Britain  all  access  to  the  harbors  of  the  United  States,  except  those 


THE   EMBAEGO.  673 

in  distress  and  those  bearing  despatches.  Two  thousand  militia  were 
posted  on  the  coast  to  prevent  British  ships  from  obtaining  supplies. 
Every  vessel  in  the  navy  was  made  ready  for  active  service,  and 
every  preparation  for  war  within  the  compass  of  the  administration 
was  pushed  forward  with  vigor.  He  privately  notified-  members  of 
Congress  to  be  ready  to  respond  to  his  summons  on  the  instant  of 
the  frigate's  return  from  England.  Decatur,  commanding  at  Norfolk, 
was  ordered  to  attack  with  all  his  force  if  the  British  fleet,  anchored 
in  the  outer  bay,  should  attempt  to  enter  the  inner.  And  the  far- 
resounding  noise  of  all  these  proceedings  called  home  from  every 
sea  the  merchant  vessels  of  the  United  States. 

He  expected  war,  and  meant,  if  it  could  not  be  prevented  honora 
bly,  to  make  the  most  of  it.  He  intended,  as  we  see  by  his  confi 
dential  letters  to  Madison,  to  swoop  upon  England's  commerce,  and 
to  avail  himself  of  the  occasion  to  bring  Spain  to  terms.  Your 
peaceable  gentlemen,  if  you  absolutely  force  them  to  a  fight,  some 
times  lay  about  them  in  an  unexpected  manner.  Thus,  we  find  the 
president,  on  the  cool  summit  of  Monticello,  in  August,  1807,  writ 
ing  upon  the  Spanish  imbroglio  to  Mr.  Madison:  "As  soon  as  we 
have  all  the  proofs  of  the  Western  intrigues,  let  us  make  a  remon 
strance,  and  demand  of  satisfaction ;  and,  if  Congress  approves,  we 
may  in  the  same  instant  make  reprisals  on  the  Floridas,  until  we  get 
satisfaction  for  that  and  for  spoliations,  and  a  settlement  of  bound 
ary.  I  had  rather  have  war  against  Spain  than  not,  if  we  go  to 
war  against  England.  Our  Southern  defensive  force  can  take  the 
Floridas,  vplunteers  for  a  Mexican  army  will  flock  to  our  standard, 
and  rich  pabulum  will  be  offered  to  our  privateers  in  the  plunder  of 
their  commerce  and  coasts.  Probably  Cuba  would  add  itself  to  our 
confederation."  It  is  evident  that  he  intended  to  make  this  war  pay 
expenses,  and  to  come  out  of  it  with  troublesome  neighbors  removed 
farther  off.  All  his  letters  of  that  summer  show  the  two  trains  of 
thought :  First,  let  us  have  no  war,  if  we  can  properly  avoid  it ; 
secondly,  if  we  must  have  war,  the  conflict  could  not  come  at  a 
better  time  than  when  England  has  a  Bonaparte  upon  her  hands, 
and  we  have  a  Spain  to  settle  with. 

Partial  reparation  was  made  for  the  outrage  upon  the  Chesapeake, 
and  formal  '-'regrets"  were  expressed  that  it  should  have  occurred; 
but  the  claim  to  board  American  vessels  and  carry  off  deserters  was 
re-affirmed  by  royal  proclamation.  No  American  ship  was  safe  from 

43 


r,7  I  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON". 

violation,  no  American  sailor  was  safe  from  impressment.  In  moot- 
in-  thifl  D6W  aspect  of  the  case,  Jefferson  took  another  leaf  from 

kl in's  book.  In  the  Stamp- Act  times,  before  the  Kevolution, 
]>r.  Franklin  was  always  an  advocate  for  the  peaceful  remedy  of 
non-in'orcourse;  and  this  had  been  a  favorite  idea  of  Jefferson's 
when  he  was  secretary  of  state.  In  1793,  when  the  allied  kings 
tried  to  starve  France  into  an  acceptance  of  the  Bourbons  by  exclud 
ing  >upplies  from  all  her  ports,  he  deemed  it  "a  justifiable  cause  of 
war.''  But  he  wrote  to  Madison  that  he  hoped  Congress,  instead  of 
dirhiring  war,  "  would  instantly  exclude  from  our  ports  all  the  man 
ufactures,  produce,  vessels,  and  subjects  of  the  nations  committing 
tin-  a --ression,  during  the  continuance  of  aggression."  The  embargo 
of  1SD7,  which  kept  all  American  vessels  and  produce  safe  at  home, 
was  conceived  in  the  same  spirit  and  had  the  same  object.  That 
ohjeet  was,  to  use  Jefferson's  own  words,  "  TO  INTRODUCE  BETWEEN 
NATION!  ANOTHER  UMPIRE  THAN  ARMS."  He  thought  that  Great 
Britain,  so  dependent  then  upon  American  materials  and  supplies, 

!  n«t  do  without  them  as  long  or  as  easily  as  we  could  do  with 
out  llie  money  they  brought. 

I'u:  this  policy  was  putting  human  nature  to  a  test  which  onl»y  a 

few  of  our  race  are  wise  and  strong  enough  to  bear.  The 
embargo,  of  course,  was  passed  by  large  majorities  and  hailed  with 
enthusiasm:  it  was  striking  back,  in  a  new  and  easy  way.  But 
when  commerce  came  to  a  stand,  when  ships  and  men  were  idle,  when 
pr-'duee  was  of  little  value,  and  nothing  could  be  clone  in  the  way  of 
remedy  but  to  wait,  then  the  embargo  was  regarded  in  a  different 
lit;!  England  suffered  most,  not  because  it  lost  most,  but 

because  it  was  more  immediately  dependent  upon  commerce  than  the 
ctln  r  States,  Nor  did  the  educated  class  in  Xew  England  give 
moral  Mipport  to  the  president  in  this  interesting  endeavor  to  intro 
duce  between  nations  ••another  umpire  than  arms." 

Tin-  inference  which  he  drew  from  the  power  of  New  England  in 

! y  breaking  down  the  embargo  is  worthy  of  note.     He  attributed 
it  to  the  township  .-ystem,  which  he  valued  most  highly,  and  strove 
to   introduce    into  Virginia.      "How   powerfully,"  he   wrote   in 

'«.  -did  we  feel  the  energy  of  this  system  in  the  case  of  the 
cmbar-o!  I  felt  the  foundations  «.f  the  government  ^laken  under 
my  feet  by  the  Xew  Finland  township.  There  was  not  an  indi 
vidual  in  tho>e  Slates  whose  body  was  not  thrown,  with  all  its 


THE  EMBAEGO.  675 

momentum,  into  action ;  and,  although  the  whole  of  the  other  States 
were  known  to  be  in  favor  of  the  measure,  yet  the  organization  of 
this  little  selfish  minority  enabled  it  to  overrule  the  Union.  What 
could  the  unwieldy  counties  of  the  Middle,  the  South,  and  the  West 
do?  Call  a  county  meeting;  and  the  drunken  loungers  at  and 
about  the  court-houses  would  have  collected,  the  distances  being  too 
great  for  the  good  people  and  the  industrious  generally  to  attend. 
As  Cato,  then,  concluded  every  speech  with  the  words,  Carthago 
delendum  est,  so  do  I  every  opinion  with  the  injunction,  DIVIDE 
THE  COUNTIES  INTO  WARDS." 

But  the  embargo  lasted  to  the  end  of  his  term.  To  the  end 
of  his  days,  he  believed,  that,  if  it  had  been  faithfully  observed  by 
the  whole  people,  it  would  have  saved  the  country  the  war  of  1812, 
and  procured,  what  that  war  did  not  procure,  an  explicit  renuncia 
tion  of  the  claim  to  board  and  search.  The  two  great  powers  of 
Europe  gave  it  their  approval,  —  Napoleon  Bonaparte  and  the  Edin 
burgh  Review.  There  was  then  living  in  a  secluded  village  of 
Massachusetts  a  marvellous  boy  of  thirteen,  famous  in  his  county 
for  the  melodious  verses  which  he  had  been  writing  for  four  or  five 
years  past,  some  of  which  had  been  published  in  the  county  paper, 
and  one  had  been  spoken  with  applause  at  a  school  exhibition.  This 
wonderful  boy,  hearing  dreadful  things  said  on  every  side  of  the 
embargo,  wrote  a  poem  on  the  subject,  which  was  published  in  Bos 
ton,  in  1808,  with  this  title,  "The  Embargo;  or,  Sketches  of  the 
Times.  A  Satire.  Together  with  the  Spanish  Revolution  and  other 
Poems.  By  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT."  That  the  father  of 
Bryant,  and  the  other  ruling  spirits  of  New  England,  should  have 
refused  their  support  to  the  embargo,  is  almost  of  itself  enough  to 
show  that  the  system  was  too  far  in  advance  of  the  time  to  be  long 
effectual.  But  it  answered  the  purpose  of  delay;  which,  in  the 
peculiar  circumstances,  was  an  immense  advantage.  "  If,"  said  the 
president  once,  "we  can  delay  but  for  a,  few  years  the  necessity  of 
vindicating  the  laws  of  nature  on  the  ocean,  we  shall  be  the  more 
sure  of  doing  it  with  effect.  The  day  is  within  my  time  as  well  as 
yours,  when  we  may  say  by  what  laws  other  nations  shall  treat  us 
on  the  sea.  And  we  will  say  it." 

How  many  things  were  settled,  how  many  happily  begun,  during 
these  eight  years  !  At  the  president's  recommendation,  the  term  of 
residence  before  naturalization  was  restored  from  fourteen  years  to 


LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

fm>.  Tit-  tried,  hut  failed,  to  procure  a  recession  of  the  District  of 
Mibia  to  Virginia  and  Maryland.  —  a  district  which  the  govern 
ment  needs  as  much  as  it  does  Terra  del  Fuego.  The  policy  was 
d,  so  far  as  brilliant  precedent  could  settle  it,  of  paying  off 
jml.lic  debt  with  all  the  rapidity  that  the  country  can  reasonably 
bear.  A  great  public  debt  exaggerates  the  importance,  the  magni 
tude,  and  the  complexity  of  government ;' and  it  is  a  Jeffersonian 
principle,  that  government  should  be  as  small  a  thing  as  it  can  be 
without  sacrifice  of  its  desirable  efficiency.  During  these  eight 
years,  the  ocean  ports  were  fortified  to  a  degree,  that,  at  least,  ena- 
1>1<-<1  the  government  to  slam  the  door  in  an  enemy's  face,  and  keep 
it  shut  during  the  next  war;  a  successful  contest  was  carried  on  in  a 
distant  sea;  the  militia  were  re-organized  and  re-armed;  the  west 
ern  po>ts  were  widely  extended;  tuxes  were  sensibly  diminished; 
thirty-three  millions  of  the  old  debt  were  extinguished;  and  the 
only  pecuniary  embarrassment  the  administration  ever  experienced 
wa-  a  surplus,  always  increasing,  for  which  there  was  no  suitable  or 
outlet.  Every  act  and  every  word  of  the  administration  was  a 
;uuation  of  welcome  to  all  the  world!  All  the  world  came 
thronging  to  these  western  shores,  bringing  with  them  power, 
wraith,  hope,  resolve,  and  all  the  stuff,  material  and  immaterial,  of 
which  empire  is  made.  When  Jefferson  came  into  power  in  1801, 
t!i:i;  man  was  a  wonder  to  his  friends  who  had  seen  the  nearest  of 
thf  we-tern  lakes;  when  Jefferson  retired  in  1809,  Astor  was  busy 
with  his  expedition  to  found  a  town  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

Tin-  general  policy  of  the  government  with  regard  to  the  Indians 
was  then  established  as  it  has  since  remained.  Jefferson  had  more 
Indian  business  than  all  the  other  presidents  put  together.  To 
inguish  *'  their  titles  by  fair  purchase,  to  introduce  among  them 
tin-  ar;>  <>f  civilization,  to  accustom  them  to  depend  more  upon  agri 
culture  and  less  upon  hunting,  and  to  push  them  gently  back  over 
the  i;.i  in  advance  of  the  coming  pioneer,  —  these  were 

umon^  tin-  i.l.jiM-ts  which  he  desired  most  to  promote.     He  was  not 
sanguine   of  sj»  edy  results.     That   is   an    amusing   passage   in   his 
Mil  Inaugural,  in  which  he  explains  the  hindcrances  in  the  way 
be  Indian's  Improvement,  and,  at  the  same  time,  gives  some  of 
his  white  hivthivn  a  box  on  the  ear.      Habit,  custom,  pride,  preju 
dice,    and    ignorance,   he   says,   all    hold   the   Indians   back;    but,    in 
addition  to  tlu-x-  internal   foes  to  progress,  there  were  among  them 


THE  EMBARGO.  677 

"  crafty  and  interested  individuals  who  feel  themselves  something  in 
the  present  order  of  things,  and  fear  to  become  nothing  in  any 
other."  These  were  the  medicine-men  ;  who  "inculcate  a  sanctimo 
nious  reverence  for  the  customs  of  their  ancestors;  that  whatso 
ever  they  did,  must  be  done  through  all  time ;  that  reason  is  a  false 
guide,  and  to  advance  under  its  counsel,  in  their  physical,  moral,  or 
political  condition,  is  perilous  innovation ;  that  their  duty  is  to 
remain  as  their  Creator  made  them,  ignorance  being  safety,  and 
knowledge  full  of  danger.  In  short,  my  friends,  among  them  is 
seen  the  action  and  counteraction  of  good  sense  and  bigotry :  they, 
too,  have  their  anti-philosophers,  who  find  an  interest  in  keeping 
things  in  their  present  state,  who  dread  reformation,  and  exert  all 
their  faculties  to  maintain  the  ascendency  of  habit  over  the  duty  of 
improving  our  reason  and  obeying  its  mandates."  This  is  an  exact 
description  of  the  arts  and  arguments  employed,  four  or  five  years 
after,  by  the  Prophet,  brother  of  Tecumseh,  in  rousing  the  Ohio 
tribes  to  war  upon  the  white  men. 


CHAPTER  LXVII. 

CORRESPONDENCE   WITH    MRS.    ADAMS. 

THE  last  two  years  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  second  term  were  laborious 
and  troubled ;  and  the  old  longing  for  home,  rest,  and  tranquillity 
gained  full  possession  of  him.  The  precedent  of  retiring  at  the  end 
of  ei^ht  years  had  not  then  acquired  the  force  of  law,  and  he  could 
unquestionably  have  been  elected  to  a  third  term.  But  eight  years 
of  the  presidency  is  enough  for  any  man.  General  Washington 
himself  in  eight  years  exhausted  his  power  to  render  good  service  in 
office ;  and  Jefferson  never  for  a  moment  had  a  thought  but  to 
re  at  the  end  of  his  second  term.  During  his  presidency,  one 
satl,  irreparable  breach  had  been  made  in  the  circle  upon  which  he 
relied  for  the  solace  of  his  old  age.  His  younger  daughter,  Maria, 
Mr-.  Kppes,  died  at  Mouticello,  in  1804.  He  stood  then  upon  the 
pinnacle  of  his  career.  Triumph  of  every  kind  had  followed  his 
endeavors,  and  a  great  majority  of  the  people  gave  him  heartfelt 
approval.  It  was  then  that  this  blow  fell.  "My  loss,"  he  wrote  to 
his  nldest  friend,  John  Page,  "is  great  indeed.  Others  may  lose  of 
their  abandonee;  but  I,  of  my  want,  have  lost  even  the  half  of  all  I 
had." 

Aiin>n<j  the  letters  of  condolence  which  reached  him  on  this  occa 
sion  was  one  from  Mrs.  Adams,  which  led  to  the  most  interesting 
correspondence  of  these  years.  The  president,  without  knowing  it, 
had  given  the  deepest  offence  to  this  gifted  lady;  but  when  the 
intelligence  readied  her  secluded  home  on  the  Massachusetts  coast, 
of  the  death  of  the  lovely  girl  whom  she  had  taken  to  her  arms  in 
London  eighteen  years  before,  and  had  cherished  ever  since  as  a 
friend,  her  tenderness  proved  stronger  than  her  resentment,  and  she 
was  in. »ved  irresistibly  to  write  to  the  bereaved  father.  She  told 
him  she  \vuuld  have  done  so  before  if  ho  had  been  only  the  private 

678 


CORRESPONDENCE   WITH   MRS.   ADAMS.  679 

inhabitant  of  Monticello ;  but  reasons  of  various  kinds  had  withheld 
her  pen,  until  the  powerful  feelings  of  her  heart  burst  through  the 
restraint.  She  recalled  the  incidents  of  her  acquaintance  with  his 
daughter;  and,  after  distantly  alluding  to  the  recent  estrangement 
between  the  families,  expressed  "the  sincere  and  ardent  wish/'  that 
he  might  find  comfort  and  consolation  in  this  day  of  his  sorrow  and 
affliction.  This,  she  said,  was  the  desire  of  "  her  who  once  took 
pleasure  in  subscribing  herself  his  friend." 

In  his  acknowledgment,  after  due  recognition  of  her  goodness  to 
his  daughter  and  to  himself,  he  frankly  told  her  what  had  given  him 
personal  offence  in  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Adams:  "I  can  say  with 
truth,  that  one  act  of  Mr.  Adams's  life,  and  one  only,  ever  gave  me 
a  moment's  personal  displeasure.  I  did  consider  his  last  appoint 
ments  to  office  as  personally  unkind.  They  were  from  among  my 
most  ardent  political  enemies,  from  whom  no  faithful  co-operation 
could  ever  be  expected,  and  laid  me  under  the  embarrassment  of 
acting  through  men  whose  views  were  to  defeat  mine,  or  to  encoun 
ter  the  odium  of  putting  others  in  their  places.  It  seems  but 
common  justice  to  leave  a  successor  free  to  act  by  instruments  of 
his  own  choice.  If  my  respect  for  him  did  not  permit  me  to  ascribe 
the  whole  blame  to  the  influence  of  others,  it  left  something  for 
friendship  to  forgive;  and  after  brooding  over  it  for  some  little  time, 
and  not  always  resisting  the  expression  of  it,  I  forgave  it  cordially, 
and  returned  to  the  same  state  of  esteem  and  respect  for  him  which 
had  so  long  subsisted." 

She  replied  with  great  spirit  and  ability,  without  a  whisper  to  her 
husband  of  what  was  transpiring.  General  Washington,  she  said, 
had  left  no  vacancies  for  his  successor  to  fill ;  and  she,  was  sure  that 
Mr.  Adams,  in  the  last  appointments,  had  meant  no  disrespect  to 
his  successor;  nor,  indeed,  had  it  been  certain,  until  after  many  of 
them  had  been  made,  that  Mr.  Jefferson  was  to  be  his  successor. 
That  point  disposed  of,  she  opened  her  heart  as  to  the  causes  of 
offence  which  Mr.  Adams  had  against  him.  One  of  these  was  his 
remission  of  the  fine  of  Callender,  condemned  under  the  Sedition 
Law  for  a  libel  upon  President  Adams.  Besides:  "One  of  the  first 
acts  of  your  administration  was  to  liberate  a  wretch  who  was  suffer 
ing  the  just  punishment  of  his  crimes  for  publishing  the  basest  libel, 
the  lowest  and  vilest  slander,  which  malice  could  invent  or  calumny 
exhibit,  against  the  character  and  reputation  of  your  predecessor ;  of 


680  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Li  in,  for  whom  you  professed  a  friendship  and  esteem,  and  whom 
.inly  knew  incapable  of  such  complicated  baseness.  The 
i  of  Calender's  fine  was  a  public  approbation  of  his  con- 
du.-t.''  Upon  this  she  expanded  with  eloquence.  But  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  done  more  than  remit  the  fine.  He  had  given  Callender  fifty 
dollars,  and  complimented  him  upon  his  writings.  "This,  sir,"  she 
added,  "was  the  sword  that  cut  asunder  the  Gordian  knot,  which 
could  not  be  untied  by  all  the  efforts  of  party  spirit,  by  rivalry,  by 
jealousy,  or  any  other  malignant  fiend."  There  was  one  other  act 
of  Lis  administration,  sLe  said,  which  she  considered  "person 
ally  unkind,"  and  which  his  own  mind  would  easily  suggest  to  him; 
but,  "as  it  affected  neither  character  nor  reputation,  she  forbore  to 

it." 

][«•   replied  to  this  fine  burst  of  a  wife's  loyal  indignation  with 
something  of  her  own  warmth  and  point.     "I  do  not  know,"  said 
In-.   ••  wlm  was  the  particular  wretch  alluded  to;  but  I  discharged 
every   person  under  punishment  or  prosecution  under  the  Sedition 
Law,  because  I  considered,  and  now  consider,  that  law  to  be  a  nullity 
,'»olute  and  as  palpable  as  if  Congress  had  ordered  us  to  fall 
down   and  worship  a  golden  image;  and  that  it  was  as  much  my 
duty  to  arrest  its  execution  at  every  stage  as  it  would  have  been  to 
10  from  the  fiery  furnace  those  who  should  have  been  cast  into 
it    tor  refusing  to  worship  the  image.     It  was  accordingly  done  in 
.    instance,   without   asking  what   the    offenders    Lad   done,  or 
ast  whom  they  had  offended,  but  whether  the  pains  tLey  were 
suffering  were  inflicted  under  the  pretended    Sedition    Law."     Ho 
showed  her,  too,  tliat  his  compliment  to  Callender  had  been  written 
heftnv   that  writer's  homely  truth  had  lapsed  into  coarse  libel,  and 
that  the  gifts  of  money  were  bestowed  to  relieve  his  destitution,  not 
reward  his  seurrility.     But  there  was  another  act  of  personal  unkind- 
ness   to    which    Mrs.  Adams   had   referred.       "I    declare,    on     my 
honor,  madam,"  said  he,  "I  have  not  the  least  conception  wliat  act 

.Eluded  to." 

In   her  reply,  which   betrayed  a  mind  only  slightly  mollified,  she 

told   him  what    this   act  was.      The  wile   had   spoken  in  the  previous 

letters;   but    it  was   now  the   mother's  turn:   "Soon  after  my  eldest 

son's  return  from  Europe,  he  was  appointed  by  the  district  judge  to 

in  which  no  political  concerns  entered.      Personally  known 

mg  all  the  qualifications, yon  yourself  being  judge, 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  MRS.   ADAMS.  681 

which  you  had  designated  for  office,  as  soon  as  Congress  gave  the 
appointments  to  the  president  you  removed  him.  This  looked  so 
particularly  pointed,  that  some  of  your  hest  friends  in  Boston  at  that 
time  expressed  their  regret  that  you  had  done  so." 

This  was  news  to  Mr.  Jefferson.  He  had  sinned  without  know 
ing  it.  With  a  patient  consideration  not  usual  in  the  head  of  a 
state,  nor  even  possible  to  one  not  gifted  with  a  genius  for  toil,  he 
entered  into  a  minute  statement  respecting  the  appointment  of  the 
commissioners  of  bankruptcy  in  Boston;  showing  her  that  the  former 
commissioners,  of  whom  John  Quincy  Adams  was  one,  had  not  been 
removed  by  an  act  of  the  president,  but  discontinued  by  a  change  in 
the  law.  "Had  I  known,"  he  added,  "that  your  son  had  acted,  it 
would  have  been  a  real  pleasure  to  me  to  have  preferred  him  to  some 
who  were  named  in  Boston,  in  what  was  deemed  the  same  line  of 
politics.''  This  last  letter,  all  kindness  and  benignity,  was  a  distinct 
proffer  of  reconciliation  to  the  whole  family. 

"  I  hope,"  said  he  in  conclusion,  "  you  will  see  these  intrusions 
on  your  time  to  be,  what  they  really  are,  proofs  of  my  great  respect 
for  you.  I  tolerate  with  the  utmost  latitude  the  right  of  others  to 
differ  from  me  in  opinion,  without  imputing  to  them  criminality.  I 
know  too  well  the  weakness  and  uncertainty  of  human  reason  to 
wonder  at  its  different  results.  Both  of  our  political  parties,  at 
least  the  honest  part  of  them,  agree  conscientiously  in  the  same 
object,  —  the  public  good ;  but  they  differ  essentially  in  what  they 
deem  the  means  of  promoting  that  good.  One  side  believes  it  best 
done  by  one  composition  of  the  governing  powers  ;  the  other  by  a 
different  one.  One  fears  most  the  ignorance  of  the  people ;  the 
other  the  selfishness  of  rulers  independent  of  them.  Which  is  right, 
time  and  experience  will  prove.  We  think  that  one  side  of  this 
experiment  has  been  long  enough  tried,  and  proved  not  to  promote 
the  good  of  the  many ;  and  that  the  other  has  not  been  fairly  and 
sufficiently  tried.  Our  opponents  think  the  reverse.  With  which 
ever  opinion  the  body  of  the  nation  concurs,  that  must  prevail.  My 
anxieties  on  this  subject  will  never  carry  me  beyond  the  use  of  fair 
and  honorable  means,  of  truth  and  reason  ;  nor  have  they  ever  les 
sened  my  esteem  for  moral  worth,  nor  alienated  my  affections  from  a 
single  friend  who  did  not  first  withdraw  himself.  Whenever  this  has 
happened,  I  confess  I  have  not  been  insensible  to  it,  yet  have  ever 
kept  myself  open  to  a  return  of  their  justice.  I  conclude  with  sin- 


682  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

cere  prayers  for  your  health  and  happiness,  that  yourself  and  Mr. 
A  >lains  may  long  enjoy  the  tranquillity  you  desire  and  merit,  and 
see  in  the  prosperity  of  your  family  what  is  the  consummation  of 
the  last  antf  warmest  of  human  wishes." 

When  a  poisoned  arrow  has  rankled  long  in  living  flesh,  the 
wound  cannot  heal  as  soon  as  the  arrow  is  withdrawn.  This  noble- 
minded  lady  accepted  her  correspondent's  personal  explanations, 
but  she  could  not  help  giving  him  a  little  lecture  about  the  very 
great  importance  of  appointing  the  right  men  to  office.  The  arrow 
was  withdrawn ;  but  time,  the  all-healer,  had  to  perform  his  part 
before  the  reconciliation  could  be  complete.  Time  began  upon  it  at 
once.  Soon  after  she  had  "  closed  this  correspondence  "  with  one  of 
those  admonitory  prayers  by  which  pious  souls  sometimes  bestow  a 
parting  slap,  she  gave  the  letters  to  her  husband  to  read.  The  old 
man  was  still  under  a  cloud  of  obloquy,  and  perhaps  not  reconciled 
to  that  sudden  change  in  his  way  of  life  which  had  occurred  four 
s  before.  In  the  year  1800,  his  grandson  tells  us,  the  letters 
aiMrcsscd  to  him  might  be  counted  by  thousands ;  but  after  his 
r<-t  irrin. -nt  to  Quincy,  he  received  about  two  letters  a  week.  He 
could  not  but  be  pleased  to  learn  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  letters  that 
his  good-will  was  still  an  object  of  desire  with  the  chief  of  the 
nar ion.  When  he  had  read  the  packet  of  letters  all  through,  he 
•  upon  the  last  one  these  words  :  "  Quincy,  November  19,  1804. 
Tin-  whole  of  this  correspondence  was  begun  and  conducted  without 
my  knowledge  or  suspicion.  Last  evening  and  this  morning,  at  the 
(loin-  i.t'  Mrs.  Adams,  I  read  the  whole.  I  have"  no  remarks  to  make 
up"ii  it  at  this  time  and  in  this  place.  J.  ADAMS."  Time  did  the 
rest,  with  the  help  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  It  was  all  right  between 
them  in  1812;  and  the  letters  they  exchanged  during  the  rest  of 
their  lives  are  among  the  most  interesting  the  world  possesses. 


CHAPTER  LXVIII. 

RETIREMENT   FROM   THE   PRESIDENCY. 

JEFFERSON'S  final  release  from  public  life,  after  a  nearly  contin 
uous  service  of  forty-four  years,  was  now  at  hand.  During  the  last 
years  of  his  presidency  he  had  lost  in  some  degree  "  the  run  "  of  his 
private  affairs,  —  a  fact  which  any  one  will  understand  who  has  ever 
been  absorbed  for  a  long  time  in  concerns  of  magnitude  and  diffi 
culty  not  personal.  Every  one  who  has  ever  put  his  whole  heart 
into  writing  a  book  or  conducting  a  periodical  understands  it. 
Groceries  elude  the  sweep  of  vision  that  takes  in  all  the  affairs  and 
interests  of  a  great  country  or  a  great  subject ;  and  no  man  can 
easily  subside  from  the  triumph  of  an  important  measure  or  the  rap 
ture  of  a  "  good  number,"  to  that  exact  consideration  which  monthly 
accounts  demand.  Little  by  little,  the  mind  floats  away  from  all 
that  detail,  until,  at  last,  a  kind  of  real  inability  to  grasp  it  takes 
the  place  of  former  vigilant  attention  ;  which  is  only  another  way 
of  saying  that  a  president  should  be,  if  convenient,  a  married  man. 
A  few  months  before  his  retirement  it  occurred  to  him  to  look  into 
his  affairs,  and  see  how  be  was  coming  out  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1809.  To  his  consternation  and  horror,  he  found  that  there  would  be 
a  most  serious  deficit.  His  plantations  had  only  yielded  four  or  five 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  at  the  best;  but  the  embargo,  by  preventing 
the  exportation  of  tobacco,  had  cut  his  private  income  down  two- 
thirds.  "  Nothing,"  he  wrote  to  his  merchant  in  Richmond,  "  had 
been  more  fixed  than  my  determination  to  keep  my  expenses  here 
within  the  limits  of  my  salary ;  and  I  had  great  confidence  that  I 
had  done  so.  Having,  however,  trusted  to  rough  estimates  by  my 
head,  and  not  being  sufficiently  apprised  of  the  outstanding  accounts, 
I  find,  on  a  review  of  my  affairs  here  as  they  will  stand  on  the  3d 
of  March,  that  I  shall  stand  three  or  four  months'  salary  behindhand. 


684  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

In  ordinary  cases,  this  degree  of  arrearage  would  not  be  serious ;  but 
the  scale  of  the  establishment  here  it  amounts  to  seven  or  eight 
thousand  dollars,  which  being  to  come  out  of  my  private  fands  will 
1..-  t'.-lt  by  them  sensibly."  He  requests  his  correspondent  to  arrange 
a  loan  for  him  at  a  Eichmond  bank,  and  urges  him  to  lose  no  time. 
'•  Since  I  have  become  sensible  of  this  deficit,"  he  added,  "I  have 
hi -i -ii  under  an  agony  of  mortification,  and  therefore  must  solicit  as 
much  urgency  in  the  negotiation  as  the  case  will  admit.  My  inter 
vening  nights  will  be  almost  sleepless,  as  nothing  could  be  more 
distressing  to  me  than  to  leave  debts  here  unpaid,  if,  indeed,  I  should 
be  permitted  to  depart  with  them  unpaid,  of  which  I  am  by  no 


Such  is  the  price,  or  rather  a  very  small  part  of  the  price,  which 
citi/.ens  of  the  United  States  have  often  had  to  pay  for  the  privilege 
i.t'  Barring  their  country.  The  privilege  is  worth  the  price;  but  it 
fe  to  put  the  price  so  high  that  only  a  very  great  or  a  very 
little  man  can  find  his  account  in  paying  it.  Poverty  and  abuse, — 
a  Tweed  will  undertake  a  city  on  those  terms.  So  will  a  Jefferson. 
But  Jeffersons  do  not  grow  on  every  bush ;  and  Tweeds  can  be  had 
on  most  wharves-  of  any  extent.  The  loan  was  effected,  however ; 
ami  Mr.  Jefferson  was  thus  enabled  to  get  home  to  Monticello 
without  danger  of  being  arrested  for  debt  upon  the  suit  of  a  Feder 
alist  with  a  taste  for  a  sensation. 

.iin  Bacon,  with  two  great  wagons  each  drawn  by  six  mules 
and  one  drawn  by  four  horses,  came  from  Monticello.  He  left 
Washington  with  his  wagons  loaded,  on  the  3d  of  March,  leaving 
Mr.  Jefferson  behind  to  attend  the  inauguration  of  his  successor, 
aii-l  to  close  up  his  various  affairs  of  business  and  friendship.  From 
i-vi-ry  quarter  of  the  country  came  testimonials  of  grateful  regard 
fro-m  Republicans;  and  Federalists,  to  the  last,  bestowed  upon  him 
the  homage  of  their  hate  and  apprehension.  Josiah  Quincy  was 
relieved  by  his  departure.  "Jefferson  is  a  host,''  he  wrote  in  his 
diary  during  one  of  the  last  embargo  debates;  "and,  if  the  wand  of 
tin-  magician  is  not  broken,  he  will  yet  defeat  the  attempt.  But  I 
hope  his  power  is  drawing  to  an  end  in  this  world."  All  things  end 
at  la>t.  Captain  Bacon's  train  of  wagons  moved  away;  and  a 
ivmarkaMe  procession  indeed  must  have  arrested  the  attention  of 
passers-by  as  it  hove  in  sight,  heaped  high  with  boxes  and  shrub- 


RETIREMENT   FROM  THE  PRESIDENCY.  685 

bery,'and  eleven  colored  servants  stowed  away  in  convenient  spots 
on  the  various  summits,  followed  by  the  president's  four-horse  car 
riage.  In  this  last  vehicle  rode  Mr.  Bacon,  and  thus  caught  some 
of  the  roadside  "  ovations "  intended  for  another.  The  worthy 
manager  was  nearly  three  weeks  in  getting  home  through  the  mud 
and  storm  of  a  cold,  dismal  spring;  so  that  Mr.  Jefferson  overtook 
him  at  Culpeper  Court-House,  though  he  did  not  start  till  the 
wagons  had  been  a  week  on  the  road. 

"  On  our  way  home,"  Bacon  reports,  "  it  snowed  very  fast,  and 
when  we  reached  Culpeper  Court-House  it  was  half-leg  deep.  A 
large  crowd  of  people  had  collected  there,  expecting  that  the  presi 
dent  would  be  along.  When  I  rode  up,  they  thought  I  was  the 
president,  and  shouted  and  hurrahed  tremendousty.  When  I  got 
out  of  the  carriage,  they  laughed  very  heartily  at  their  mistake. 
There  was  a  platform  along  the  whole  front  of  the  tavern,  and  it 
was  full  of  people.  Some  of  them  had  been  waiting  a  good  while, 
and  drinking  a  good  deal;  and  they  made  so  much  noise,  that  they 
scared  the  horses,  and  Diomede  backed,  and  trod  upon  my  foot,  and 
lamed  me  so  that  I  could  hardly  get  into  the  carriage  the  next 
morning.  There  was  one  verjr  tall  old  fellow,  that  was  noisier  than 
any  of  the  rest,  who  said  he  was  bound  to  see  the  president,  — 
'  Old  Tom,'  he  called  him.  They  asked  me  when  he  would  be  along  ; 
and  I  told  them  I  thought  he  would  certainly  be  along  that  night, 
and  I  looked  for  him  every  moment.  The  tavern  was  kept  by  an 
old  man  named  Shackleford.  I  told  him  to  have  a  large  fire  built 
in  a  private  room,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  would  be  very  cold  when  he  got 
there ;  and  he  did  so.  I  soon  heard  shouting,  went  out,  and  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  in  sight.  He  was  in  a  one-horse  vehicle, — a  phaeton, 
—  with  a  driver,  and  a  servant  on  horseback.  When  he  came  up, 
there  was  great  cheering  again.  I  motioned  to  him  to  follow  me ; 
took  him  straight  to  his  room,  and  locked  the  door.  The  tall  old 
fellow  came  and  knocked  very  often,  but  I  would  not  Iqt  him  in.  I 
told  Mr.  Jefferson  not  to  mind  him,  he  was  drunk.  Finally  the 
door  was  opened,  and  they  rushed  in  and  filled  the  room.  It  was 
as  full  as  I  ever  saw  a  bar-room.  He  stood  up,  and  made  a  short 
address  to  them.  Afterwards  some  of  them  told  him  how  they  had 
mistaken  me  for  him.  He  went  on  next  day,  and  reached  Monti- 
cello  before  we  did." 

But  not  till  he  had  encountered  another  snow-storm,  still  more 


G86  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

violent.  "  As  disagreeable  a  snow-storm  as  I  was 
.JrrtWson.  During  the  last  three  days  of  the  journey  he  was  glad  to 
abandon  his  phaeton  and  take  to  one  of  his  horses.  On  reaching 
Moiiticello,  he  found  that  his  sixty-six  years  had  not  sensibly 
lessened  the  vigor  of  his  frame;  for  this  rough  journey  had  done  him 
no  harm  which  a  night's  rest  could  not  repair. 


CHAPTER   LXIX. 

AT    MONTICELLO. 

AFTER  his  retirement  from  the  presidency,  in  1809,  Jefferson 
lived  seventeen  years.  He  was  still  the  chief  personage  of  the 
United  States.  Between  himself  and  the  president  there  was  such 
a  harmony  of  feeling  and  opinion,  that  the  inauguration  of  Madison 
did  little  more  than  change  the  signature  to  public  documents. 
Madison  consulted  him  on  every  important  question ;  and  Jefferson, 
besides  writing  frequently  arid  at  length,  rode  over  to  Orange  every 
year,  when  the  president  was  at  home,  and  spent  two  or  three  weeks 
at  his  house.  When  there  was  dissension  in  the  cabinet,  it  was 
Jefferson  who  restored  harmony.  Monroe  was  in  ill-humor  because 
Madison  had  been  preferred  before  himself  by  the  nominating  cau 
cus.  It  was  Jefferson  who  healed  the  breach,  and  thus  prevented 
one  in  the  Republican  party.  During  the  gloom  of  1815,  many 
Republicans  desired  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  of  more  executive 
energy  than  Mr.  Madison  was  then  supposed  to  have ;  and  Jefferson 
was  himself  solicited  from  many  quarters  to  accept  a  nomination. 
He  said,  with  convincing  power,  "  What  man  can  do  will  be  done 
by  Mr.  Madison."  In  the  same  year  the  president  proposed  that  he 
should  return  to  the  office  of  secretary  of  state,  and  Monroe  become 
secretary  of  war ;  but  he  pleaded  his  sixty-nine  years  as  an  excuse 
for  declining  the  invitation. 

The  success  in  public  life  of  these  two  men,  Madison  and  Monroe, 
whose  early  education  he  had  assisted,  as  well  as  the  bright 
career  which  his  nephews  and  sons-in-law  were  enjoying,  induced 
other  young  men  to  seek  his  advice  and  assistance.  "  A  part  of  my 
occupation,"  he  wrote  to  General  Kosciuszko  in  1810,  "  and  by  no 
means  the  least  pleasing,  is  the  direction  of  the  studies  of  such  young 
men  as  ask  it.  They  place  themselves  in  the  neighboring  village, 

687 


688  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

an«l  have  the  use  of  my  library  and  counsel,  and  make  a  part  of  my 

•  y.     In  advising  the  course  of  their  reading,  I  endeavor  to  koep 

their  attention  fixed  on  the  main  objects  of  all  science,  the  freedom 

and  happiness  of  man.     So  that  coming  to  bear  a  share  in  the  coun- 

and  government  of  their  country,  they  will  keep  ever  in  view 

the  sole  objects  of  all  legitimate  government." 

Monticello  overflowed  with  guests  during  all  these  years.  The 
circle  of  those  who  had  a  right  to  seek  its  hospitality  was  very  large; 
and  many  foreigners  of  distinction  felt  their  American  experience 
incomplete  until  they  had  paid  a  pilgrimage  to  the  author  of  the 
iVrlaration  of  Independence.  But  these  were  but  a  small  portion 
of  the  throng  of  guests  whom  the  custom  of  the  country  brought  to 
Monticello  during  the  summer  months.  His  daughter,  Mrs.  Ran 
dolph,  said  once  that  she  had  been  obliged  to  provide  beds  for  as 
many  as  fifty  inmates;  and  Mr.  Randall  tells  us  of  one  friend  who 
cam.-  from  abroad  with  a  family  of  six  persons,  and  remained  at 
M«»n?ic.'llo  ten  months.  It  fell  to  the  manager,  Mr.  Edmund  Bacon, 
to  ke-p  the  mountain-top  supplied  with  sustenance  for  this  crowd  of 
people,  and  the  animals  that  carried  and  drew  them.  Mr.  Bacon 
did  not  enjoy  it,  and  he  has  since  availed  himself  of  an  opportunity 
to  relieve  his  mind. 

•  After  Mr.  Jefferson  returned  from  Washington,"  he  relates,  "he 
wm  f«r  years  crowded  with  visitors,  and  they  almost  ate  him  out  of 
house  and  home.  They  were  there  all  times  of  the  year  ;  but  about 
the  middle  of  June  the  travel  would  commence  from  the  lower  part 
of  the  State  to  the  Springs,  and  then  there  was  a  perfect  throng  of 
They  travelled  in  their  own  carriages,  and  rame  in  gangs, 
the  \\hole  family,  with  carriage  and  riding  horses  and  servants; 
etimea  three  or  four  such  gangs  at  a  time.  We  had  thirty-six 
stall-  f«>r  horses,  and  only  used  about  ten  of  them  for  the  stock  we 
kept  there.  Very  often  all  of  the  rest  were  full,  and  I  had  to  send 
horses  oft"  to  another  place.  I  have  often  sent  a  wagon-load  of  hay 
u;>  to  tin-  >tal>le.  and  the  next  morning  there  would  not  be  enough 
to  make  a  hen's-nost.  I  have  killed  a  line  beef,  and  it  would  all 
be  eaten  in  a  day  or  two.  Then-  \vas  no  tavern  in  all  that  country 
that  ha  1  so  much  company.  Mrs.  Randolph,  who  always  lived  with 
Mr.  .Jefferson  after  his  return  from  Washington,  and  kept  house  for 
him.  was  very  often  greatly  perplexed  to  entertain  them.  I  have 


AT  MONTICELLO.  689 

known  her  many  and  many  a  time  to  have  every  bed  in  the  house 
full.  I  finally  told  the  servant  who  had  charge  of  the  stable  to  only 
give  the  visitors'  horses  half  allowance.  Somehow  or  other  Mr. 
Jefferson  heard  of  this  :  I  never  could  tell  how,  unless  it  was  through 
some  of  the  visitors'  servants.  He  countermanded  my  orders.  One 
great  reason  why  Mr.  Jefferson  built  his  house  at  Poplar  Forest,  in 
Bedford  County,  was  that  he  might  go  there  in  the  summer  to  get 
rid  of  entertaining  so  much  company.  He  knew  that  it  more  than 
used  up  all  his  income  from  the  plantation  and  everything  else;  but 
he  was  so  kind  and  polite  that  he  received  all  his  visitors  with  ar  smile, 
and  made  them  welcome.  They  pretended  to  come  out  of  respect  and 
regard  to  him ;  but  I  think  that  the  fact  that  they  saved  a  tavern- 
bill  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  it  with  a  good  many  of  them.  I  can 
assure  you  I  got  tired  of  seeing  them  come,  and  waiting  on  them." 

Such  was  the  custom  of  old  Virginia ;  and  a  very  bad,  cruel  cus 
tom  it  was.  All  this,  too,  at  a  period  when  non-intercourse  and 
war  had  reduced  the  income  of  Virginia  planters  two-thirds,  and 
when  Mr.  Jefferson  had  a  Washington  debt  of  many  thousand  dol 
lars  to  provide  for.  But,  among  this  multitude  of  visitors,  there 
were  a  large  number  whose  company  he  keenly  enjoyed;  nor  would 
he  permit  his  guests  to  rob  him  of  his  working-hours.  From  break 
fast  to  dinner,  he  let  them  amuse  themselves  as  best  they  could  while 
he  toiled  at  his  correspondence  and  rode  over  his  farms.  From  din 
ner-time  he  gave  himself  up  to  social  enjoyment.  I  may  well  speak 
of  his  correspondence  as  toil.  One  thousand  and  sixty-seven  letters 
he  received  in  one  year,  which  was  not  more  than  the  average. 
After  his  death,  there  were  found  among  his  papers  twenty-six  thou 
sand  letters  addressed  to  him,  and  copies  of  sixteen  thousand  written 
by  him. 

To  complete  his  character  as  a  personage,  it  should  be  mentioned 
that  the  Federalists  still  bestowed  upon  him  the  distinction  of  an 
animosity  such  as,  perhaps,  virtuous  men  never  before  entertained 
for  one  of  their  number.  I  look  with  wonder  upon  the  publications 
spread  out  before  me  at  this  moment,  issued  during  the  time  of  non- 
intercourse  and  war,  Jefferson  being  the  theme.  Here  are  two  octavo 
volumes  of  vituperation,  entitled  "  Memoirs  of  the  Hon.  Thomas 
Jefferson/'  published  in  New  York  several  months  after  his  retire 
ment,  and  opening  thus  :  "  The  illustrious  Dr.  Robertson,  in  a  letter 

44 


690  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

t.»  Mr.  dibbon,  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  an  historian  ought  to  write 
as  it'  In-  were  giving  evidence  upon  oath."  Eight  hundred  and 
thirtv-ei<_jht  pages  of  innocent  and  tedious  falsehood  naturally  follow 
this  noble  sentiment;  and  they  end  with  a  prophecy,  that  nothing 
would  go  well  in  the  United  States  until  the  people  had  turned  the 
Hi-publicans  out  of  office,  and  placed  their  affairs  in  the  hands  of 
"  that  man  who  more  than  any  other  resembles  the  Father  of  his 
Country,"  —  General  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney.  The  clergy  of 
New  England  continued  to  revile  the  greatest  Christian  America  has 
produced  in  terms  surpassing  in  violence  those  which  the  clergy  of 
P;il.->tino  applied  to  the  Founder  of  Christianity.  He  was  an 
"atheist,"  Dr.  David  Osgood  of  Massachusetts  remarked,  and  no 

r  than  "the  race  of  demons,"  to  whose  service  he  had  been 
By  race  of  demons,  this  "  last  of  the  New  England  popes  " 
meant  the  people  of  France'.  Young  Edward  Payson  of  Portland 
signalized  his  entrance  into  public  life  by  delivering  a  Fourth  of 
»Iuiv  oration,  in  which  he  observed  that  Jefferson,  Madison,  Gallatin, 
ami  thc-ir  colleagues,  were  men  of  a  character  so  vile,  that  "the  most 
malicious  ingenuity  can  invent  nothing  worse  than  the  truth."  The 

<r  of  twenty-three  was  as  innocent  as  a  lamb  in  saying  this  ;  for 
he  was  merely  echoing  what  he  had  heard  constantly  asserted  from 
his  youth  up,  by  the  men  whom  he  held  in  veneration,  —  the  clergy 
of  Connecticut  and  the  professors  in  Yale  College.  In  1809 
appeared  a  second  edition  of  William  Cullen  Bryant's  Embargo,  with 
a  certificate  to  the  effect,  that  "  Mr.  Bryant,  the  author,"  had  arrived, 
in  the  Month  of  November,  1808,  at  the  age  of  fourteen  years.  A 
douU  had  been  intimated  in  the  Monthly  Anthology,  whether  a 
youth  <>f  thirteen  could  have  been  the  author  of  this  poem.  The 
r  may  In-  gratified  to  see  a  few  lines  from  the  earliest  volume  of 
a  poet  who  has  since,  in  so  many  ways,  both  served  and  honored  his 
country.  In  this  poem,  too,  lives  the  judgment  of  educated  New 
England  upon  Mr.  Jefferson's  attempt  to  keep  his  country  out  of 
the  maniac  fight-  between  Bonaparte  and  the  coalition  of  kings;  for 
this  boy,  gifted  as  lie  was.  could  only  be  a  melodious  echo  of  the  talk 
he  had  heard  in  his  native  villae:  — 


our  nation,  sourer-  nf  countless  woes, 
whose  dark  wmnl>  uurerkoned  misery  flows  : 
Th'  J-]inl>ar^o  ra-.>,  l,k,-  a  swi-cpin^  \\iiui, 
1     ••  .  furo,  and  famine  stalks  behind. 


AT  MONTICELLO.  691 

"What  words,  0  Muse  !  can  paint  the  mournful  scene, 
The  saddening  street,  the  desolated  green  ? 
How  hungry  laborers  leave  their  toil  and  sigh, 
And  sorrow  droops  in  each  desponding  eye ! 

"  See  the  bold  sailor  from  the  ocean  torn, 
His  element,  sink  friendless  and  forlorn  ! 
His  suffering  spouse  the  tear  of  anguish  shed, 
His  starving  children  cry  aloud  for  bread  ! 
On  the  rough  billows  of  misfortune  tost, 
Resources  fail,  and  all  his  hopes  are  lost ; 
To  foreign  climes  for  that  relief  he  flies, 
His  native  land  ungratefully  denies. 

"  In  vain  mechanics  ply  their  curious  art, 
And  bootless  mourn  the  interdicted  mart ; 
While  our  sage  Ruler's  diplomatic  skill 
Subjects  our  councils  to  his  sovereign  will ; 
His  grand  '  restrictive  energies  '  employs, 
And  wisely  regulating  trade  destroys. 

"  The  farmer,  since  supporting  trade  is  fled, 
Leaves  the  rude  joke,  and  cheerless  hangs  his  head  ; 
Misfortunes  fall,  an  unremitting  shower, 
Debts  follow  debts,  on  taxes,  taxes  pour. 
See  in  his  stores  his  hoarded  produce  rot, 
Or  sheriffs  sales  his  produce  brings  to  nought ; 
Disheartening  cares  in  thronging  myriads  flow, 
Till  down  he  sinks  to  poverty  and  woe. 

"  Ye  who  rely  on  Jcffersonian  skill, 
And  say  that  fancy  paints  ideal  ill, 
Go,  on  the  wing  of  observation  fly, 
Cast  o'er  the  land  a  scrutinizing  eye  : 
States,  counties,  towns,  remark  with  keen  review, 
Let  facts  convince,  and  own  the  picture  true ! 

"  When  shall  this  land,  some  courteous  angel,  say, 
Throw  off  a  weak  and  erring  ruler's  sway  ? 
Rise,  injured  people,  vindicate  your  cause, 
And  prove  your  love  of  liberty  and  laws  ; 
Oh,  wrest,  sole  refuge  of  a  sinking  land, 
The  sceptre  from  the  slave's  imbecile  hand  ! 
Oh,  ne'er  consent  obsequious  to  advance, 
The  willing  vassal  of  imperious  France  ! 
Correct  that  suffrage  you  misused  before, 
And  lift  your  voice  above  a  Congress  roar. 


092  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

"  And  tlioti,  the  scorn  of  every  patriot's  name, 
Thy  country's  ruin,  and  her  council's  shame  ! 
Poor  servile  tiling !  derision  of  the  brave  ! 
Who  erst  from. Tarlton  fled  to  Carter's  cave  ; 
Thou  who,  when  menaced  by  perfidious  Gaul, 
Didst  prostrate  to  her  whiskered  minion  fall ; 
And  when  our  cash  her  empty  bags  supplied, 
Didst  meanly  strive  the  foul  disgrace  to  hide ; 
Go,  wretch,  resign  the  presidential  chair, 
Disclose  thy  secret  measures,  foul  or  fair. 
Go,  search  with  curious  eyes  for  horned  frogs, 
'Mid  the  wild  wastes  of  J^ouisianian  bogs  ; 
Or,  where  Ohio  rolls  his  turbid  stream, 
Dig  for  huge  bones,  thy  glory  and  thy  theme. 
Go,  scan,  philosophist,  thy  ....  charms 
And  sink  supinely  in  her  sable  arms ; 
But  quit  to  abler  hands  the  helm  of  state, 
Nor  image  ruin  on  thy  country's  fate. 

"  As  Johnson  deep,  as  Addison  refined, 
And  skilled  to  pour  conviction  o'er  the  mind, 
Oh,  might  some  patriot  rise  !  the  gloom  dispel, 
Chase  error's  mist,  and  break  her  magic  spell ! 

"  But  vain  the  wish  ;  for  hark  !  the  murmuring  meed* 
Of  hoarse  applause  from  yonder  shed  proceed  ; 
Enter,  and  view  the  thronging  concourse  there, 
Intent,  with  gaping  mouth,  and  stupid  stare ; 
While  in  their  midst  the  supple  leader  stands, 
Harangues  aloud,  and  flourishes  his  hands  ; 
To  adulation  tunes  his  servile  throat, 
And  sues  successful  for  each  blockhead's  vote." 

The  work  contains  nearly  six  hundred  lines,  several  of  which 
clearly  announce  the  coming  poet;  but  in  these  which  I  have  chosen, 
it  is  the  Federalist  that  speaks.  The  forming  poet  of  the  woods 
appears  in  a  passage  where  the  author  of  thirteen  imagines  Com- 
ini-ire  starting  to  life  again,  amid  the  desolation  of  the  Embargo, 
when  at  last  the  people  had  expelled  from  Washington  the  pimps  of 
France  :  — 

"  Thus  in  a  fallen  tree,  from  sprouting  roots, 
With  sudden  u'rowth  a  trndn-  sapling  shoots, 
Improves  from  day  to  day,  d.-li-hts  the  eyes 
With  strength  and  U-amy,  statcliness  and  size, 
1'iHs  forth  robustiT  arms,  and  broader  leaves, 
And  high  in  air  its  branching  head  upheaves." 


AT   MONTICELLO.  693 

It  is  interesting  to  discover  that  a  poet  who  solaced  his  old  age 
by  translating  Homer  had,  at  thirteen,  already  begun  to  pay  him 
the  homage  of  imitation.  The  boy's  prediction  was  fulfilled  seven 
years  later ;  not  through  the  return  of  the  Federalists  to  power,  but 
by  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  which  ended  the  conflict  for  neutral  rights. 

Abuse  and  adulation  were  equally  powerless  to  disturb  the  seren 
ity  of  the  lord  of  Monticello.  "  I  have  rode  over  the  plantation,  I 
reckon,"  reports  the  worthy  Mr.  Bacon,  "  a  thousand  times  with  Mr. 
Jefferson  ;  and  when  he  was  not  talking,  he  was  nearly  always  hum 
ming  some  tune,  or  singing  in  a  low  tone  to  himself."  During  his 
annual  rides  to  Poplar  Forest,  ninety  miles  distant,  he  was  usually 
accompanied  by  his  daughter  or  by  one  of  her  children  ;  and  he  often 
beguiled  the  tedium  of  the  journey  by  singing  an  old  song,  alone  or 
with  his  companion.  His  daughter,  too,  had  what  Mr.  Bacon  calls 
the  Jefferson  temper,  —  all  music  and  sunshine.  In  the  twenty 
years  of  his  service,  he  declares  that  he  never  once  saw  her  in  ill- 
humor.  She  was  nearly  as  tall  as  her  father,  he  tells  us,  and  had 
his  bright,  clear  complexion  and  blue  eyes  ;  and  as  she  went  about 
the  house  she  seemed  always  in  a  happy  mood,  and  was  "  nearly 
always  humming  a  tune."  The  singularly  sound  health  of  the 
father  was,  no  doubt,  part  of  the  secret  of  his  festive  existence. 
Mr.  Bacon  supplies  another  part  of  it :  — 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  most  industrious  person  I  ever  saw  in  my 
life.  All  the  time  I  was  with  him  I  had  full  permission  to  visit  his 
room  whenever  I  thought  it  necessary  to  see  him  on  any  business. 
I  knew  how  to  get  into  his  room  at  any  time  of  day  or  night.  I 
have  sometimes  gone  into  his  room  when  he  was  in  bed ;  but  aside 
from  that,  I  never  went  into  it  but  twice,  in  the  whole  .twenty  years 
I  was  with  him,  that  I  did  not  find  him  employed.  I  never  saw 
him  sitting  idle  in  his  room  but  twice.  Once  he  was  suffering  with 
the  toothache ;  and  once,  in  returning  from  his  Bedford  farm,  he 
had  slept  in  a  room  where  some  of  the  glass  had  been  broken  out  of 
the  window,  and  the  wind  had  blown  upon  him  and  given  him  a 
kind  of  neuralgia.  At  all  other  times  he  was  either  reading,  writ 
ing,  talking,  working  upon  some  model,  or  doing  something  else. 
Mrs.  Randolph  was  just  like  her  father  in  this  respect.  She  was 
always  busy.  If  she  wasn't  reading  or  writing,  she  was  always 
doing  something.  She  used  to  sit  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  room  a  great 


694  LITE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

deal,  and  sew,  or  read,  or  talk,  as  he  would  be  busy  about  something 
else.  As  her  daughters  grew  up,  she  taught  them  to  be  industrious 
lilu-  IH -rself.  They  used  to  take  turns  each  day  in  giving  out  to  the 
servants,  and  superintending  the  housekeeping." 

These  children  were  eleven  in  number,  six  daughters  and  five 
sons ;  to  whom  must  be  added  Francis  Eppes,  a  fine  lad,  the  son  of 
.Maria  Jefferson,  to  say  nothing  of  a  troop  of  schoolmates  that  one 
of  the  grandsons  usually  brought  over  from  school  at  the  next 
village,  on  Friday  afternoons,  to  join  in  the  sports  of  Saturday. 
Jrflerson  joined  heartily  in  the  pleasures  of  these  children,  but  he 
was  not  the  less  a  stickler  for  industry. 

Colonel  Thomas  Mann  Eandolph,  the  father  of  this  numerous 
brood,  was  governor  of  Virginia  from  1819  to  1822.  I  have  been 
fa  von -d  by  the  Honorable  Nicholas  P.  Trist  with  copies  of  sev 
eral  letters  of  Colonel  Randolph,  addressed  to  himself  while  he 
was  a  cadet  in  the  military  academy  at  West  Point.  They  afford 
interest  ing  glimpses  of  the  mind  so  long  and  intimately  associated 
with  Mr.  Jefferson's,  and  they  show  a  spirit  different  indeed  from 
that  exhibited  by  Virginians  of  a  later  day.  Here  is  a  passage  that 
exhibits  the  tone  of  feeling  at  Monticello  with  regard  to  slavery. 
Colonel  Randolph  writes  thus  to  the  cadet  in  November,  1818,  con 
cerning  what  he  mildly  terms  "an  accident"  that  had  happened  on 
a  plantation  not  far  from  Mouticello :  — 

"  The  overseer  for  next  year  had  just  taken  his  place,  with  great 
unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the  negroes,  who  were  attached  to  the 
old  one  ;  and  their  master  would  gladly  have  kept  him  at  any  salary 
in  reason,  but  he  had  resolved  on  quitting  business  to  go  to  his  own 
farm.  Several  of  the  negroes  gave  so  much  displeasure,  that  they 

>ed  punishment  in  the  first  days  from  the  new  commander; 
aiming  "thers.  a  very  sonsible,  lively,  and  likely  youn^  mulatto  man, 
\\h<>,  it  seems,  had  .seriously  formed  the  resolution  never  to  incur  the 
punishment  d'  strides  by  any  misconduct,  and  had,  in  consequence, 
become  the  mo>t  trustworthy  among  them  according  to  the  testimony 
of  the  neighborhood,  brin;j;  the  one  chosen  to  go  on  the  road  with 
the  wa;^im  always,  to  haul  off  grain  and  bring  back  supplies.  The 

"verseer,  however,  could  not  understand  the  value  of  character 
in  a  .-lave,  and  concluded  that  fear  would  be  safer  security  for  good 


AT  MONTICELLO.  695 

conduct,  than  any  determination  to  do  right,  no  matter  how  deliber 
ately  made,  or  how  long  persisted  in,  and  near  becoming  a  fixed 
habit.  Power  seldom  reasons  well.  The  young  fellow  received  a 
few  lashes  on  his  bare  back  for  some  trifling  misdemeanor.  Leav 
ing  his  tools  in  the  field,  it  is  said  he  hung  himself  twenty  feet  from 
the  ground  in  a  tree  near  his  master's  door  the  same  night ;  having 
first  taken  leave  of  all  his  companions,  who  did  not  think  seriously 
enough  of  his  threat  to  give  the  alarm,  and  who,  perhaps,  felt  pleas 
ure  at  the  idea  of  his  running  away,  because  the  lost  time  would  be 
an  appeal  to  interest  with  the  master  and  overseer  on  future  occa 
sions,  manifestly  in  their  favor.  The  bravery  of  this  fellow  seems 
to  have  left  no  room  in  his  mind  for  such  a  thought.  He  had  made 
a  resolution  ;  and  he  marched  intrepidly  forward  in  the  execution  of 
it,  despising  pain  and  not  knowing  fear. 

"  What  a  hideous  monster,  among  the  various  phenomena  of  the 
social  state,  is  our  Southern  system  !  Tyranny  in  the  army  is 
mitigated  by  the  reflection  that  the  brave  have  to  submit  to  the 
brave  only.  But  the  greatest  dastard  might  possibly  have  the 
feelings,  moral  and  physical,  as  well  as  the  comforts,  of  many  a 
brave  man  entirely  in  his  power,  and  dependent  upon  his  caprice. 
In  this  particular  case,  both  master  and  overseer  are  humane  men ; 
and  the  latter  is  of  proven  fortitude,  as  well  as  moral  worth.  The 
former  you  know  and  respect. 

'•'Long  ago  /have  dismissed  the  man-whip  from  my  slave  manege. 
I  find,  however,  that  the  cane  of  a  corporal  must  be  tolerated  yet. 
But  I  always  scrupulously  distinguish,  and  exempt,  manly  and 
moral  character,  when  it  shows  itself  with  any  steadiness  of  ray  in 
the  sooty  atmosphere  of  our  slave  discipline.  And  such  exempts 
never  suffer  from  me  any  other  punishment  than  privations  for  little 
obliquities  of  conduct.  I  find  use  for  all  my  thirty  years'  experi 
ence,  with  whatever  ingenuity  it  may  have  given  rise  to  in  the  time, 
to  keep  up  sufficient  authority,  without  recurrence  to  the  old  mode 
of  government.  My  only  resource  is  to  bring  the  culprit,  if  he  be  a 
man  grown,  and  had  ever  displayed  moral  character  at  any  time, 
before  a  magistrate  by  some  contrivance,  and  to  get  punishment 
inflicted  by  a  constable  under  legal  forms.  I  have  found  confine 
ment  in  the  county -jail  to  have  an  admirable  effect  on  my  high-tem 
pered  men.  And  by  magnifying  a  troublesome  contumacy  into 
incipient  revolt,  seasonably  detected  in  the  misconduct  of  an  indi- 


096  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

vidual,  I  liave  always  succeeded,  without  any  difficulty,  in  lodging 

vn  there.     It  convinces  them  that  I  do  not  regard  the  loss  of 

their  time  ;  whirh  consideration,  by  gratifying  their  ill-humor,  makes 

the  MI   often  run   away  from    many  masters,  very  rarely  from  me, 

perhaps  on  account  of  what  I  have  just  mentioned.     They  know  the 

jail  to  be  the  sure  fate  of  runaways,  and  it  is  not  amiss  that  they  should 

have  a  proper  distaste  for  it.     I  am  certain  that  I  have  not  in  thirty 

n  lost  one  month's  work  altogether  by  their  running  away." 

There  are  other  passages  in  these  letters  that  breathe  a  similar 
spirit.  He  descants  in  one  letter  upon  Mr.  Trist's  choice  of  a  mili- 
tarv  career,  and  favors  him  with  a  translation  from  the  Greek  that 
."•peaks  well  for  his  knowledge  of  the  ancient  tongue,  and  his  skill  in 
the  use  of  his  own. 

"  I  see,"  wrote  the  governor  in  May,  1821,  "  no  encouragement 

for  a  young  man  to  embrace  the  military  profession  at  this  time,  yet 

I       'i.vrely  hope  the  military  science  will  be  cultivated  by  our  gov- 

:  and  I  would,  if  I  were  in  Congress,  give  my  vote  always 

pport  the  army  as  it  has  lately  been,  and  to  extend  the  nursery 

of  officers,  so  absolutely  necessary  to  its  honorable  existence,  in   a 

ter  degree  than  has  been  hitherto  contemplated.  The  doctrine 
of  the  Quakers  is  womanish,  and  their  hope  of  making  peace  as 
fashionable  forever  as  their  dress  is  absolutely  childish.  It  is  the 
only  tenet  of  theirs  which  I  do  not  in  some  degree  approve.  My 

i-ical  reading  and  observation  of  human  nature  forbid  me  to 
I-  at-  with  them  upon  that  point  with  any  patience  at  all.  I 
admire  their  steady  industry,  temperance,  gravity  of  deportment, 
frugality,  uniformity  of  manners,  and  a  thousand  other  things;  but 
I  cannot  refrain  from  ridiculing  their  thoughtless  censure  of  Nature 
for  having  given  stings  to  bees,  under  the  mistaken  idea  that  any 
weapon  at  all  was  necessary  to  preserve  to  them  the  delicious  fruits 
of  their  incessant  toil  in  summer,  upon  the  preservation  of  which 
their  exigence  during  winter  depends;  besides  the  satisfaction  of 

'•n-iiit/  (UNFOKCED),  and  the  pleasure  of  enjoying,  which  insects, 

much  more  men.  can  never  cease  to  feel.     The  use  of  arms  would  be 

even  in  a  perfectly  insulated  society;  for  without  them  the 

1  would  soon  !),.(•«. me  the  victims  of  the  bad,  who  cannot  be  pre 
vented  from  increasing  their  power  of  mischief  by  such  means 


AT  MONTICELLO.  697 

privately,  if  prohibited  publicly,  and  the  discovery  would  become  too 
late  for  unarmed  hands  to  avert  the  calamity.  Mennonists  would 
ever  become  the  victims  of  terrorists,  if  not  protected  by  those  who 
are  both  brave  and  good,  who  defend  peace  because  they  love  it. 

"  Where  stood  the  foremost  rank,  how  fair  they  lie, 
The  brave  and  good  who  for  their  country  die. 
How  wretched  he  who  leaves  his  native  fields 
To  beg  the  bread  a  foreign  harvest  yields  ! 
Wandering,  with  parents  in  the  wane  of  life, 
With  tender  offspring,  and  a  youthful  wife; 
Despised  by  those  the  scanty  boon  who  grant, 
Subdued  by  hateful  penury  and  want; 
He  stains  his  name,  the  manly  form  degrades, 
Low-minded  vice  the  growing  race  pervades, 
A  wretch  like  that  no  fear  of  shame  assails ; 
With  him  no  hope  of  honored  line  prevails. 
The  land  and  those  we  love  let  us  defend, 
Regardless  when  this  anxious  life  may  end. 
Young  men  !  in  firm  array  prepare  to  fight; 
Unfelt  be  fear,  disdained  bo  shameful  flight ; 
Let  mighty  hearts  beat  high  in  bosoms  strong ; 
Think  not  of  life  while  in  the  hostile  throng." 

["  Part  of  a  translation  from  the  Greek  of  Tyrtaeus,  made  during  the  late  war 
by  T.  M.  K.,  not  a  line  of  which  was  ever  written  before :  indeed,  the  remainder  is 
entirely  forgotten,  and  not  likely  to  be  ever  recalled."] 

These  are  agreeable  passages,  and  show  the  brighter  side  of  a 
strong  and  gifted  mind.  But  at  this  very  time,  when  public  honors 
added  distinction  to  his  person  and  name,  he  was  suffering  deeply 
from  the  bad  system  which  lie  hated,  and  from  which  he  had  not 
strength  to  escape.  Occasionally  even  he  felt  himself  compelled  to 
eke  out  the  dwindling  income  of  his  estate  by  the  sale  of  some  of 
his  slaves.  His  affairs  were  fatally  disordered  at  length,  and  he 
became  a  bankrupt. 

Mr.  Jefferson  and  his  daughter  enjoyed  long  intervals  of  tranquil 
happiness.  But,  living  as  he  did  in  the  midst  of  slavery,  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  avoid  his  personal  share  of  the  harm  it  wrought 
to  every  creature  in  the  United  States,  even  to  those  who  hated  it 
most,  and  opposed  it  always ;  for  it  made  them  intense  and  one 
sided.  He  was  an  indulgent  master,  it  is  true ;  and  he  never  lost  a 
sense  of  the  folly  of  a  system  of  labor,  of  which  the  laborer  got 


698  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

most  of  the  good,  and  the  master  nearly  all  the  evil.  "  lie  did  not 
lilu-  slavi  .:irks  Mr.  Bacon.  "I  have  heard  him  talk  a  great 

d«-:il  about  it.  He  thought  it  a  had  system.  I  have  heard  him 
pi-Mplii-.-y  that  we  should  have  just  such  trouble  with  it  as  we  are 
having  now,  in  1862."  And  yet  his  lifelong  contact  with  slavery 
appears  to  have  lessened  his  ability  to  think  rationally  concerning 
it.  Long  he  cherished  the  dream  of  colonization,  and  fancied  he 
saw  in  Liberia  the  beginning  of  a  movement  that  would  deliver  the 
negroes  of  America  from  slavery,  and  those  of  Africa  from  barbarism. 
He  took  it  for  granted  that  the  t\vo  races  could  not  live  together, 
both  being  free.  "We  have  the  wolf  by  the  ears,"  he  wrote  in 
1820,  "and  we  can  neither  hold  him  nor  safely  let  him  go.  Justice 
is  in  one  scale,  and  self-preservation  in  the  other." 

When  the  question  arose  of  extending  the  area  of  slavery  over 
Missouri,  he  showed  a  strange  blending  of  keenness  and  dulness  of 

•  ii ;  descrying  the  distant  danger  most  clearly,  as  aged  eyes  are 
apt  to  do,  but  blind  to  the  path  immediately  before  him.     "  This 
momentous  question,"  he   wrote  in  April,  1820,  "  like  a  fire-bell  in 
th«-  night,  awakened  and  filled  me  with  terror."     He  thought  it  was 
••  the  knell  of  the  Union."    Since  Bunker  Hill,  he  said,  we  had  never 
had  so  ominous  a  question  ;  and  he  thanked  Heaven  that  he  should 
not  live  to  see  the  issue.     We  now  know  that  his  worst  forebodings 

•  short  of  the  mighty  sum-total  of  evil  and  calamity  which  his 
country  was  to  endure  :  first,  forty  years  of  an  ignoble  strife  of  words, 
one  side  insolent  and  infuriate,  the  other  insincere  and  timorous ; 

.  f>ur  years  of  carnage;  then  ten  of  the  beggar-on-horseback's 
dmioralizing  sway.  But,  with  all  this  correctness  of  prophecy,  the 
.Verson  thought  the  Northern  members  were  wrong  in  wish 
ing  to  keep  slavery  out  of  those  lovely,  fertile  plains  west  of  the 

issippi.  He  thought  slavery  would  be  weakened  by  being  spread, 
and  its  linal  abolition  made  easier.  Worse  than  this,  he  began  to 
think  it  an  evil  for  Southern  youth  to  attend  Northern  colleges, 
*•  imbibing  opinions  and  principles  in  discord  with  those  of  their  own 
country;"  and  he  was  far  from  discerning  that  the  opposition  in 
the  Northern  States  to  the  extension  of  slavery  had  any  basis  of 
disint--i-r>t.-.l  conviction.  "  The  Hartford  Convention  men,"  he  wrote 
in  l^L'l.  "  have  had  the  address,  by  playing  on  the  honest  feelings 
of  our  form«-r  friends,  to  seduce  them  from  their  kindred  spirits,  and 
to  borrow  their  weight  into  the  Federal  scale.  Desperate  of  regain- 


AT   MONTICELLO.  699 

ing  power  under  political  distinctions,  they  have  adroitly  wriggled 
into  its  seat  under  the  auspices  of  morality,  and  are  again  in  the 
ascendency  from  which  their  sins  had  hurled  them."  Much  is  to  be 
allowed  to  seventy-eight  years.  But  even  at  seventy-eight  so  fine 
an  intelligence  as  his  could  not,  even  for  a  moment,  have  shrunk  to 
these  limits  in  an  atmosphere  congenial  with  it.  To  become  capable 
of  thus  misinterpreting  the  course  of  events  was  part  of  his  share 
of  the  penalty  of  slavery. 


CHAPTER  LXX. 

HIS   LABORS    TO    PROMOTE    EDUCATION. 

BUT  his  conduct  was  wiser  than  his  words ;  for  he  spent  all  his 
declining  years  in  a  singularly  persistent  endeavor  to  introduce  into 
Virginia  the  institutions  of  New  England.  When  a  man  finds  him 
self  a  member  of  a  community  in  which  there  is  incorporated  some 
all-pervading  evil,  —  like  slavery  in  old  Virginia,  like  ill-distributed 
wealth  in  Great  Britain  now,  —  there  are  two  wa}Ts  in  which  he  can 
attack  it.  One  way  is  to  cry  aloud  and  spare  not ;  place  himself  dis 
tinctly  in  opposition  to  the  evil;  show  it  no  quarter;  and  take  the 
chance  of  being  a  martyr  or  a  conqueror.  There  are  times  and 
places  when  this  heroic  system  is  the  only  one  admissible.  The 
other  method  of  attack  is  to  set  on  foot  measures,  the  fair  working 
of  which  will  infuse  such  health  and  vigor  into  the  sick  body  politic 

ill  enable  it,  at  length,  to  cast  out  the  disease.  Thus  we  see 
that  Yale,  Harvard,  and  the  common  school,  have  gone  far  toward 

iin£  the  fine  intelligence  of  New  England  from  the  blight  of 
the  Mathers  and  their  hideous  ideas;  and  we  see  the  cheap  press 
and  tin-  workingmen's  lyceums  and  unions  of  Great  Britain  about  to 

.lv  up  entail,  primogeniture,  and  the  rich  preserves  of  an  exclu 
sive  army,  navy,  India,  and  church.  In  Virginia  no  other  method 
but  this  was  even  possible  to  be  attempted  in  Jefferson's  time.  If 
he  had  set  free  his  slaves,  and  waged  open  war  against  slaver}*,  he 
would  not  have  improved  their  condition,  nor  mitigated  the  malady 
of  which  Virginia  was  dying.  His  slaves  would  have  become  vaga- 

1s,  and  himself  an  object  of  commiseration  and  derision.  He 
made  no  such  Quixotic  attempts  to  serve  his  State,  but  directed  his 
eiYorts  to  the  gradual  removal  of  what  he  felt  to  be  the  ally  and 
main  support  of  all  the  evil  in  the  universe, — IGXOUAXCK.  He 
mad'-  this  his  business  during  the  last  sixteen  years  of  his  life. 
700 


HIS  LABORS  TO  PROMOTE  EDUCATION.        701 

and  toiled  at  it  as  vigorous  men  toil  for  the  ordinary  objects  of 
ambition. 

And  happily,  as  in  earlier  days  when  the  liberties  of  his  country 
were  menaced  he  had  in  Madison  a  confidential  ally,  gifted  with  a 
parliamentary  talent  which  Nature  had  denied  to  himself;  so  now, 
when  his  object  was  to  break  up  the  great  deep  of  Virginia  ignorance, 
he  found  a  most  efficient  and  untiring  co-operator  in  his  friend, 
Joseph  C.  Cabell,  a  member  of  the  Senate  of  Virginia.  They 
entered  into  a  holy  alliance  to  bring  their  State  up  to  the  level  de 
manded  by  the  age.  What  both  had  planned  in  the  studjr,  Cabell 
advocated  in  the  legislature ;  and  when  Cabell  found  the  legislature 
unmanageable,  Jefferson  would  come  to  his  aid  with  one  of  his 
exhaustive,  vote-changing  letters,  which  would  find  its  way  into  a 
Kichmond  newspaper,  and  then  go  the  rounds  of  the  press. 

A  part  of  the  letters  winch  passed  between  these  lovers  of*  their 
country  have  been  published  in  an  octavo  of  five  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  pages ;  and  most  of  Jefferson's,  long  and  elaborate  as 
many  of  them  are,  were  written  when  a  page  or  two  of  manuscript 
cost  him  hours  of  painful  exertion.  Once  in  1822,  when  Cabell  had 
urged  him  to  write  a  number  of  letters  to  influential  gentlemen  in 
aid  of  one  of  their  schemes,  he  replied,  "You  do  not  know,  my  dear 
sir,  how  great  is  my  physical  inability  to  write.  The  joints  of  my 
right  wrist  and  fingers,  in  consequence  of  an  ancient  dislocation,  are 
become  so  stiffened,  that  I  can  write  but  at  the  pace  of  a  snail.  The 
copying  our  report  and  my  letter  lately  sent  to  the  governor,  being 
seven  pages  only,  employed  me  laboriously  a  whole  week.  The  let 
ter  I  am  now  writing  you"  (filling  one  large  sheet)  "has  taken  me 
two  days.  A  letter  of  a  page  or  two  costs  me  a  day  of  labor,  and 
of  painful  labor." 

But  some  of  these  letters  were  among  the  best  he  ever  wrote.  In 
his  endeavors  to  reconcile  the  people  of  Virginia  to  the  cost  of  main 
taining  a  common  school  in  each  "  ward  "  of  every  county,  he  showed 
all  his  old  tact  and  skill.  His  "ward  "  was  to  be  "so  laid  off  as  to 
comprehend  the  number  of  inhabitants  necessary  to  furnish  a  cap 
tain's  company  of  militia,"  —  five  hundred  persons  of  all  ages  and 
either  sex.  The  great  difficulty  was  to  convince  the  average  planter 
that  he,  the  rich  man  of  the  ward,  had  an  interest  in  contributing 
to  the  common  school,  the  teacher  of  which  was  to  receive  a  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  a  year,  and  "board  round."  Jefferson  met  this 


702  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

objection  in  a  letter  that  still  possesses  convincing  power.  And  his 
argument  comes  home  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  great  cities  now  ris- 

\vry\vhere,  and  destined  to  contain  half  of  the  population  of 
this  continent.  What  are  they  but  a  narrow  rim  of  elegance  and 
plenty  around  a  vast  and  deep  abyss  of  squalor,  into  which  a  certain 
portion  of  the  dainty  children  of  the  smiling  verge  are  sure  to  slide 
at  hist?  How  eloquent  are  these  quiet  words  of  Jefferson,  when  we 
apply  them  to  our  own  city !  Would  that  I  could  give  them  wings 
that  would  carry  round  the  world  a  passage  so  simple,  so  humane,  so 

and  so  adroit ! 

"And  will  the  wealthy  individual  have  no  retribution?  And 
what  will  this  be?  1.  The  peopling  his  neighborhood  with  honest, 
iisrf'iil,  and  enlightened  citizens,  understanding  their  own  rights,  and 
firm  in  their  perpetuation.  2.  When  his  descendants  become  poor, 
wliieh  they  generally  do  within  three  generations  (no  law  of  primo 
geniture  now  perpetuating  wealth  in  the  same  families),  their  chil 
dren  will  be  educated  by  the  then  rich;  and  the  little  advance  he 
now  makes  to  poverty,  while  rich  himself,  will  be  repaid  by  the  then 
rich  to  his  descendants  when  become  poor,  and  thus  give  them  a 
chance  of  rising  again.  This  is  a  solid  consideration,  and  should  go 
home  to  the  bosom  of  every  parent.  This  will  be  seed  sown  in  fertile 
ground.  It  is  ^provision  for  his  family  looking  to  distant  times, 
and  far  in  duration  beyond  that  he  has  now  in  hand  for  them.  Let 
every  man  count  backwards  in  his  own  family,  and  see  how  many 
generations  he  can  go,  before  he  comes  to  the  ancestor  who  made 
the  fortune  he  now  holds.  Most  will  be  stopped  at  the  first  genera 
tion  ;  many  at  the  second ;  few  will  reach  the  third;  and  not  one 
in  the  State  can  go  beyond  the  fifth." 

Like  Franklin,  he  was  not  content  with  appealing  only  to  the 
higher  motives.  State  pride  was  a  chord  which  he  touched  with 
effect.  He  reminded  Virginians,  that,  before  the  Revolution,  the 
mass  «>f  education  in  Virginia  placed  her  with  the  foremost  of  her 
sister  colonies;  but  now  "  the  little  we  have  we  import,  like  beg- 
,ur ars,  from  other  States,  or  import  their  beggars  to  bestow  on  us 
their  miscrahh'  crumbs."  He  pointed  to  Virginia's  ancient  friend 
and  ally,  Ma-.-adiusetts,  only  one-tenth  as  large  as  Virginia,  and 
the  twenty-first  state  in  the  Union  in  size.  But  she  has  "  more 


HIS  LABORS  TO  PROMOTE  EDUCATION.       703 

influence  in  our  confederacy  than  any  other  State  in  it."  Why? 
"From  her  attention  to  education  unquestionably.  There  can  be 
no  stronger  proof  that  knowledge  is  power  and  that  ignorance  is 
weakness." 

He  did  not  live  to  see  a  State  system  of  common  schools  estab 
lished  in  Virginia.  A  scheme  of  his  for  maintaining  in  each 
county  a  circulating  library  was  also  in  advance  of  that  generation, 
and  had  no  great  results  in  his  own  day. 

But  the  two  conspirators  against  ignorance  had  one  memorable 
and  glorious  triumph.  They  succeeded  in  planting  on  Virginia  soil 
a  university,  unique  in  two  particulars.  In  all  other  American 
colleges  then  existing,  the  controlling  influence  was  wielded  by  one 
of  the  learned  professions  ;  and  all  students  were  compelled  to  pur 
sue  a  course  of  studies  originally  prescribed  by  that  one  profession 
for  its  own  perpetuation.  In  the  University  of  Virginia,  founded 
through  the  influence  and  persistent  tact  of  Jefferson,  seconded  at 
every  stage  by  the  zeal  and  ability  of  Cabell,  all  the  professions  are 
upon  an  equality,  and  every  student  is  free  to  choose  what  knowl 
edge  he  will  acquire,  and  what  neglect.  It  is  a  secularized  univer 
sity.  Knowledge  and  scholarship  are  there  neither  rivals  nor 
enemies,  but  equal  and  independent  sources  of  mental  power,  invit 
ing  all,  compelling  none.  Jefferson's  intention  was  to  provide  an 
assemblage  of  schools  and  professors,  where  every  student  could  find 
facilities  for  getting  just  what  knowledge  he  wanted,  without  being 
obliged  to  pretend  to  pursue  studies  for  which  he  had  neither  need 
nor  taste.  He  desired,  also,  to  test  his  favorite  principle  of  trusting 
every  individual  to  the  custody  of  his  own  honor  and  conscience. 
It  was  his  wish  that  students  should  stand  on  the  simple  footing  of 
citizens,  amenable  only  to  the  laws  of  their  State  and  country,  and 
that,  the  head  of  the  faculty  should  be  a  regularly  commissioned 
magistrate,  to  sit  in  judgment  on  any  who  had  violated  those  laws. 
This  part  of  the  scheme  he  was  compelled,  at  a  critical  moment,  to 
drop ;  but  he  did  so  only  to  avoid  the  peril  of  a  more  important 
failure.  But  he  held  to  the  principle.  He  would  have  no  espionage 
upon  the  students ;  but  left  all  of  them  free  to  improve  their  oppor 
tunities  in  their  own  way,  provided  the  laws  of  the  land  were  not 
broken,  and  the  rights  of  others  were  respected.  His  trust  was  in 
the  conscience  and  good  sense  of  the  students,  in  the  moral  influ 
ence  of  a  superior  corps  of  instructors,  and  in  an  elevated  public 
opinion. 


704  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

•I'.-rson  was  forty  years  in   getting  the  University  of  Virginia 
established.     Long  he  hoped  that  the  ancient  college   of  William 
aii'l  Mary  could  be  freed  from  limiting  conditions  and  influences, 
and  be  developed  into  a  true  university.     As  late  as   1820   he  was 
driving  for  a  "  consolidation  "  of  the  old  college  with  the  form 
ing  institution  in  Albemarle.     It  was  already   apparent  that  the 
want  of  America  was,  not  new  institutions  of  learning,  but  a  sup- 
ion  of  one-half  of  those  already  existing,  and  the  "survival  of 
:  ttest,"  enriched  by  the  spoils  of  the  weak.     But  William  and 
.  like  most  of  the  colleges  of  Christendom,  is   constricted  by 
tin*    iur!>'>rance   and  vanity  of  "  benefactors,"  who  gave  their  money 
md   an   institution  for  all  time,   and  annexed   conditions   to 
their  gifts   which  were  suited  only  to  their  own  time.     Nothing 
remained  but  to  create  a  new  institution.     In  1794  a  strange  cir 
cumstance  occurred,  which  gave  him  hopes  of  attaining  his  object 
1-v  a  sh-»rt  cut.     Several  of  the  professors  in  the  College  of  Geneva, 
Switzerland,  dissatisfied  with  the  political  condition  of  their  canton, 
united  in  proposing  to  Mr.  Jefferson  to  remove   in  a  body  to  Vir 
ginia,  and  continue  their  vocation  under  the  protection  and  patron- 
of    the   legislature.      On    sounding    influential    members,    he 
vered  that  the  project  was  premature,  and  it  was  not  pressed. 
Tin-   coming  of   Dr.   Priestley,   followed  by  some   learned   friends 
of  his  and  other  men  of  science,  revived  his  hopes.     A  letter  to 
1  Vie-:  ley  in  1800  shows  that  the  great  outlines  of  the  scheme  were 
then  fully  drawn  in  his  mind.     He  told  the  learned  exile  that  he 
desired  to  found  in  the  centre  of  the  State  a  "university  on  a  plan 
so  broad  and  liberal  and  modern   as   to  be  worth   patronizing  with 
the  public  support,  and  be  a  temptation  to  the  youth  of  other  States 
to  come   and  drink  of  the  cup  of  knowledge,  and  fraternize  with 
us."     li'1  pr-'posi-d  that  the  professors  should  follow  no  other  call 
ing;  and   he   Imped  "  to  draw  from  Europe  the  first  characters   in 
science  by  considerable  temptations."     He  asked  Dr.  Priestley  to 
draw  up  a  plan,  and  favor  him  with  advice  and  suggestions.     Dur 
ing  iiis  presidency,  he  still  embraced  opportunities  to  increase  his 
knowledge  of  such  institutions.    iKitei  his  retirement,  the  war  of 
IM'J  int.-rposcd  .,!.st:ic!os;  but,  from  the  peace  of  1815  to  the  close 
of  his  life,  the  University  of  Virginia  was  the  chief  subject  of  his 
thoughts,  and  tin-  cliief  object  of  his  labors 

I1    is  not  diilicult  to  begin  the   most   arduous  enterprise.     How 


HIS  LABORS  TO  PROMOTE  EDUCATION.       705 

well-cut  corner-stones  lie  buried  in  various  parts  of  this  conti 
nent  !  We  excel  in  corner-stones.  That  was  a  glad  and  proud 
day  for  Albemarle  when  the  corner-stone  of  the, University  of  Vir 
ginia  was  laid,  witnessed  by  the  three  neighbors  who  filled  in  suc 
cession  the  office  of  president  of  the  United  States,  —  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Monroe,  the  last  named  being  president  at  the  time. 
But  it  had  cost  Jefferson  some  exercise  of  his  tact  to  get  the  cor 
ner-stone  laid  just  there,  within  sight  of  his  own  abode.  Other 
localities  had,  of  course,  their  strenuous  advocates.  If.__a_. member 
of  the  commission  raised  an  objection  oil  the  ground  that  other 
places  were  more  salubrious,  Jefferson  would  draw  from  his  pocket 
a  list  of  persons  past  eighty  then  living  in  the  neighborhood.  But 
an  institution  built  and  supported  by  the  common  treasure  should 
be  central !  So  it  must.  And  Jefferson  produced  a  card  cut  into 
the  shape  of  Virginia,  upon  which  the  proposed  site  of  the  univer 
sity  was  indicated  by  a  dot.  That  the  dot  was  very  near  the  centre 
of  the  State  could  be  shown  by  balancing  the  card  on  the  point  of 
a  pencil.  But  a  place  may  be  geographically  central  without  being 
near  the  centre  of  population.  It  may  indeed.  And  Jefferson 
exhibited  a  piece  of  board  representing  Virginia,  on  which  he  had 
written,  in  his  own  clear,  minute  hand,  the  population  of  every 
part  of  the  State ;  which  made  it  plain  to  the  eye,  that,  if  the  popu 
lation  of  Virginia  had  been  called  upon  to  revolve,  Monticello  was 
the  very  pivot  for  the  purpose.  In  short,  the  corner-stone  was  laid 
where  the  master  of  Monticello  could  watch  its  rising  glories  from 
his  portico,  and  ride  over  every  day  to  the  site,  five  miles  distant. 

Then  came  the  tug  of  war.  He  had  subscribed  a  thousand  dol 
lars  toward  the  fund,  and  his  neighbors  had  multiplied  that  sum  by 
forty-four.  But  the  main  reliance  of  the  founder  was  upon  the 
legislature  of  the  State,  not  accustomed  to  appropriate  money  for. 
such  an  object,  nor  able  to  appropriate  much.  Party  passions  were 
not  extinct ;  and  if,  with  the  majority,  Jefferson  was  a  name  to 
conjure  with,  there  was  an  influential  minority  who  held  him  in 
undiminished  aversion.  Virginia,  too,  was  a  declining  commonwealth.- 
Nothing  was  so  abundant  there  as  encumbered  estates  ;  and  many 
families,  who  held  their  heads  high,  were  subsisting  on  the  proceeds 
of  the  sale,  now  and  then,  of  little  girls  and  boys,  or  "  likely  "  men 
and  women.  Money  came  hard ;  and  Jefferson  wanted  a  great  deal 
more  of  it  to  complete  his  plans  than  either  he  or  the  legislature 
45 


706  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

•ipated.     "I   have  been  long  sensible/' he  wrote  in  1826, 

:  while  I  was  endeavoring  to  render  our  country  the  greatest 
of  all  services,  that  of  regenerating  the  public  education,  and  pla- 
our  rising  generation  on  the  level  of  our  sister  States  (which 
tli.-y  have  proudly  held  heretofore),  I  was  discharging  the  odious 
function  of  a  physician  pouring  medicine  down  the  throat  of  a 
patient  insensible  of  needing  it."  He  was,  also,  a  connoisseur  in 
architecture,  which  is  not  an  inexpensive  taste.  He  thought  that 
it  hecame  Virginia  to  erect  something  grand  and  noble  for  an  insti 
tution  that  was  to  bear  her  name,  and  invite  the  flower  of  the  youth 
of  other  States.  Year  after  year  Mr.  Cabell  had  to  renew  the 
struu';.:!''  in  the  legislature  to  get  money  to  go  on  with.  'Three  hun- 
dn-d  thousand  dollars  were  expended  in  all,  and  an  appropriation 
of  lilt  t^n  "thousand  dollars  a  year  was  made  toward  the  support  of 
the  institution.  The  zeal  of  Cabell  was  contagious  and  irresistible, 
ritical  moment  his  feelings  were  wrought  to  such  a  pitch, 
that  In-  dared  not  remain  in  the  chamber  while  the  vote  was  taken; 
and  thus  he  missed  a  moving  scene.  The  vote  that  day  decided 
tin-  ]<". tt  ion.  As  soon  as  the  result  was  declared,  Mr.  B.  G.  Bald 
win,  the  leader  of  the  party  opposed  to  placing  the  institution  at 

rWti-«v.ill^  yyaft  AT\f\  mfulp  q^-pmvprfnl  appeal  in  behalf  of  the 
uni\vr>:ty.  He  had  contended  strenuously  for  a  more  western  site 
as  long  as  there  was  any  hope  of  success  ;  but  now  that  another 
place  had  been  chosen,  he  conjured  the  western  members  to  rise 
superior  to  local  prejudices,  and  give  the  institution  a  cordial  sup- 
"A  great  part  of  the  House,"  reports  Cabell,  "were  in 

>.  Such  magnanimity  in  a  defeated  adversary  excited  univer 
sal  applause." 

Mr.  .I'ii'crson  had  now  secured  the  most  fascinating  occupation 
for  his  last  years  that  could  have  been  contrived  for  him.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  board  of  trustees ;  and  they  all  seemed  to  agree 
with  Mr.  Madison  when  he  remarked  at  one  of  their  first  meetings, 
••  This  i>  Mr.  Jellerson's  scheme;  the  responsibility  is  his;  and  it  is 

lair  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  carry  it  out  in  his  own  way." 
JrtYer.-on's  love  of  construction,  his  ingenuity  as  an  inventor,  his 
int.  :  .  his  patriotism  and  henevolvnee,  were  all  gratified 

in  superintending  the  formation  of  the  university.  C«»lonel  T.  J. 
Randolph  has  <!.->rnl>r<l  in  a  vivid  and  agreeable  manner  the  joyous 
activity  of  his  grandfather  at  this  time,  —  how  he  would  mount  his 


HIS  LABORS   TO   PROMOTE   EDUCATION.  707 

horse  early  in  the  morning,  canter  down  the  mountain  and  across 
the  country  to  the  site,  and  spend  a  long  day  there  in  assisting  at 
the  work ;  carrying  with  him  a  walking-stick  of  his  own  invention 
(now  familiar  to  all),  composed  of  three  sticks,  which,  being  spread 
out  and  covered  with  a  piece  of  cloth,  made  a  tolerable  seat.  He  it 
was  who  designed  the  plan  and  made  working-draughts  for  each 
detail.  He  engaged  workmen,  selected  timber,  and  bought  bricks. 
Carvers  of  stone  whom  he  caused  to  be  brought  from  Italy  settled 
in  the  county,  and  have  living  descendants  there  at  this  moment. 
Afterwards,  finding  his  ornate  capitals  could  be  cut  cheaper  in  Italy, 
he  had  them  executed  there.  It  was  his  object  to  exhibit  to  the 
future  students  specimens  of  all  the  orders  of  architecture,  and  edi 
fices  that  should  call  to  mind  several  of  the  ancient  triumphs  of  his 
favorite  art.  Occupants  of  the  buildings,  it  is  said,  would  prefer 
less  grandeur  and  more  convenience,  fewer  columns  and  more  closets. 
The  time  came  for  selecting  professors.  The  very  first  appoint 
ment  brought  a  storm  -about  his  ears.  One  of  the  fugitives  from  the 
re-action  in  European  politics  of  1793  was  Thomas  Cooper,  a  friend 
of  Priestley  and  a  gentleman  of  note  in  chemistry  and  other 
branches  of  natural  science.  Under  the  Sedition  Law,  for  a  harm 
less  paragraph  upon  President  Adams,  after  a  trial  in  which  Judge 
Chase  had  not  kept  up  even  a  decent  show  of  impartiality,  the 
accused  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  four  hundred  dollars,  and  to 
be  imprisoned  six  months.  Of  course  he  was  a  made  man  from  the 
moment  of  the  ascendency  of  the  Republican  party.  As  he  was 
reputed  to  be  the  first  chemist  in  the  United  States,  the  visitors 
innocently  invited  him  to  the  chair  of  chemistry  in  the  new  univer 
sity.  Four  States  were  competing  for  his  services.  New  York, 
through  De  Witt  Clinton,  offered  him  liberal  compensation  for  that 
time,  — twenty-five  hundred  dollars  a  year  and  fees.  ^Pennsylvania 
sought  him  for  the  university  in  Philadelphia,  offering  him  a  place 
worth  seven  thousand  a  year.  New  Orleans  had  invited  him,  and 
William  and  Mary  desired  him.  But  when  it  became  known  that 
he  had  decided  for  Jefferson  and  the  University  of  Virginia,  the 
slumbering  fury  of  the  year  1800  blazed  up  again,  and  an  outcry 
arose  so  violent  'as  to  threaten  the  existence  of  a  university  depend 
ent  upon  the  popular  will.  It  was  remembered,  too,  that  Dr. 
Cooper  was  a  Unitarian,  a  name  of  opprobrium,  .even  at  a  time  so 
recent.  This  was,  indeed,  a  serious  consideration ;  for  a  religious 


708  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

prejudice  was  then  one  of  those  blind,  resistless  forces  which  were 

HO   more    amenable   to   reason   than    an    earthquake  or  a  tornado. 

is  nothing  to  be  done   in  the  presence  of  a  convulsion   of 

re  but  to  get  out  of  its  way.     And  it  really  was  of  the  very 

necessity  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  using  the  university  as  a 

means  of  propagating  peculiar  opinions.     Jefferson  bent  to  a  storm 

•  ul. I  n.»t  brave,   and  relinquished  Cooper  to  one  of  the  other 

•  it  ions   that  desired    him.      It  was   a  happy  riddance.     South 

•       .;ina  obtained  him  at  last,  and  made  a  nullitier  of  him  in  1832. 

A  c..mp«-;ent  corps  of  professors  were  engaged  in  England;  and 

in  March,  1825,  the  university  was  opened  with  forty  students,  a 

numbrr  which  was  increased  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  before 

u.l  of  the  first  term,  and  to  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  at 

tlu-  In-winning  of  the  second  year. 

Thi-  institution  differs  from  other  American  colleges  in  these  partic 
ulars  :  there  is  no  president ;  all  the   professors  are  of  equal  rank, 
:»t  that  one  of  their  number  is  elected  chairman  of  the  faculty, 
and  performs  the  usual  representative  duties.     They  get  from  the 
uMversity  a  small  fixed  salary,  meant  to  be  sufficient  for  subsist- 
Besides  this,  every  professor  receives  a  small  fee  from  each  of 
tin-  students  attending  his  "  school."     There  are  no  rewards  given 
by  the  university  and  no  honors,  except  a  statement  of  the  student's 
pi-oiiricney  in  each  of  the  "  schools "  which  he   attends;  and  that 
.»-y  is  ascertained,  not  by  a  system  of  daily  marks,  but  by  an 
ii ination  which  is  intended  to  be  thorough  and  just.     "  Gradua- 
ti'-n  "  Minifies  only  that  a  student  has  acquitted  himself  well  in  one 
of  the  "groups"  of  schools.     A  great  point  is  made  of  the  exami 
nation-.     "  I  vigorous  written   examinations,"  Dr.  Charles  Ycnable, 
tin-  chairman  of  the  faculty,  has  recently  written,  "are  held  period 
ically  in  each  school,  and  the  diploma  of  the  school  is  conferred  on 
.dents  only  whose  examination-papers  come   up  to  a  fixed 
lard.      That  is,  the  candidate  for  graduation  must  obtain   four- 
iifilis  i  in  some  of  the  schools  three-fourths)  of  the  values  assigned 
to  tin-  question*  >et  in  the  examinations.     No  distinctions  are  made 
.ie    graduates      A  student   either  graduates   nnn   Inmle  or 
at  all.     In  the  lower  elas-es  of  the  schools  like  examinations  are 
held,  and  certificates  of  di.-tinetinn  given   to   those  who   come   up  to 
.mdanl  of  three-fourths  of  the  values  of  the  questions  set." 
iicr  peculiarity  of  this  institution  is  the  homage  it  pays  to 


HIS  LABORS  TO  PROMOTE  EDUCATION.       709 

religion.  This  is  unique.  In  other  colleges  it  is  assumed  that 
students  will  neither  go  to  church  nor  attend  prayers  unless  they 
are  compelled  to  do  so.  This  university,  on  the  contrary,  assumes 
that  religion  has  an  attractive  power  of  its  own,  and  leaves  it  to  each 
student  to  go  to  church  and  attend  prayers,  or  to  abstain  from  so 
doing.  Daily  prayers  are  held,  and  a  service  on  Sunday  is  conducted 
by  a  clergyman  of  the  vicinity,  elected  in  rotation  from  the  chief 
denominations  of  the  State  ;  and  he  is  maintained  by  the  voluntary 
contributions  of  the  inmates  of  the  university.  But  the  dishonor 
is  not  put  upon  him  of  compelling  attendance  at  his  ministrations. 
Dr.  Venable  states  that  the  results  of  this  system  of  freedom  are 
such  as  might  have  been  expected.  "  The  students,"  he  says,  "  con 
tribute  with  commendable  liberality  to  the  support  of  the  chaplain, 
who  goes  constantly  in  and  out  among  them  as  their  friend  and 
brother,  laboring  earnestly  in  the  promotion  of  Christian  activity 
and  all  good  works.  There  is  always  a  respectable  attendance  of 
student  worshippers  at  morning  prayers,  a  good  attendance  of 
students  in  the  Sunday  services  in  the  chapel  as  well  as  in  the 
churches  in  the  town.  There  is  an  earnest  Christian  activity  among 
the  students,  which  employs  itself  in  the  different  enterprises  of  the 
University  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  They  keep  up  six 
Snnday  schools  in  the  sparsely-settled  mountain  districts  of  the 
neighborhood,  —  five  for  whites  and  one  for  freedmeri,  with  an  aver 
age  attendance  on  each  of  thirty  pupils.  This  steady  Christian  activ 
ity  is  not  a  thing  of  to-day  or  yesterday,  but  it  has  been  the  rule 
for  years." 

Dr.  Venable  bears  explicit  testimony  also  to  the  happy  results  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  darling  system  of  trusting  the  students,  instead  of 
spying  them.  "  I  have  seen."  he  says,  "  the  plan  of  trusting  to  the 
students'  honor,  and  of  the  abolition  of  all  espignage.  tested  here  and 
in  the  University  of  South  Carolina.  It  has  also  been  adopted  in 
Tnost  of  the  Virginia  colleges  with  the  best  results.  Its  effects  in 
imbuing  the  body  of  the  students  with  the  spirit  of  truth  and 
candor,  in  giving  them  the  proper  scorn  for  a  lie,  and  in  promoting  a 
frank  and  manly  intercourse  between  the  students  and  professors, 
cannot  be  too  highly  estimated.  A  student  who  is  known  to  have 
been  guilty  of  a  violation  of  his  examination  plettge,  or  of  any  other 
falsehood  in  his  dealings  with  the  authorities,  —  things  of  rare  occur 
rence,  —  is  not  permitted  by  his  fellows  to  remain  in  the  institution." 


710  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  .JEFFERSON. 

It  is  also  bis  opinion,  that  the  university  has  signally  answered 
-  founder,  which  was  to  raise  the  standard  of 
•u  in  Virginia.     The  mere  fact  of  keeping  its  diplomas, 
is  possible  to  human  scrutiny,  free  from  falsehoods,  and 
>  diplomas  of  the  kind  called  honorary,  has  had  a  percepti- 
.  he  thinks,  in  restoring  to  parchment  a   portion   of  the 
r  it  once  had  to  confer -honorable  distinction. 
:;o  all  other  institutions  of  learning  in  the  Southern  States,  it 
Mihjected  to  a  most  severe  ordeal  during  the  late  war.     The 
number  of  students  had  gone  on  increasing  from  year  to  year,  until 
it  had  n -ached  an  average  of  six  hundred  and  fifty.     Then  came  the 
Mast  of  war,  which  a  Southern  student  must  have  been  much 
or  something  less  than  human,  not  to  have  obeyed.     Abstract 
truth    is  usually  powerless  when    father,  mother,   sisters,  brothers, 
friends,  and  neighbors  are  all  pulling  the  other  way.     Hundreds  of 
alumni  (the  strength  of  a  university)  fell  in  battle,  never  doubting 
tli at  thev  died  for  their  country  and  their  rights.     But  during  the 
whole  of  the  four  years'  struggle,  the  university  was  kept  open,  and 
1  the  war  come  near  it.     In  March,  1865,  General  Sher- 
\\as  at  Cliarlottesville  with  a  body  of  cavalry;  but  during  the 
few  days  of  his  stay  in  the  neighborhood  he  placed  guards  around 
the  prMimds  of  the  university,  and  preserved  its  property  uninjured, 
•he  iirst  two  or  three  years  after  the  peace,  education  being  in 
.rs.  and  the  people,  it  is  said,  more  hopeful  than  they  are  now, 
tin-  niiiiib-r  of  students  was  again  nearly  five  hundred.     The  Cata- 
•  for  1872  shows  three  hundred  and  sixty-five.    Virginia,  besides 
up    under  a  great  load  of  debt,  has  nobly  continued  the 
annual  Appropriation  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars;  and  two  citizens 
of  the  State,  Saiim-1  Miller  and  Thomas   Johnson,  have  recently 
pi  veil  MMI'  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars  to  found  a  department 

dustriul  chemistry  and  engineering. 

Tin1  -'ie  visitors  is  to  strengthen  and  widen  the 

.  l.y  an  endowment  of  half  a  million.     That 
.liar  friendship  which  once  existed  between  Virginia  and  Massa- 
chu  back  to  the  time  when  Massachusetts  was  stricken 

in  her  chief  indu>try.  and  Virginia  was  her  bountiful  helper  and  con- 
sola  ia  to  live  a^ain  in  the  late  exchange  of  courtesies  between 

tin-  chairman  of  the  faculty  of  the 
!  Virginia.     "I  hope,"  says  Dr.  Venable,  "the  many 


HIS  LABORS  TO  PROMOTE  EDUCATION.       711 

friends  and  benefactors  of  Harvard  will  wisely  concentrate  on  her 
the  means  of  fulfilling  all  her  high  aspirations."  Massachusetts, 
with  her  capital  to  rebuild,  and  her  Harvard  to  restore,  must  deny 
herself  at  present  many  pleasures  which  she  would  otherwise  enjoy. 
New  York  will,  perhaps,  treat  herself  to  the  gift  of  this  half  million. 
It  is  a  pleasing  evidence  of  the  advance  of  catholicity  of  feeling, 
that  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  the  representative  liberal  of  the  North 
ern  States,  the  son  of  a  Calvinist  and  a  Federalist,  himself  always 
an  Abolitionist,  should  have  contributed  a  thousand  dollars  to  the 
fund. 

The  great  thing  to  be  desired  in  the  higher  education  of  America 
is  the  union  of  several  colleges  in  each  State  to  form  one  or 
two  real  universities.  But  probably  this  can  only  be  done  by 
Nature's  own  method  of  strengthening  the  strong  and  starving  the 
weak.  This  university,  from  the  day  when  Jefferson  gave  it  life, 
has  shown  a  lusty  strength,  that  marks  it  as  one  of  the  "  fittest " 
which  are  destined  to  "  survive." 

During  these  last  years  Mr.  Jefferson  showed  in  many  other  ways 
that  the  best  solace  ^dedining  age  is  an  intelligent  and  benevolent 
mind.  He  watched  with  deep  concern  the  ceaseless  movement  of 
the  human  soul  toward  freedom  and  purity.  Dr.  Channing  became 
an  interesting  figure  to  him ;  and  he  hailed  with  delight  the  inroads 
which  Channing  appeared  to  be  making  in  what  he  considered  the 
most  j)e£nicious  of  all  priestly  devices,  the  theology  of  Calvin.  It  is 
hard  to  say  which  surpassed  the  other  in  boiling  hatred  of  Calvin 
ism,  Jefferson  or  John  Adams.  "  I  rejoice,"  writes  Jefferson  in 
1822,  "that  in  this  blessed  country  of  free  inquiry  and  belief,  which 
lias  surrendered  its  creed  and  conscience  neither  to  kings  nor  priests, 
the  genuine  doctrine  of  one  only  God  is  reviving ;  and  I  trust  there 
is  not  a  young  man  now  living  in  the  United  States  who  will  not  die 
a  Unitarian."  He  was  ever  the  most  sanguine  of  men.  Often,  at 
this  period,  he  spoke  of  the  ancient  doctrines  with  an  approach  to 
violence.  In  thanking  Colonel  Pickering  for  sending  him  one  of 
Dr.  Channing's  sermons,  he  wrote  thus  :  "No  one  sees  with  greater 
pleasure  than  myself  the  progress  of  reason  in  its  advances  toward 
rational  Christianity.  When  we  shall  have  done  away  with  the 
incomprehensible  jargon  of  the  Trinitarian  arithmetic,  that  three  are 
one,  and  one  is  three  ;  when  we  shall  have  knocked  down  the  artifi 
cial  scaffolding  reared  to  mask  from  view  the  simple  structure  of 
47 


OF  THOMAS  JEFFEKSON. 

Jesus  ;  when,  in  short,  we  shall  have  unlearned  every  thing  taught 
since  his  day,  and  got  back  to  the  pure  and  simple  doctrines  he 
inculcated,  —  we  shall  then  be  truly  and  worthily  his  disciples  ;  and 
my  opinion  is,  that,  if  nothing  had  ever  been  added  to  what  flowed 
purely  from  his  lips,  the  whole  world  would  at  this  day  have  been 
Christian.  .  .  .  Had  there  never  been  a  commentator,  there  never' 
would  have  been  an  infidel." 

He  became  even  more  vehement  than  this  after  his  eightieth  year. 
He  spoke  of  "  the  blasphemous  absurdity  of  the  five  points  of  Cal 
vin  ;  "  of  "  the  hocus-pocus  phantasm  of  a  God  "  created  by  Calvin, 
which,  "like  another  Cerberus,"  had  "one  body  and  three  heads;  " 
and  declared,  that,  in  his  opinion,  "  it  would  be  more  pardonable  to 

ve  in  no  God  at  all  than  to  blaspheme  him  by  the  atrocious 
attributes  of  Calvin."     Hence  his  joy  at  the  triumphs  of  the  young 

•n  preacher  whose  boldness  and  fervor,  he  heard,  were  setting 
free  so  many  human  minds  from  the  iron  bondage  of  the  past.  "  In 

»n  and  its  neighborhood,"  he  writes  exultingly  to  Dr.  Cooper, 
"  Unitarianism  has  advanced  to  so  great  strength  as  now  to  humble 
this  haughtiest  of  all  religious  sects,  the  Presbyterian  ;  inasmuch  as 
they  condescend  to  interchange  with  them  and  the  other  sects  the 
civilities  of  preach  ing  freely  and  frequently  in  each  other's  meeting 
houses."  But  other  parts  of  the  country,  he  owned,  were  far  less 
IMI lightened,  a  threatening  cloud  of  fanaticism  being  over  them, 
'•  lighter  in  some  parts,  denser  in  others,  but  too  heavy  in  all."  "In 
Rhode  Island  no  sectarian  preacher  will  permit  a  Unitarian  to  pol- 
hre  his  desk.  In  our  Richmond  there  is  much  fanaticism,  but  chiefly 
among  the  women.  They  have  their  night  meetings  and  praying 
parties  where,  attended  by  their  priests,  and  some  times  by  a  hen- 
peeked  husband,  they  pour  forth  the  effusions  of  their  love  to  Jesus, 
in  terms  as  amatory  and  carnal  as  their  modesty  would  permit  them 
t<>  u-e  to  a  mere  earthly  lover.  In  our  village  of  Charlottesville 
there  is  a  good  degree  of  religion  with  a  small  spice  only  of  fanati- 
eiMii.  We  have  four  sects,  but  without  either  church  or  meeting 
house.  The  court-house  is  the  common  temple,  one  Sunday  in  the 
month  to  each.  Here  Episcopalian  and  Presbyterian,  Methodist 
and  Baptist,  meet  together,  join  in  hymning  their  Maker,  listen  with 

tion  and  devotion   to  each  other's  preachers,  and  all  mix  in 

iy  with  perfect  harmony."  The  final  and  complete  remedy,  he 
thought,  for  the  "  fever  of  fanaticism  "  was  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 


HIS  LABORS   TO  PROMOTE  EDUCATION.  713 

edge ;  and  again  lie  indulges  his  sanguine  Immor  by  predicting 
that  "  Unitarianisrn  will,  ere  long,  be  the  religion  of  the  majority, 
from  north  to  south." 

In  matters  political  he  remained  to  the  last  what  he  was  in  1800. 
He  could  not  relish  Scott's  novels,  because  they  concealed,  as  he 
fliought,  the  ugly  truth  of  the  past  under  an  alluring  guise  of  the 
romantic  and  picturesque.  He  disliked  the  robber  Norman,  loved 
the  industrial  Saxon.  As  for  Hume's  History  of  England,  and 
Blackstone's  Commentaries,  he  never  ceased  to  hate  them.  "  They 
have  made  Tories,"  he  wrote,  "  of  all  England,  and  are  making  Tories 
of  those  young  Americans  whose  native  feelings  of  independence  do 
not  place  them  above  the  wily  sophistries  of  a  Hume  or  a  Black- 
stone.  These  two  books,  but  especially  the  former,  have  done  more 
towards  the  suppression  of  the  liberties  of  man  than  all  the  million 
of  men  in  arms  of  Bonaparte  and- the  millions  of  human  lives  with 
the  sacrifice  of  which  he  will  stand  loaded  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  his  Maker."  He  said,  too,  that,  while  he  feared  nothing  for  our 
liberty  from  the  assaults  of  force,  he  had  fears  of  the  influence  of 
English  books,  English  prejudices,  English  manners,  and  their  apes 
and  dupes  among  professional  men.  He  remained  a  free-trader  to 
the  end.  The  longer  he  lived  the  more  he  felt  the  necessity  of  a 
subdivision  of  territory,  like  the  town-system  of  New  England,  under 
which  each  citizen  belongs  to  a  small  body  of  voters,  with  whom  he 
can  conveniently  co-operate,  and  who  can  be  assembled  without  delay 
or  difficulty.  He  would  have  divided  a  city  of  the  size  of  New  York 
into  three  hundred  wards.  He  also  became  perfectly  aware  of  the 
truth,  since  demonstrated  in  so  many  ways  and  places,  that  universal 
suffrage,  where  a  majority  of  the  voters  are  grossly  ignorant,  tends 
to  put  the  scoundrel  at  the  summit  of  affairs.  In  commenting  upon 
a  new  constitution  proposed  for  Spain,  he  said  there  was  one  provision 
in  it  "  which  would  immortalize  its  inventors."  That  provision  dis 
franchised  every  man,  who,  after  a  certain  epoch,  could  not  read  and 
write. 


CHAPTER  LXXI. 

VISITORS    AT   MOXTICELLO,    AND    FAMILY   REMINISCENCES. 

THE  reader  may  naturally  desire  to  linger  a  moment  longer  upon 

tin-  summit  of  the  little  mount,  where,  for  the  long  period  of  sixty 

pa,   such   a   joyous,   intelligent,    and   dignified  life    was    lived. 

Among  the  visitors  who  thronged  thither  during  the  last  years  of 

Mr.  .1-  iVt-rson's  life  were  several  persons  of  note  who  recorded  their 

leetions.     Mr.  Randall  has  gathered  from  surviving  descendants 

of  the  family  many  pleasing  reminiscences,  and  from  them   also  I 

will  borrow  a  trait  or  two. 

RECOLLECTIONS    OF    A    GRAND-DAUGHTER. 

Books  were  at  all  times  his  chosen  companions,  and  his  acquaint- 

an.-f  \\-itli  many  languages  gave  him  great  power  of  selection.     He 

read   Homer,  Virgil,  Dante,  Corneille,  Cervantes,  as  he  read  Sliak- 

nl  Milton.     In  his  youth  he  had  loved  poetry  ;   but,  by  the 

time  I  was  old  enough  to  observe,  he  had  lost  his  taste  for  it,  except 

fur  I  I"in. -r  and  the  great  Athenian  tragics,  which  he  continued  to  the 

:ijoy.     He  went  over  the  works  of  ^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  and 

•  very  long  before  I  left  him  (the  year  before  his  death). 

Of  history  he  was  very  fond;  and  this  he  studied  in  all  languages, 

though  always,  I  think,  preferring  the  ancients.     In  fact,  he  derived 

pleasure  from  his  acquaintance  with  Greek  and  Latin  than 

I  any  other  resource  of  literature;  and  I  have  often  heard  him 

bia  gratitude  to  his  father  for  causing  him  to  receive  acla.-si- 

••<luration.     I  saw  him  more  frequently  with   a  volume  of  the 

in  his  hand  than  with  any  other  book.     Still  he  read  new 

out,  never  missed  the  new  nuniber  of  a 

7U 


VISITORS  AT  MONTICELLO.  715 

review,  especially  of  the  Edinburgh,  and  kept  himself  acquainted 
with  what  was  being  done,  said,  or  thought  in  the  world  from  which 
he  had  retired. 

He  loved  farming  and  gardening,  the  fields,  the  orchards,  and  his 
asparagus-beds.  Every  day  he  rode  through  his  plantation  and 
walked  in  his  garden.  In  the  cultivation  of  the  last  he  took  great 
pleasure.  Of  flowers,  too,  he  was  very  fond.  One  of  my  early  recol 
lections  is  of  the  attention  which  he  paid  to  his  flower-beds.  He 
kept  up  a  correspondence  with  persons  in  the  large  cities,  particu 
larly,  I  think,  in  Philadelphia,  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  supplies 
of  roots  and  seeds  both  for  his  kitchen  and  flower  garden.  I  remem 
ber  well,  when  he  first  returned  to  Monticello,  how  immediately  he 
began  to  prepare  new  beds  for  his  flowers.  He  had  these  beds  laid 
off  on  the  lawn,  under  the  windows ;  and  many  a  time  I  have  run 
after  him  when  he  went  out  to  direct  the  work,  accompanied  by  one 
of  his  gardeners,  generally  Worrnley,  armed  with  spade  and  hoe, 
while  he  himself  carried  the  measuring-line. 

I  was  too  young  to  aid  him,  except  in  a  small  way ;  but  my  sister, 
Mrs.  Bankhead,  then  a  young  and  beautiful  woman,  was  his  active 
and  useful  assistant.  I  remember  the  planting  of  the  first  hyacinths 
and  tulips,  and  their  subsequent  growth.  The  roots  arrived  labelled, 
each  one  with  a  fancy  name.  There  was  "  Marcus  Aurelius "  and 
tbe  "King  of  the  Gold  Mine,"  the  "  Koman  Empress"  and  the 
"Queen  of  the  Amazons,"  "Psyche,"  the  "God  of  Love,"  &c. 
Eagerly,  and  with  childish  delight,  I  studied  this  brilliant  nomen 
clature,  and  wondered  what  strange  and  surprisingly  beautiful  crea 
tions  I  should  see  arising  from  the  ground  when  spring  returned ; 
and  these  precious  roots  were  committed  to  the  earth  under  my 
grandfather's  own  eye,  with  his  beautiful  grand-daughter  Anne 
standing  by  his  side,"  and  a  crowd  of  happy  young  faces,  of  younger 
grandchildren,  clustering  round  to  see  the  progress,  and  inquire  anx 
iously  the  name  of  each  separate  deposit. 

Then,  when  spring  returned,  how  eagerly  we  watched  the  first 
appearance  of  the  shoots  above  ground !  Each  root  was  marked 
with  its  own  name  written  011  a  bit  of  stick  by  its  side ;  and  what 
joy  it  was  for  one  of  us  to  discover  the  tender  green  breaking  through 
the  mould,  and  run  to  grandpapa  to  announce  that  we  really  believed 
Marcus  Aurelius  was  coming  up,  or  the  Queen  of  the  Amazons  was 
above  ground  !  With  how  much  pleasure,  compounded  of  our  pleas- 


710  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

ure  and  his  own,  on  the  new  birth,  he  would  immediately  go  out  to 

.  the  fact,  and  praise  us  for  our  diligent  watchfulness. 
Then,  when  the  flowers  were  in  bloom,  and  we  were  in  ecstasies 
OTCI  the  rich  purple  and  crimson,  or  pure  white,  or  delicate  lilac,  or 

yellow  of  the  blossoms,  how  he  would  sympathize  with  our 
admiration,  or  discuss  with  my  mother  and  elder  sister  new  group- 

and   combinations   and   contrasts!      Oh,    these    were    happy 
moments  for  us  and  for  him  ! 

is  in  the  morning,  immediately  after  our  early  breakfast,  that 
IK-  used  to  visit  his  flower-beds  and  his  garden.  As  the  day,  in 
summer,  grew  warmer,  he  retired  to  his  own  apartments,  which  con- 

1  i if  a  bed-chamber  and  library  opening  into  each  other.  Here 
he  remained  until  about  one  o'clock,  occupied  in  reading,  writing, 
looking  over  papers,  &c.  My  mother  would  sometimes  send  me  with 
a  menage  to  him.  A  gentle  knock,  a  call  of  "  Come  in,"  and  I  would 
r,  with  a  mixed  feeling  of  love  and  reverence,  and  some  pride  in 
ie  bearer  of  a  communication  to  one  whom  I  approached  with 
:ill  tin-  atVcetion  of  a  child,  and  something  of  the  loyalty  of  a  subject. 
Our  mother  educated  all  her  children  to  look  up  to  her  father,  as 
vli.-  1  -oked  up  to  him  herself,  — literally  looked  up,  as  to  one  stand 
ing  "ii  an  eminence  of  greatness  and  goodness.  And  it  is  no  small 
proof  of  his  real  elevation,  that  as  we  grew  older,  and  better  able  to 
jud:_'e  f->r  ourselves,  we  were  more  and  more  confirmed  in  the  opin 
ions  we  had  formed  of  it. 

ANOTHER  GRAND-DAUGHTER'S  RECOLLECTIONS. 

Cheerfulness,  love,  benevolence,  wisdom,   seemed  to  animate  his 
whole   form.      His  face  beamed  with   them.     You   remember  how 
ii is  step,  how  lively  and  even  playful  were  his  manners, 
'lescribe  the  feelings  of  veneration,  admiration,  and  l<>ve 
that  t-xisted  in  my  heart  towards  him.     I  looked  on  him  as  a  being 
•real  and  £ood  for  my  comprehension;  and  yet  I  felt  no  fear  to 
approach  him,  and  be  taught  by  him  some  of  the  childish  sports  that 
^lited  in.     When  he  walked  in  the  garden,  and  would  call  the 
children  to  go  with  him,  we  raced  after  and  before  him,  and  we  were 
made    perfiv:ly  happy  by  this  permission   to   accompany  him.     Not 
f  us  in  our  wildest  moods  ever  placed  a  foot  on  one  of  the  gar 
den  beds,  for  that  would  violate  one  of  his  rules;  and  yet  I  never 


VISITORS   AT   MONTICELLO.  717 

heard  him  utter  a  harsh  word  to  one  of  us,  or  speak  in  a  raised  tone 
of  voice,  or  use  a  threat.  He  simply  said,  "Do,"  or  "Do  not."  He 
would  gather  fruit  for  us,  seek  out  the  ripest  figs,  or  bring  down  the 
cherries  from  on  high  ahove  our  heads  with  a'  long  stick,  at  the  end 
of  which  there  was  a  hool>  and  a  little  net  bag.  .  .  .  One  of  our 
earliest  amusements  was  in  running  races  on  the  terrace,  or  around 
the  lawn.  He  placed  us  according  to  our  ages,  giving  the  youngest 
and  smallest  the  start  of  all  the  others  by  some  yards,  and  so  on  ; 
and  then  he  raised  his  arm  high  with  his  white  handkerchief  in  his 
hand,  on  which  our  eager  eyes  were  fixed,  and  slowly  counted  three, 
at  which  number  he  dropped  the  handkerchief  and  we  started  off  to 
finish  the  race  by  returning  to  the  starting-place  and  receiving  our 
reward  of  dried  fruit,  —  three  figs,  prunes,  or  dates  to  the  victor,  two 
to  the  second,  and  one  to  the  lagger  who  came  in  last.  These  were 
our  summer  sports  with  him. 

I  was  born  the  year  he  was  elected  president ;  and  except  one 
winter  that  we  spent  with  him  in  Washington,  I  never  was  with 
him  during  that  season  until  after  he  had  retired  from  office.  Dur 
ing  his  absences,  all  the  children  who  could  write  corresponded  with 
him.  Their  letters  were  duly  answered ;  and  it  was  a  sad  mortifica 
tion  to  me  that  I  had  not  learned  to  write  before  his  return  to  live 
at  home,  and  of  course  had  no  letter  from  him.  Whenever  an 
opportunity  occurred,  he  sent  us  books  ;  and  he  never  saw  a  little 
story  or  piece  of  poetry  in  a  newspaper  suited  to  our  ages  and  tastes, 
that  he  did  not  preserve  it  and  send  it  to  us;  and  from  him  we 
learned  the  habit  of  making  these  miscellaneous  collections  by  past 
ing  in  a  little  paper  book,  made  for  the  purpose,  any  thing  of  the 
sort  that  we  received  from  him  or  got  otherwise. 

On  winter  evenings,  when  it  grew  too  dark  to  read,  in  the  half- 
hour  that  passed  before  candles  came  in,  as  we  all  sat  round  the  fire, 
he  taught  us  several  childish  games,  and  would  play  them  with  us. 
I  remember  that  "cross  questions,"  and  "  I  love  my  love  with  an  A," 
were  two  I  learned  from  him  ;  and  we  would  teach  some  of  ours  to 
him.  When  the  candles  were  brought,  all  was  quiet  immediately, 
for  he  took  up  his  book  to  read,  and  we  would  not  speak  out  of  a 
whisper  lest  we  should  disturb  him ;  and  generally  we  followed  his 
example  and  took  a  book ;  and  I  have  seen  him  raise  his  eyes  from 
his  own  book,  and  look  round  on  the  little  circle  of  readers,  and  smile, 
and  make  some  remark  to  mamma  about  it.  When  the  snow  fell  we 


718  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

would  go  out  as  soon  as  it  stopped  to  clear  it  off  the  terraces  with 
hat  he  might  have  his  usual  walk  on  them  without  tread 
ing  in  snow. 

He  often  made  us  little  presents.      I  remember  his   giving  us 

rents'  Assistant ; "  and  that  we  drew  lots,  and  that  she  who  drew 

tli.-  longest    straw  had  the  first    reading  of   the  book,    the    next 

:raw  entitled  the  drawer  to  the  second  reading,  the   short- 

'•>  the  last  reading  and  the  ownership  of  the  book.     Often  he 

>vered,  we  knew  not  how,  some  cherished  object  of  our  desires; 

the  first  intimation  we  had  of  his  knowing  the  wish  was   its 

unexpected  gratification. 

REMINISCENCES    OF    ANOTHER    GRAND-DAUGHTER. 

My  grandfather's  manners  to  us,  his  grandchildren,  were  delight 
ful.     I  can  characterize  them  by  no  other  word.     He  talked  with  us 
'\*,  affectionately,  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  giving  a  pleasure 
good  lesson.     He  reproved  without  wounding  us,  and  commended 
without  making  us  vain.     He  took  pains  to  correct  our  errors   and 
ideas,  checked  the  bold,  encouraged  the   timid,  and  tried  to 
:i  us  to  reason  soundly  and  feel  rightly.     Our  smaller  follies  he 
tn-uted  with  good-humored  raillery,  our  graver  ones  with  kind   and 
'Us  admonition.     He  was  watchful  over  our  manners,  and  called 
our  attention  to  every  violation  of  propriety.     He  did  not  interfere 
b  our  education,  technically  so  called,  except  by  advising  us  what 
to  pursue,  what  books  to  read,  and  by  questioning  us  on  the 
liich  we  did  read.     I  was  .  .  .  thrown  most  into  compan 
ionship  with   him.     I  loved  him  very  devotedly,  and  sought  every 
•  I*  being  with  him.     As  a  child  I  used  to  follow  him 
about,  and  draw  as  near  to  him  as  I  could.     I  remunlx-r  when  I  was 
'iijjh  to  sit  on  his  knee  and  play  with  his  watch-chain.     As 
a  girl  I  \v«uild  join  him   in  his  walks  on   the  terrace,  sit  with   him 
the  tin-  during  the  winter  twilight,  or  by  the  open  windows  in 
As   a  child,  girl,  and  woman,  I  loved   and  honored   him 
all  earthly  bi-'mgs.     And  well  I  might.     From  him   M-nurd.  to 
ll«»\v  all  tin-  pleasures  of  my  life.     To  him  I  owed  all  the  small  1 
in-s  and  joyful  >uq»ri>es  of  my  childish  and  girlish  years.     His  nature 
was  so  eminently  sympathetic,  that,  with  those   he   loved,  he   could 
r  int.,  th.-ir  f.-.-lings,  anticipate  their  wishes,  gratify  their  tastes, 


VISITORS   AT   MONTICELLO.  719 

and  surround  them  with  an  atmosphere  of  affection.  I  was  fond  of 
riding,  and  was  rising  above  that  childish  simplicity  when,  provided 
I  was  mounted  on  a  horse,  I  cared  nothing  for  my  equipments,  and 
when  an  old  saddle  or  broken  bridle  were  matters  of  no  moment. 
I  was  beginning  to  be  fastidious,  but  I  had  never  told  my  wishes.  I 
was  standing  one  bright  day  in  the  portico,  when  a  man  rode  up  to 
the  door  with  a  beaut'iful  lady's  saddle  and  bridle  before  him.  My 
heart  bounded.  These  coveted  articles  were  deposited  at  my  feet. 
My  grandfather  came  out  of  his  room  to  tell  me  they  were  mine. 

When  about  fifteen  years  old,  I  began  to  think  of  a  watch,  but 
knew  the  state  of  my  father's  finances  promised  no  such  indulgence. 
One  afternoon  the  letter-bag  was  brought  in.  Among  the  letters 
was  a  small  packet  addressed  to  my  grandfather.  It  had  the  Phila 
delphia  mark  upon  it.  I  looked  at  it  with  indifferent,  incurious  eye. 
Three  hours  after,  an  elegant  lady's  watch  with  chain  and  seals  was 
in  my  hand,  which  trembled  for  very  joy.  My  Bible  came  from  him, 
my  Shakspeare,  my  first  writing-table,  my  first  handsome  writing- 
desk,  my  first  Leghorn  hat,  my  first  silk  dress.  What,  in  short,  of 
all  my  small  treasures  did  not  come  from  him  ? .  .  .  . 

My  sisters,  according  to  their  wants  and  tastes,  were  equally 
thought  of,  equally  provided  for.  Our  grandfather  seemed  to  read 
our  hearts,  to  see  our  invisible  wishes,  to  be  our  good  genius,  to 
wave  the  fairy  wand,  to  brighten  our  young  lives  by  his  goodness 
and  his  gifts.  But  I  have  written  enough  for  this  time ;  and, 
indeed,  what  can  I  say  hereafter  but  to  repeat  the  same  tale  of  love 
and  kindness  ? 

VISIT    OP    LIEUTENANT    FRANCIS    HALL,    OF    THE    BRITISH    ARMY, 

IN    1817. 

"  Having  an  introduction  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  I  ascended  his  little 
mountain  on  a  fine  morning,  which  gave  the  situation  its  due  effect. 
The  whole  of  the  sides  and  base  are  covered  with  forest,  through 
which  roads  have  been  cut  circularly,  so  that  the  winding  may  be 
shortened  at  pleasure ;  the  summit  is  an  open  lawn,  near  to  the 
south  side  of  which  the  house  is  built,  with  its  garden  just  descend 
ing  the  brow ;  the  saloon,  or  central  hall,  is  ornamented  with  several 
pieces  of  antique  sculpture,  Indian  arms,  mammoth  bones,  and  other 
curiosities  collected  from  various  parts  of  the  Union.  I  found  Mr. 


LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

tall  in  person,  but  stooping  and  lean  with  old  age;  thus 
[biting  the  fortunate  mode  of  bodily  decay,  which  strips  the  frame 
of  i;  nnbersome  parts,  leaving  it  still  strength  of  muscle  and 

••f  limb.     His  deportment  was  exactly  such  as  the  Marquis 
de  Chastellux  describes  it  above  thirty  years  ago.     '  At  first  serious, 
nay,  even  cold,'  but  in  a  very  short  time  relaxing  into  a  most  agree- 
ahle  amenity,  with  an  unabated  flow  of  conversation  on  the  most 
resting  topics,  discussed  in  the  most  gentlemanly  and  philosophic 
manner.     I  walked  with  him  round  his  grounds,  to  visit  his  pet  trees 
and  improvements  of  various  kinds.    During  the  walk  he  pointed  out 
to  my  observation  a  conical  mountain,  rising  singly  at  the  edge  of 
the  .-.iithern  horizon  of  the  landscape:  its  distance,  he  said,  was 
f.rty  miles,  and  its  dimensions  those  of  the  greater  Egyptian  pyra 
mid;  so  that  it  accurately  represents  the  appearance  of  the  pyramid 
une  distance.     There  is  a  small  cleft  visible  on  its  summit, 
through  which  the  true  meridian  of  Monticello  exactly  passes:  its 
nio-t   >ingular  property,  however,  is,  that  on  different  occasions   it 
••r  alters   its     appearance,  becoming   sometimes    cylindrical, 
sometimes  square,  and  sometimes  assuming  the  form  of  an  inverted 
cone.     Mr.  Jefferson  had  not  been  able  to  connect  this  phenomenon 
with  any  particular  season,  or  state  of  the  atmosphere,  except  that  it 
ni'»-:  <  "iiunonly  occurred  in  the  forenoon.     He  observed  that  it  was 
11- >t  "iily  wholly  unaccounted  for  by  the  laws  of  vision,  but  that  it 
had  not  as  yet  engaged  the  attention  of  philosophers  so  far  as  to 
acquire  a  name  ;  that  of  looming  being,  in  fact,  a  term  applied  by 
<>rs  to  appearances  of  a  similar  kind  at  sea.     The  Blue  Mountains 
dso  observed  to  loom,  though  not  in  so  remarkable  a  degree. 

must  be  remarkable  to  recall  and  preserve  the  political  sonti- 

nien'<  of  a  man  who  has  held  so  distinguished  a  station  in  public  life 

as  Mr.  Jefferson.     He  seemed  to  consider  much  of  the  freedom  and 

happiness  of  America  to  rise  from  local  circumstances.     'Our  pop- 

ved,  'has  an  elasticity  by  which  it  would  fly  off 

ve  taxation.'     He  instanced  the  beneficial  effects  of  a 

government  in  the  case  of  New  Orleans,  where  many  proprie- 

•\li"  weiv  in  a  state  of  indigence  under  the  dominion  of  Spain 

have  ri-i-n  to  >udd.-n  wealth,  solely  by  the  rise  in  the  value  of  land 

which    followed     a    change    of    government.      Their   ingenuity    in 

mechanical  inventions,  agricultural  improvements,  and  that  muss  of 

general  information  to  be  found  among  Americans  of  all  ranks  and 


VISITORS  AT  MONTICELLO.  721 

conditions,  lie  ascribed  to  that  ease  of  circumstances  which  afforded 
them  leisure  to  cultivate  their  minds,  after  the  cultivation  of  their 
lands  was  completed.  In  fact,  I  have  frequently  been  surprised  to 
find  mathematical  and  other  useful  works  in  houses  which  seemed 
to  have  little  pretensions  to  the  luxury  of  learning.  '  Another  cause/ 
Mr.  Jefferson  observed,  ( might  be  discovered  in  the  many  court  and 
county  meetings  which  brought  men  frequently  together  on  public 
business,  and  thus  gave  them  habits,  both  of  thinking,  and  express 
ing  their  thoughts  on  subjects,  which  in  other  countries  are  confined 
to  the  privileged  few.'  Mr.  Jefferson  has  not  the  reputation  of  being 
very  friendly  to  England:  we  should,  however,  be  aware  that  a  par 
tiality  in  this  respect  is  not  absolutely  the  duty  of  an  American 
citizen  ;  neither  is  it  to  be  expected  that  the  policy  of  our  govern 
ment  should  be  regarded  in  foreign  countries  with  the  complacency 
with  which  it  is  looked  upon  by  ourselves  ;  but,  whatever  may  be  his 
sentiments  in  this  respect,  politeness  naturally  repressed  any  offen 
sive  expression  of  them  :  he  talked  of  our  affairs  with  candor,  and 
apparent  good  will,  though  leaning  perhaps  to  the  gloomier  side  of 
the  picture.  He  did  not  perceive  by  what  means  we  could  be  extri 
cated  from  our  present  financial  embarrassments,  without  some  kind 
of  revolution  in  our  government.  On  my  replying  that  our  habits 
were  remarkably  steady,  and  that  great  sacrifices  would  be  made  to 
prevent  a  violent  catastrophe,  he  acceded  to  the  observation,  but 
demanded  if  those  who  made  the  sacrifices  would  not  require  some 
political  reformation  in  return.  His  repugnance  was  strongly 
marked  to  the  despotic  principles  of  Bonaparte ;  and  he  seemed  to 
consider  France  under  Louis  XVI.  as  scarcely  capable  of  a  repub 
lican  form  of  government,  but  added  that  the  present  generation  of 
Frenchmen  had  grown  up  with  sounder  notions,  which  would  proba 
bly  lead  to  their  emancipation. 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  preferred  Botta's  Italian  History  of  the  American 
Revolution  to  any  that  had  yet  appeared ;  remarking,  however,  the 
inaccuracy  of  the  speeches.  Indeed,  the  true  history  of  that  period 
seems  to  be  generally  considered  as  l<5st.  A  remarkable  letter  on  this 
point  lately  appeared  in  print  from  the  venerable  Mr.  John  Adams, 
to  a  Mr.  Niles,  who  had  solicited  his  aid  to  collect  and  publish  a 
body  of  revolutionary  speeches.  He  says,  l  Of  all  the  speeches  made 
in  Congress  from  1774  to  1777,  inclusive  of  both  years,  not  one  sen 
tence  remains,  except  a  few  periods  of  Dr.  Witherspoon,  printed  in 
46 


7J;2  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

roriw.1     His   concluding   sentence    is   very  strong.     'In  plain 

and  in  a  few  words,  Mr.  Niles,  I  consider  the  true  history 

of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the  establishment  of  our  present 

Stations, as  lost  forever ;  and  nothing  hut  misrepresentations,  or 

al  accounts  of  it,  will  ever  be  recovered.' 

•    I  >li-pt  a  night  at  Monticello,  and  left  it  in  the  morning  with 
such  a  feeling  as  the  traveller  quits  the  mouldering  remains  of  a 
'.•in pie,  or  the  pilgrim  a  fountain  in  the  desert.     It  would 
rgue  a  great  torpor,  both  of  understanding  and  heart,  to  have 
,1  without  veneration  and  interest  on  the  man  who  drew  up  the 
i  rat  ion  of  American  Independence;  who  shared  in  the  councils 
l.y  which  her  freedom  was  established;  whom  the  unbought  voice  of 
.'. -How-citizens  called  to  the  exercise  of  a  dignity  from  which  his 
moderation    impelled   him,  when  such  an  example  was   most 
salutarv,  to  withdraw;  and. who,  while  he  dedicates  the  evening  of 
bii  -! ••!•'.•  >us  days  to  the  pursuits  of  science  and  literature,  shuns  none 
of  the  humbler  duties  of  private  life;  but,  having  filled  a  seat  high- 
:.an  that  of  kings,  succeeds  with  graceful  dignity  to  that  of  the 
good  neighbor,  and  becomes  the  friendly  adviser,  lawyer,  and  physi 
cian,  and  even  gardener,  of  his  vicinity.     This  is  the  still  small  voice 
of  philosophy,  deeper  and  holier  than  the  lightnings  and  earthquakes 
which  have  preceded  it." 


VISIT    OF    DANIEL    WEBSTER    IN    1824. 

••  .Mr.  Jefferson  is  now  between  eighty-one  and  eighty-two,  above 
six  fert  high,  of  an  ample,  long  frame,  rather  thin  and  spare.  His 
l.  which  is  not  peculiar  in  its  shape,  is  set  rather  forward  on  his 
j.-rs  ;  and  his  neck  being  long,  there  is,  when  he  is  walking  «>r 
conversing,  an  habitual  protrusion  of  it.  It  is  still  well  covered  with 
hair,  which  having  been  once  red,  and  now  turning  gray,  is  of  an 
indistinct  sandy-color. 

UH«  eyea  are  small,  very  light,  and  now  neither  brilliant  nor 
striking.  His  chin  is  rather  long,  but  not  pointed.  His  nose  small, 
outline,  and  the  nostrils  a  little  elrvated.  His  mouth 
i>  w.-il  formed.  ;u,d  still  filled  with  tt-i-th  :  it  is  strongly  Compressed, 
bt-aring  an  expression  of  content  im-ut  and  benevolence.  Jlis  com 
plexion,  iurmeily  light  and  fn-cklrd,  now  ln-ars  the  marks  of  age  and 
ailection.  His  limbs  are  uncommonly  long,  his  hands 


VISITORS  AT  MONTICELLO.  723 

and  feet  very  large,  and  his  wrists  of  an  extraordinary  size.  His 
walk  is  not  precise  and  military,  but  easy  and  swinging.  He  stoops 
a  little,  not  so  much  from  age  as  from  natural  formation.  When 
sitting,  he  appears  short,  partly  from  a  rather  lounging  habit  of  sit 
ting,  and  partly  from  the  disproportionate  length  of  his  limbs. 

"  His  dress  when  in  the  house  is  a  gray  surtout  coat,  kerseymere- 
stuff  waistcoat,  with  an  under-one  faced  with  some  material  of  a  dingy 
red.  His  pantaloons  are-very  long  and  loose,  and  of  the  same  color 
as  his  coat.  His  stockings  are  woollen,  either  white  or  gray ;  and 
his  shoes' of  the  kind  that  bear  his  name.  His  whole  dress  is  very 
much  neglected,  but  not  slovenly.  He  wears  a  common  round  hat. 
His  dress  when  on  horseback  is  a  gray  straight-bodied  coat,  and  a 
spencer  of  the  same  material,  both  fastened  with  large  pearl  buttons. 
When  we  first  saw  him  he  was  riding ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  above 
articles  of  apparel,  wore  round  his  throat  a  knit  white  woollen  tippet 
in  the  place  of  a  cravat,  and  black-velvet  gaiters  under  his  panta 
loons.  His  general  appearance  indicates  an  extraordinary  degree  of 
health,  vivacity,  and  spirit.  His  sight  is  still  goo<l,  for  he  needs 
glasses  only  in  the  evening.  His  hearing  is  generally  good,  but  a 
number  of  voices  in  animated  conversation  confuse  it. 

"Mr.  Jefferson  rises  in  the  morning  as  soon  as  he  can  see  the 
hands  of  his  clock,  which  is  directly  opposite  his  bed,  and  examines 
his  thermometer  immediately,  as  he  keeps  a  regular  meteorological 
diary.  He  employs  himself  chiefly  in  writing  till  breakfast,  which 
is  at  nine.  From  that  time  till  dinner  he  is  in  his  library,  excepting 
that  in  fair  weather  he  rides  on  horseback  from  seven  to  fourteen 
miles.  Dines  at  four,  returns  to  the  drawing-room  at  six,  when  coffee 
is  brought  in,  and  passes  the  evening  till  nine  in  conversation.  His 
habit  of  retiring  at  that  hour  is  so  strong,  that  it  has  become  essen 
tial  to  his  health  and  comfort.  His  diet  is  simple,  but  he  seems 
restrained  only  by  his  taste.  His  breakfast  is  tea  and  coffee,  bread 
always  fresh  from  the  oven,  of  which  he  does  not  seem  afraid,  with 
sometimes  a  slight  accompaniment  of  cold  meat.  He  enjoys  his  din 
ner  well,  taking  with  his  meat  a  large  proportion  of  vegetables.  He 
has  a  strong  preference  for  the  wines  of  the  Continent,  of  Avhich  he 
has  many  sorts  of  excellent  quality,  having  been  more  than  com 
monly  successful  in  his  mode  .of  importing  and  preserving  them. 
Among  others  we  found  the  following,  which  are  very  rare  in  this 
country,  and  apparently  not  at  all  injured  by  transportation,  — L'Ed- 


7JI  LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

uau.  Muscat,  Samian,  and  Blanchette  de  Limoux.     Dinner  is  served 
in  half  Virginian,  half  French  style,  in  good  taste  and  abundance. 

[ne  is  put  on  the  table  till  the  cloth  is  removed. 

'•  In  r..h\vrsatioii  Mr.  Jefferson  is  easy  and  natural,  and  appar- 

entlv  not  ambitious:  it  is  not  loud,  as  challenging  general  attention, 

but  'usuallv  addressed  to  the  person  next  him.    The  topics,  when  not 

to  suit  the  character  and  feelings  of  his   auditor,  are  those 

subjects  with  which  his  mind  seems  particularly  occupied  ;  and  these, 

at  pn-s.-nt,  may  be  said  to  be  science  and  letters,  and   especially  the 

,  nf  Virginia,  which  is  coining  into  existence  almost  entirely 

from  his  exertions,  and  will  rise,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  to  usefulness  and 

credit  under  his  contiued  care.    When  we  were  with  him,  his  favorite 

•  iv  Greek  and  Anglo-Saxon,  historical  recollections  of  the 

tiiiM-s  and  events  of  the  Revolution,  and  of  his  residence   in  France 

from  17S;^-4tol789." 

VISIT    OF    THE    DUKE    OF    SAXE-WEIMAR    IN    1825. 

••  ! ';  -'dent  Jefferson  invited  us  to  a  family  dinner  ;  but  as  in  Char- 
-ville  there  is  but  a  single  hackney-coach,  and  this  being  absent, 
we  irere  obliged  to  go  the  three  miles  to  Monticello  on  foot. 

"  We  went  by  a  pathway,  through  well-cultivated  and  enclosed 
li'-l'l  i  a  creek  named  liivaima,  passing  on  a  trunk  of  a  tree 

rut  in  a  rough  shape  and  without  rails;  then  ascended  a  steep  hill 
ov< Thrown  with  wood,  and  came,  on  its  top,  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  house, 
whirh  is  in  an  open  space,  walled  round  with  bricks,  forming  an 
oblong  whose  shorter  sides  are  rounded;  on  each  of  the  longer  sides 

••rtals  of  four  columns. 

"  Tii  —t'ul  waiting  for  a  carriage,  and  our  long  walk,  caused 

surh  a  delay,  that  we  found  the  company  at  table  when  we  entered; 
but  Mr.  Jeffenoo  came  very  kindly- to  meet  us,  forced  us  to  take  our 
iered  dinner  to  be  served  up  anew.  He  was  an  old  man 
of  eighty-six  years  of  age,  of  tall  stature,  plain  appearance,  and 
long  white  hair. 

"  In  ••••n  \vrsarion.he  was  v.  ry  lively;  and  his  spirits,  as  also  his  hear 
ing  ami  sight,  seemed  not  to  have  decreased  at  all  with  his  advan 
cing  ag".  I  found  in  him  a  man  who  retained  his  faculties  remark 
ably  well  in  his  old  age,  and  one  would  have  taken  him  for  a  man 
of  sixty.  He  asked  mo  what  I  had  seen  in  Virginia.  1  eulogized 


CHAPTER    LXXH. 

LAST   TEARS    AND    DAYS. 

THE  meeting  of  Jefferson  and  Lafayette  in  1824  fills  a  great 
place  in  the  memoirs  of  those  times.  They  had  labored  together  in 
anxious  and  critical  periods,  —  first  when  Jefferson  was  governor  of 
Virginia,  and  Lafayette  commanded  the  forces  defending  the  State 
against  the  inroads  of  Cornwallis  ;  and  afterwards  when  Jefferson, 
a  tyro  in  diplomacy,  enjoyed  the  powerful  aid  of  the  young  and 
popular  nobleman  at  the  court  of  France.  Thirty-six  years  had 
passed  since  that  memorable  day  when  Lafayette  had  brought  the 
leaders  of  the  Revolution  to  Jefferson's  house  in  Paris,  and  they 
had  there  eaten  a  sacramental  dinner,  and  afterwards,  under  the 
serene  influence  of  the  silent  master  of  the  feast,  arranged  a  pro 
gramme  upon  which  it  was  possible  for  them  to  unite.  Thirty-six 
years  !  Both  were  old  men  now,  —  Jefferson  past  eighty,  Lafayette 
nearly  seventy ;  but  both  retained  every  faculty  except  those  which 
begin  to  perish  as  soon  as  they  are  created.  Jefferson  exulted  when 
he  heard  of  the  landing  of  his  ancient  friend  and  colleague.  "  I 
hope,"  said  he,  "  we  shall  close  his  visit  with  something  more  solid 
for  him  than  dinners  and  balls  ; "  and  it  was  Jefferson  who  proposed 
that  Congress  should  pay  part  of  the  unrecorded  and  unclaimed 
debt  which  the  country  owed  Lafayette  for  money  advanced  during 
the  Revolutionary  War. 

During  tfye  heats  of  August  the  French  republican  landed  in 
New  York ;  and  as  soon  as  the  cool  days  of  September  came  he 
moved  southward  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Monticello.  They  met  on.  one 
of  the  fine  days  of  October.  Jefferson  would  have  gone  some  dis 
tance  to  welcome  his  approaching  guest;  but  the  gentlemen  in 
charge  of  the  occasion  requested  him  to  remain  at  his  house,  while 
they  escorted  the  Marquis  from  Charlottesville  to  the  summit  of  the 

727 


726  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

at  Yorktown,  and  a  pen-drawing  of  Hector's  Departure  by  Benja 
min  West,  presented  by  him  to  General  Kosciuszko  ;  finally,  several 
portraits  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  among  which  the  best  was  that  in  profile, 
by  Stuart.  In  the  saloon  there  were  two  busts,  one  of  Napoleon  as 
First  Consul,  and  another  of  the  Emperor  Alexander.  Mr.  Jefferson 
admired  Napoleon's  military  tactics,  but  did  not  love  him.  After 
breakfast,  which  we  took  with  the  family,  we  bade  the  respectable  old 
man  farewell,  and  set  out  upon  our  return  to  Charlottesville. 

"Mr.  Jefferson  tendered  us  the  use  of  his  carriage  j  but  I  declined, 
as  I  preferred  walking  in  a  fine  and  cool  morning." 


728  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

mount.  A  brave  cavalcade  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  county,  with 
trumpets  sounding,  and  banners  waving  in  the  breeze,  accompanied 
him,  and  formed  about  the  lawn,  while  the  carriage  advanced  to  tho 
front  of  the  mansion.  A  great  concourse  of  excited  and  expectant 
people  were  present,  gazing  intently  upon  the  portico.  The  car 
riage  drew  up ;  and  while  an  alert  little  figure  with  gray  hair 
:nled,  the  front  door  of  the  house  opened,  and  the  tall,  bent, 
and  wasted  form  of  Jefferson  was  seen.  The  music  ceased,  and 
every  head  was  uncovered.  The  two  old  men  threw  themselves  into 
each  other's  arms,  and  relieved  their  feelings  by  a  hearty  embrace. 
The  coldest  heart  was  moved,  and  tears  filled  the  eyes  of  almost 
every  spectator.  They  entered  the  house  together,  and  the  assem 
bly  dispersed. 

During  the  stay  of  Lafayette  at  Monticello,  there  was  a  grand 
banquet  given  in  his  honor  in  the  great  room  of  the  university, 
whieh  was  attended  by  President  Monroe  and  the  two  ex-Presidents, 
Madis.m  and  Jefferson.  It  was  a  time  of  hilarity  and  enthusiasm 
such  as  we  can  all  easily  imagine.  When  Jefferson  was  toasted,  he 
handed  a  written  speech  to  a  friend  to  read  to  the  company.  I 
think  he  meant  this  address  as  a  kind  of  farewell  to  his  countrymen, 
and  to  the  great  cause  to  which  his  own  life  and  the  life  of  his 
guest  had  been  devoted,  —  the  supremacy  of  Right  in  the  affairs 
of  men. 

"  I  will  avail  myself  of  this  occasion,  my  beloved  neighbors  and 
friends,  to  thank  you  for  the  kindness  which  now,  and  at  all  times, 
1  have  received  at  your  hands.  Born  and  bred  among  your  fathers, 
led  by  their  partiality  into  the  line  of  public  life,  I  labored  in  fel 
lowship  with  them  through  that  arduous  struggle,  which,  freeing  us 
from  foreign  bondage,  established  us  in  the  rights  of  self-govern 
ment, —  rights  which  have  blessed  ourselves,  and  will  bless,  in  their 
sequence,  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  In  this  contest  we  all  did 
our  utmost;  and,  as  none  could  do  more,  none  had  pretensions  to 
superior  merit. 

"I  joy,  my  friends,  in  your  joy,  inspired  by  the  visit  of  this  our 
ancient  and  distinguished  leader  and  benefactor.  His  deeds  in  the 
War  of  Independence  you  have  heard  and  read.  They  are  known 
to  you,  and  embalmed  in  your  memories  and  in  the  pages  of  faithful 
history.  His  deeds  in  the  peace  which  followed  that  war  are  per- 


LAST   YEARS  AND   DAYS.  729 

•/  haps  not  known  to  you  ;  but  I  can  attest  them.  When  I  was  sta 
tioned  in  his  country,  for  the  purpose  of  cementing  its  friendship 
with  ours,  and  of  advancing  our  mutual  interests,  this  friend  of 
both  was  my  most  powerful  auxiliary  and  advocate.  He  made  our 
cause  his  own,  as  in  truth  it  was  that  of  his  native  country  also. 
His  influence  and  connections  there  were  great.  All  doors  of  all 
departments  were  open  to  him  at  all  times :  to  me  only  formally 
and  at  appointed  times.  In  truth,  I  only  held  the  nail :  he  drove  it. 
Honor  him,  then,  as  your  benefactor  in  peace,  as  well  as  in  war. 

"My  friends,  I  am  old,  long  in  the  disuse  of  making  speeches, 
and  without  voice  to  utter  them.  In  this  feeble  state  the  exhausted 
powers  of  life  leave  little  within  my  competence  for  your  service. 
If,  with  the  aid  of  my  younger  and  abler  coadjutors,  I  can  still  con 
tribute  any  thing  to  advance  the  institution  within  whose  walls  we 
are  now  mingling  manifestations  to  this  our  guest,  it  will  be,  as  it 
ever  has  been,  cheerfully  and  zealously  bestowed.  And  could  I  live 
to  see  it  once  enjoy  the  patronage  and  cherishment  of  our  public 
authorities  with  undivided  voice,  I  should  die  without  a  doubt  of 
the  future  fortunes  of  my  native  State,  and  in  the  consoling  contem 
plation  of  the  happy  influence  of  this  institution  on  its  character,  its 
virtue,  its  prosperity,  and  safety. 

"  To  these  effusions  for  the  cradle  and  land  of  my  birth,  I  add,  for 
our  nation  at  large,  the  aspirations  of  a  heart  warm  with  the  love 
of  country  ;  whose  invocations  to  Heaven  for  its  indissoluble  union 
will  be  fervent  and  unremitting  while  the  pulse  of  life  continues  to 
beat ;  and,  when  that  ceases,  it  will  expire  in  prayers  for  the  eternal 
duration  of  its  freedom  and  prosperity." 

When  Lafayette  again  visited  Monticello,  in  1825,  to  take  leave 
of  his  venerable  friend,  the  university  was  open,  with  a  fair  pros 
pect  of  realizing  at  length  the  fond  hopes  of  its  chief  founder. 
Professors  and  students  gathered  about  the  visitor,  and  enlivened 
the  table  of  his  illustrious  host. 

These  last  years  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  life  were  not  wholly  passed  in 
such  lofty  occupations  as  the  founding  of  a  university  and  the 
entertainment  of  a  nation's  guest.  His  own  estate,  always  more 
large  than  productive,  had  been  diminishing  in  value  for  many 
years.  Few  men  lost  more  by  the  Embargo,  in  proportion  to  their 
means,  than  the  author  of  that  measure  j  and  this  was  one  of  the 


\ 

730  LIFE  OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

reasons  why  he  left  Washington  in  1809  owing  twenty  thousand^ 
dollars.  The  war  of  1812  continued  the  suspension  of  commerce, 
and  made  tobacco  and  cotton  almost  worthless.  After  the  war,  Mr. 
Jefferson  relieved  Jiimself  of  his  most  pressing  embarrassments  by 
selling  the  part  of  his  estate  which  was  -most  precious  .to  him,  and 
most  peculiarly  his  own,  —  his  library,  —  the  result  of  sixty 
years'  att™ionate  search  and  selection.  He  offered  it  to  Congress 
to  supply  the  place  of  their  library  burnt  by  the  English  soldiers  in 
1814  ;  and  he  sedulously  schemed  to  cut  down  the  price  so  as  to 
silence  the  murmurs  of  his  old  enemies,  and  prevent  the  purchase 
from  being  an  injury  to  his  friends.  The  committee  valued  it  at 
twenty-three  thousand  dollars,  about  half  its  cost,  and  a  quarter  of 
its  worth.  Mr.  Bacon  had  the  charge  of  removing  the  books  to 
Washington.  "  There  was  an  immense  quantity  of  them,"  he  tells 
us,  "  sixteen  wagon-loads.  Each  wagon  was  to  carry  three  thou 
sand  pounds  for  a  load,  and  to  have  four  dollars  a  day  for  delivering 
them  in  Washington.  If  they  carried  more  than  three  thousand 
pounds,  they  were  to  have  extra  pay.  There  were  all  kinds  of 
books, — books  in  a  great  many  languages  that  I-  knew  nothing 
about." 

And  so  Mr.  Jefferson  lost  his  library  just  when  he  needed  it 
most;  and  Congress  did  not  dare  improve  the  golden  opportunity 
(by  merely  paying  the  just  value  of  a  unique  collection)  of  giving 
him  substantial  relief.  His  own  collection  of  books  had  been  largely 
increased  in  1807  by  his  old  friend,  Chancellor  Wythe,  bequeathing 
to  him  his  library.  All  these  accumulations,  except  a  few  favorites, 
he  was  obliged  to  part  with  in  his  old  age. 

The  hard  times  of  1819  and  1820,  which  reduced  so  many  estab 
lished  families  to  poverty,  brought  upon  Mr.  Jefferson  also  an 
insupportable  burden.  He  had  indorsed  for  one  of  his  oldest 
friends  and  connections  to  the  amount  of  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
in  the  confident  expectation  of  saving  him  from  ruin.  His  friend 
became  bankrupt  notwithstanding;  and  the  indorser  had  to  take 
upon  his  aged  shoulders  this  crushing  addition  to  his  already  ex 
cessive  load, —  twelve  hundred  dollars  a  year  in  money.  One  con 
sequence  of  this  misfortune  was,  th;  he  lost  the  services  of  his 
faithful  and  competent  manager,  Edmund  Bacon,  who  had  been  for 
some  years  looking  westward,  intending  to  buy  land  and  settle 
there.  "  I  was  sorry/7  he  says,  "  to  leave  Mr.  Jefferson ;  but  I  was 


LAST  YEAKS  AND   DAYS.  731 

lore  willing  to  do  it,  because  I  did  not  wish  to  see  the  poor  old 
'gentleman  suffer,  what  I  knew  he  must  suffer,  from  the  debts  that 
were  pressing  upon  him."  They  had  a  sorrowful  parting  after  their 
twenty  years  of  friendly  and  familiar  intercourse.  "  It  was  a  trying 
time  to  me,"  Mr.  Bacon  records.  "I  don't  know  whether  he  shed 
any  tears  or  not,  but  I  know  that  I  shed  a  good  many.  He  was 
sitting  in  his  room,  on  his  sofa,  where  I  had  seen  him  so  often  ;  and 
keeping  hold  of 'my  hand  some  time,  he  said,  f  Now  let  us  hear  from 
each  other  occasionally ; '  and  as  long  as  he  lived  I  heard  from  him 
once  or  twice  a  year.  The  last  letter  I  ever  had  from  him  was 
when  I  wrote  him  of  the  death  of  my  wife,  soon  after  I  got  to  Ken 
tucky.  He  expressed  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  for  me;  said  he 
did  not  wonder  that  I  felt  completely  broken  up,  and  was  disposed 
to  move  back ;  that  he  had  passed  through  the  same  himself;  and 
only  time  and  silence  would  relieve  me." 

Mr.  Jefferson's  affairs  did  not  mend,  though  he  enjoyed  the  able 
and  resolute  assistance  of  his  grandson  and  namesake,  Thomas 
Jefferson  Randolph  ;  and  he  resolved,  at  length,  to  discharge  the 
worst  of  his  debts,  in  the  fashion  of  old  Virginia,  by  selling  a  por 
tion  of  his  lands.  But  there  was  nobody  to  buy.  Land  sold  in  the 
usual  way  would  not  bring  a  third  of  its  value ;  and  consequently 
he  petitioned  the  legislature  to  relax  the  operation  of  law  so  far  as 
to  allow  him  to  dispose  of  some  of  his  farms  by  lottery,  as  was  fre 
quently  done  when  money  was  to  be  raised  for  a  public  object.  The 
legislature  granted  his  request,  though  with  reluctance.  But,  in 
the  mean  time,  it  had  been  noised  abroad,  all  over  the  Union,  that 
the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  about  to  lose 
that  far-famed  Monticello  with  which  his  name  had  been  associated 
in  the  public  mind  for  two  generations,  the  abode  of  his  prime  and 
the  refuge  of  his  old  age,  a  Mecca  to  the  republicans  of  many 
lands.  A  feeling  arose  in  all  liberal  minds  that  this  must  not  be ; 
and  during  the  spring  of  1826,  the  last  of  his  years,  subscriptions 
were  made  for  his  relief  in  several  places.  Philip  Hone,  mayor  of 
!N~ew  York,  raised  without  an  effort,  as  Mr.  Randall  records,  eight 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  Philadelphia  sent  five  thousand,  and 
Baltimore  three  thousand.  The  lottery  was  suspended ;  and  Mr. 
Jefferson's  last  days  were  solaced  by  the  belief  that  the  subscrip 
tions  would  suffice  to  free  his  estate  from  debt,  and  secure  home  and 
independence  to  his  daughter  and  her  children.  He  was  proud  of 


732          .  LIFE   OF  THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

the  liberality  of  his  countrymen,  and  proud  to  be  its  object.  Lie 
who  had  refused  to  accept  so  much  as  a  loan  from  the  legislature 
of  his  State  gloried  in  being  the  recipient  of  gifts  from  individuals. 
"  No  cent  of  this/'  said  he,  "  is  wrung  from  the  tax-payer.  It  is 
the  pure  and  unsolicited  offering  of  love." 

There  has  seldom  been  a  sounder  constitution  than  his,  nor  one 
less  abused.  At  eighty-two  his  teeth  were  all  but  perfect,  he 
enjoyed  his  daily  ride  on  horseback  of  ten  miles,  and  he  was  only 
afraid  that  life  might  continue  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  blessing. 
"  I  have  ever,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams  in  1822,  "  dreaded  a  doting 
old  age  ;  and  my  health  has  been  generally  so  good,  and  is  -now  so 
good,  that  I  dread  it  still.  The  rapid  decline  of  my  strength 
during  the  last  winter  has  made  me  hope  sometimes  that  I  see  land. 
During  summer  I  enjoy  its  temperature ;  but  I  shudder  at  the 
approach  of  winter,  and  wish  I  could  sleep  through  it  with  the  dor 
mouse,  and  only  wake  with  him  in  spring,  if  ever."  Reduced 
by  an  occasional  diarrhoea,  he  alternately  rallied  and  declined 
during  the  next  three  years,  but,  of  course,  never  quite  regained 
after  an  attack  what  he  had  lost.  By  his  family  the  decay  of  his 
bodily  powers  was  scarcely  observed,  it  was  so  gradual,  until  the 
spring  of  1826,  when  it  became  more  obvious  and  rapid.  It  was 
his  habit  all  his  life  to  be  silent  with  regard  to  his  own  sufferings ; 
and  now,  especially,  he  concealed  from  every  one  the  ravages  of  a 
disease  which,  he  knew,  was  about  to  deliver  him  from  the  "  doting 
old  age"  that  he  dreaded.  His  grandson  just  mentioned,  who 
stood  nearer  to  him  at  this  period  than  any  one  except  his  daughter, 
was  taken  by  surprise  when  he  heard  him  say,  in  March,  1826,  that 
he  mi(jht  live  till  midsummer;  and  again,  when,  about  the  middle 
of  June,  he  said,  as  he  handed  him  a  paper  to  read,  "  Don't  delay : 
there  is  no  time  to  be  lost." 

From  that  day  he  was  under  regular  medical  treatnient.  He  told 
his  physician,  Dr.  Dunglison  of  the  university,  that  he  attributed 
his  disease  to  his  free  use,  some  years  before,  of  the  water  of  the 
"White  Sulphur  Springs  of  Virginia.  On  the  24th  of  June  he  was 
still  well  enough  to  write  a  long  letter  in  reply  to  an  invitation  to 
attend  the  fiftieth  celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July,  at  Washington. 

How  sanguine  his  mind  within  nine  days  of  his  death!  "All 
eyes,"  he  wrote,  with  trembling  hand  indeed,  but  with  a  heart  buoy 
ant  and  alert,  "are  opened,  or  opening,  to  the  rights  of  man.  The 


LAST  YEARS   AND   DAYS.  .  733 

general  spread  of  the  light  of  science  has  already  laid  open  to  every 
view  the  palpable  truth,  that  the  mass  of  mankind  have  not  been  born 
with  saddles  on  their  backs,  nor  a  favored  few  booted  and  spurred, 
ready  to  ride  them  legitimately,  by  the  grace  of  God."  Nothing  of 
him  was  impaired  but  his  body,  even  then.  But  that  grew  steadily 
weaker  until  he  lay  upon  his  bed,  serene,  painless,  cheerM,  in  full 
possession  of  his  reason,  but  helpless  and  dying.  He  ^fcversed 
calmly  with  his  family  concerning  his  affairs,  in  the  tone  of  a  person 
about  to  set  out  upon  a  journey  which  could  not  be  avoided.  He 
mentioned  to  his  friends  a  fact  of  his  mental  condition  that  seemed 
to  strike  him  as  peculiar,  —  that  the  scenes  and  events  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  period  kept  recurring  to  him.  The  curtains  of  his  bed,  he 
said,  were  brought  over  in  the  first  ship  that  arrived  after  the  peace 
of  1782 ;  and  he  related  many  incidents  of  those  eventful  times. 
Once,  while  he  was  dozing,  he  placed  his  hands  as  if  he  were  writing 
with  his  right  on  a  tablet  held  in  his  left,  and  murmured,  "  Warn 
the  committee  to  be  on  the  alert."  When  his  grandson  said  that  he 
thought  he  was  a  little  better,  he  replied,  "  Do  not  imagine  for  a 
moment  that  I  feel  the  smallest  solicitude  about  the  result.  I  am 
like  an  old  watch,  with  a  pinion  worn  out  here,  and  a  wheel  there, 
until  it  can  go  no  longer."  Upon  imagining  that  he  heard  a  clergy 
man  of  the  neighborhood  in  the  next  room,  he  said,  "  I  have  no 
objection  to  see  him  as  a  kind  and  good  neighbor ;  "  meaning,  as  his 
grandson  thought,  that  he  did  not  desire  to  see  him  in  his  profes 
sional  character.  He  repeated  on  his  death-bed  a  remark  which  he 
had  made  a  hundred  times  before :  His  calumniators  he  had  never 
thought  were  assailing  him,  but  a  being  non-existe.nt,  of  their  own 
imagining,  to  whom  they  had  given  the  name  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 
Observing  a  little  grandson  eight  years  old  in  the  room,  he  said  with 
a  smile,  "George  does  not  understand  what  all  this  means."  He 
spoke  much  of  Mr.  Madison,  who,  he  hoped,  would  succeed  him  as 
rector  of  the  university.  He  eulogized  him  justly  as  one  of  the  best 
of  men  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  citizens. 

During  the  3d  of  July  he  dozed  hour  after  hour,  under  the  influ 
ence  of  opiates,  rousing  occasionally,  and  uttering  a  few  words.  It 
was  evident  that  his  end  was  *  :ry  near;  and  a  fervent  desire  arose  in 
all  minds  that  he  should  live  until  the  day  which  he  had  assisted  to 
consecrate  half  a  century  before.  He,  too,  desired  it.  At  eleven  in 
the  evening  Mr.  N.  P.  Trist,  the  young  husband  of  one  of  his  grand- 


734  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

daughters,  sat  by  his  pillow  watching  his  face,  and  turning  every 
minute  toward  the  slow-moving  hands  of  the  clock,  dreading  lest  the 
flickering  flame  should  go  out  before  midnight.  "This  is  the 
Fourth  ?  "  whispered  the  dying  patriot.  Mr.  Trist  could  not  bear  to 
say,  "Xot  yet;"so  he  remained  silent.  "This  is  the  Fourth?" 
again  asJKtl  Mr.  Jefferson  in  a  whisper.  Mr.  Trist  nodded  assent. 
"  Ah  !  '^ro  breathed ;  and  an  expression  of  satisfaction  passed  over 
his  countenance.  Again  he  sunk  into  sleep,  which  all  about  him 
feared  was  the  slumber  of-death.  But  midnight  came;  the  night 
passed  ;  the  morning  dawned  ;  the  sun  rose  ;  the  new  day  progressed  ; 
and  still  he  breathed,  and  occasionally  indicated  a  desire  by  words 
or  looks.  At  twenty  minutes  to  one  in  the  afternoon  he  ceased 
to  live. 

At  Quincy,  on  the  granite  shore  of  distant  Massachusetts,  another 
memorable  death-scene  was  passing  on  this  Fourth  of  July,  1826. 

John  Adams,  at  the  age  of  ninety-one,  had  been  an  enjoyer  of 
existence  down  almost  to  the  dawn  of  the  fiftieth  Fourth  of  July. 
He  voted  for  Monroe  in  1820.  His  own  son  was  president  of  the 
United  States  in  1826.  He  used  to  sit  many  hours'  of  every  day, 
tranquilly  listening  to  members  of  his  family,  while  they  read  to  him 
the  new  books  with  which  friends  in  Boston,  knowing  his  taste,  kept 
him  abundantly  supplied.  He,  who  was  a  formed  man  when  Dr. 
Johnson  was  writing  his  Dictionary,  lived  to  enjoy  Scott's  novels  and 
Bj-ron's  poetry.  His  grandson,  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the 
worthy  heir  of  an  honorable  name,  then  a  youth  of  eighteen,  used  to 
sit  by  him,  he  tells  us,  for  days  together,  reading  to  him,  "watching 
the  noble  image  of  a  serene  old  age,  or  listening  with  unabated  inter 
est  to  the  numerous  anecdotes,  the  reminiscences  of  the  past,  and 
the  speculations  upon  the  questions  of  all  times,  in  which  he  loved 
to  indulge."  On  the  last  day  of  June,  1826,  though  his  strength 
had  much  declined  of  late,  he  was  still  well  enough  to  receive  and 
chat  with  a  neighbor,  the  orator  of  the  coming  anniversary,  who 
called  to  ask  him  for  a  toast  to  be  offered  at  the  usual  banqifet.  "I 
will  give  you,"  said  the  old  man,  "  IXDEPEXDEXCE  FOREVER!" 
Being  asked  if  he  wished  to  add  any  thing  to  it,  he  replied,  "  Not  a 
word."  The  day  came.  It  was  evident  that  he  could  not  long  sur 
vive.  He  lingered,  tranquil  and  without  pain,  to  the  setting  of  the 
sun.  The  last  words  that  he  articulated  were  thought  to  be,  "  Thomas 
Jefferson  still  lives."  As  the  sun  sank  below  the  horizon,  a  noise  of 


LAST  YEARS   AND  DAYS.  735 

great  shouting  was  heard  in  the  village,  and  reached  even  the  apart 
ment  in  which  the  old  man  lay.  It  was  the  enthusiastic  cheers 
called  forth  by  his  toast,  —  Independence  forever.  Before  the  sounds 
died  away  he  had  breathed  his  last. 

The  coincidence  of  the  death  of  these  two  venerable  men  on  the 
day  associated  with  their  names  in  all  minds  did  not  jfcrtle  the 
whole  country  at  once,  on  the  morning  of  the  next  day,  aWsuch  an 
event  now  would.  Slowly  the  news  of  Mr.  Adams's  death  spread 
over  the  Northern  States,  while  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  was  borne 
more  slowly  over  the  Southern;  so  that  almost  every  person  heard  of 
the  death  of  one  several  days  before  he  learned  the  death  of  the 
other.  The  public  mind  had  been  wrought  to  an  unusual  degree  of 
patriotic  fervor  by  the  celebration  of  the  nation's  birth,  when  few 
orators  had  failed  to  allude  to  the  sole  survivors  of  the  body  which 
had  declared  independence.  That  one  of  them  should  have  departed 
on  that  day  struck  every  mind  as  something  remarkable.  But  when 
it  became  known  that  the  author  of  the  Declaration  and  its  most 
powerful  defender  had  both  breathed  their  last  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
the  fiftieth  since  they  had  set  it  apart  frqin  the  roll  of  common  days, 
it  seemed  as  if  Heaven  had  given  its  visible  and  unerring  sanction  to 
the  work  they  had  done. 

Among  Mr.  Jefferson's  papers  was  found  a  rough  sketch  in  ink 
of  a  stone  to  mark  his  grave.  He  designed  it  to  be  an  obelisk  of 
granite  eight  feet  high  ;  and  he  wished  it  to  bear  the  following 
inscription,  which  it  does  : 

HERE   WAS   BURIED 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 

AUTHOR 

OF    THE  DECLARATION    OF 

AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE, 

OF 

THE  STATUTE  OF  VIRGINIA 

FOR    RELIGIOUS    FREEDOM,    AND 

FATHER  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  VIRGINIA.  , 

His  remains  were  placed  in  the  family  burial-ground,  near  the 
summit  of  Monticello,  on  the  spot  selected  nearly  seventy  years 
before  by  Dabney  Carr  and  himself,  and  where  the  dust  of  Carr 


LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

hud  reposed  for  half  a  century,  awaiting  tlie  coming  of  his  friend. 
His  wife  lies  on  one  side  of  him,  and  his  youngest  daughter,  his 
fragile  and  clinging  Maria,  on  the  other. 

But  the  utmost  efforts  of  his  executor  did  not  suffice  to  retain 
even  this  burial-ground,  still  less  the  mansion  and  estate,  in  the 
possessic^uof  the  family.  Thomas  Jefferson  died  more  than  sol 
vent;  bIRhe  extreme  depression  of  values  in  Virginia  in  1826  and 
the  few  following  years,  compelled  the  total  sacrifice  of  the  property. 
The  debts  were  paid  to  the  uttermost  farthing;  but  Martha  Jeffer 
son  and  her  children  lost  their  home,  and  had  110  means  of  provid 
ing  another.  These  circumstances  becoming  known,  the  legislatures 
of  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  each  voted  to  Mrs.  Randolph  an 
honorable  gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars.  She  lived  to  the  year  1836, 
when  she  died  suddenly  at  the  age  of  sixty-three,  and  her  remains 
were  buried  close  to  those  of  her  parents.  A  large  number  of  her 
descendants  survive  to  this  day. 


CHAPTER   LXXIII. 

SUMMARY. 

JEFFEKSON  was  among  the  most  fortunate  of  men.  In  modern 
times  a  person,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of  an  eminent 
career,  needs  to  be  so  variously  equipped  and  so  richly  furnished, 
that  few  individuals  can  hold  on  to  the  end  unless  fortune  begins 
by  placing  them  on  vantage-ground.  A  strong  father  must  usually 
precede  the  gifted  son,  and  break  the  road  for  him.  It  is  not  enough, 
in  the  realm  of  the  intellect,  for  the  father  to  conquer  leisure  for 
the  son,  though  that  is  desirable.  He  must  be  the  beginning  of  the 
boy's  culture,  and  save  him  from  the  melancholy  waste  of  unlearn 
ing  in  maturity  what  he  had  learned  in  childhood.  We  find,  accord 
ingly,  that  many  of  our  recent  famous  names  belong  to  two  persons, 
—  father  and  child ;  and  perhaps  this  will  be  more  frequently  the 
case  as  knowledge  increases  and  the  standard  of  attainment  rises. 
We  have  two  Pitts,  two  Mills,  two  Macaulays,  two  Niebuhrs,  two 
Darwins,  two  Landseers,  two  Collinses,  two  D'Israelis,  two  Beechers, 
two  Bryants,  two  Arnolds.  We  have  had  men,  too,  whose  career 
was  fatally  harmed  and  limited  only  because  they  had  but  one 
parent,  and  that  one  not  a  father. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  one  is  more  likely  to  have  been  ill-born 
than  a  person  sprung  from  an  ancient  family.  The  marriages  which 
perpetuate  an  historic  house,  being  usually  prompted  by  considera 
tions  of  rank  and  estate,  cannot  but  result,  at  last,  in  reducing  both 
the  volume  and  the  vivacity  of  the  average  brain  of  the  family.  This 
we  should  infer  from  the  little  that  is  known  of  the  art  of  breeding 
superior  creatures,  if  the  fact  were  not  plainly  exhibited  in  the  qual 
ity  of  existing  aristocracies  and  royal  lines.  Iii  all  literature  there 
can  be  found  no  delineations  of  vulgarity  so  unmitigated  as  those 
with  which  the  masters  of  modern  fiction  (from  Scott  to  George 
47  737 


738  LIFE  OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Eliot)  favor  us  wlien  they  portray  the  aristocratic  life  of  Europe. 
The  curious  insensibility  to  every  tiling  elevated  and  interesting 
which  their  ancient  families  exhibit  is  merely  a  natural  consequence 
of  a  system  of  pairing  with  which  neither  instinct  nor  science  has 
had  any  thing  to  do. 

It  was  Jefferson's  happiness  to  derive  from  his  progenitors  the 
maximum  of  help  with  the  minimum  of  hinderance.  His  stalwart 
father  created  for  him  a  peaceful  and  healthy  home  in  a  beautiful 
land,  and  provided  sufficiently,  but  not  excessively,  for  his  education 
and  training.  His  father,  too,  though  not  a  scholar,  was  a  man  of 
sound  intelligence  and  practical  ability,  who  honored  learning  by 
word  and  deed,  and  marked  out  for  his  boy  a  liberal  career.  He 
was  also  an  embodiment  of  that  ancient  something  in  the  British 
people  which  created  parliament,  established  parishes,  invented  the 
jury,  extorted  Magna  Charta,  resisted  Charles  I.,  brought  over 
William  and  Mary,  passed  the  Habeas  Corpus  act,  carried  the 
Reform  Bill,  and  disestablished  the  Irish  Church. 

The  political  part  of  Thomas  Jefferson's  career  in  America  was 
the  application  and  development  of  the  ancient  Whig  principles  which 
his  father  loved  and  lived. 

His  religious  tone  was  also  that  of  most  healthy  English  souls 
before  religion  became  intense  and  opinionative.  The  Jeffersons 
appear  to  have  been  of  that  good-tempered  and  sensible  class  who 
escaped  the  anguish  and  narrowness  of  the  Puritan  period,  equally 
incapable  of  fighting  a  bishop  or  stoning  a  Quaker.  To  such,  reli 
gion  was  never  a  system  or  a  salvation.  It  was  the  supreme  decency, 
the  highest  etiquette,  with  the  addition  of  bell-ringing  and  merry 
Christinas.  That  Jefferson  was  able  to  attain  to  a  rational  and 
comfortable  tone  of  mind  on  this  distracting  subject,  without  any 
severe  internal  conflict,  wrs  a  happiness  he  owed  to  the  well-attem 
pered  mind  of  his  father,  and  to  the  healthy  race  from  which  he 
sprang. 

There  was  a  most  rare  union  of  good  qualities  in  his  bodily  con 
stitution.  Here  was  a  man  capable  of  lifting  a  thousand  pounds.  — 
the  strongest  in  a  county  full  of  the  exceptionally  strong;  but  to 
this  prodigious  physical  power  there  was  joined  a  dexterity  of  hand 
and  a  firm  delicacy  of  touch  beyond  those  of  a  woman.  His  hand 
writing  was  as  minute  as  it  was  strong  and  clear,  and  he  greatly 
excelled  in  the  arts  and  devices  that  demand  the  union  of  strength 


SUMMARY.  739 

and  delicacy.  The  least  effeminate  of  men,  he  was  very  feminine  in 
many  of  his  ways,  feelings,  and  tastes.  The  wild  beast  was  more 
nearly  extirpated  in  him  than  in  any  other  human  being  of  whom  I 
have  any  familiar  knowledge.  People  could  live  with  him  many 
years  -and  not  once  see  him  angry,  ill-humored,  irritable,  or  melan 
choly.  He  rose  jocund  to  greet  the  dawn,  and  lived  a  festal  life  to 
the  going  down  of  the  sun,  his  hours  all  filled  with  occupation 
innocent,  elevated,  and  becoming.  The  barbaric  traits,  too,  were 
strangely  subdued  in  him.  Who  so  little  vain  as  he?  who  less 
selfish  ?  which  of  the  sons  of  men  has  held  the  troublesome  eyo  in 
juster  subjection,  while  guarding  with  solicitous  and  vigilant  respect 
the  sensitive  self-love  of  other  men  ?  In  his  private  and  public  life 
there  was  the  happiest  possible  mixture  of  the  firm  and  the  tractable. 
And  the  special  wonder  of  the  case  was,  that  the  beast  and  the 
savage  had  been  bred  out  of  him  and  educated  out  of  him  without 
in  the  least  impairing  his  original  vigor  and  vivacity. 

Very  different  was  his  serene  and  sunny  good  temper  from  mere 
animal  spirits.  There  was  thought  and  principle  in  his  good  tem 
per.  In  this  great  matter  of  temper,  upon  which  the  hourly  happi 
ness  of  our  race  depends,  we  find  him  still  the  educated  being.  He 
had  reflected  much  upon  the  causes  of  friends'  estrangements  and 
the  agonizing  discords  of  home.  If  his  observations  on  this  subject 
were  published  in  a  four-page  tract,  and  dropped  in  every  human 
abode,  the  happiness  of  man  would  be  sensibly  increased  by  it. 
Here,  for  example,  is  a  passage  that  might  well  be  engraved  on 
every  wedding-present :  — 

"Harmony  in  the  married  state  is  the  very  first  object  to  be  aimed 
at.  Nothing  can  preserve  affections  uninterrupted  but  a  firm  reso 
lution  never  to  differ  in  will,  and  a  determination  in  each  to  consider 
the  love  of  the  other  as  of  more  value  than  any  object  whatever  on 
which  a  wish  had  been  fixed.  How  light,  in  fact,  is  the  sacrifice  of 
any  other  wish,  when  weighed  against  the  affections  of  one  with 
whom  we  are  to  pass  our  whole  life.  And  though  opposition,  in  a 
single  instance,  will  hardly  of  itself  produce  alienation,  yet  every 
one  has  his  pouch  into  which  all  these  little  oppositions  are  put: 
while  that  is  filling,  the  alienation  is  insensibly  going  on,  and  when 
filled  it  is  complete.  It  would  puzzle  either  to  say  why,  because  no 
one  difference  of  opinion  has  been  marked  enough  to  produce  a 


740  LIFE   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

serious  effect  by  itself.  But  he  finds  his  affections  wearied  out  by  a 
constant  stream  of  little  checks  and  obstacles.  Other  sources  of  dis 
content,  very  common  indeed,  are  the  little  cross-purposes  of  husband 
and  wife,  in  common  conversation,  —  a  disposition  in  either  to  criticise 
and  question  whatever  the  other  says,  a  desire  always  to  demonstrate 
and  make  him  feel  himself  in  the  wrong,  and  especially  in  company. 
Nothing  is  so  goading.  Much  better,  therefore,  if  our  companion 
views  a  thing  in  a  light  different  from  what  we  do,  to  leave  him  in 
quiet  possession  of  his  view.  What  is  the  use  of  rectifying  him,  if 
the  thing  be  unimportant;  and,  if  important,  let  it  pass  for  the 
present,  and  wait  a  softer  moment  and  more  conciliatory  occasion  of 
revising  the  subject  together.  It  is  wonderful  how  many  persons 
are  rendered  unhappy  by  inattention  to  these  little  rules  of  pru 
dence." 

Such  passages  as  these  show  us  that  the  excellence  to  which  he 
had  brought  the  "art  of  living"  was  due  to  something  more  than  a 
happy  commingling  of  natural  ingredients  in  the  composition  of 
mind  and  body.  He  was,  indeed,  most  fortunately  constituted  ;  but 
he  was  also  a  man  who  considered  hi>  ways,  and  controlled  them. 
And  this  it  is  which  alone  makes  his  life  of  value  to  us.  Jefferson's 
temperament  few  can  have ;  and,  if  our  happiness  depended  upon 
inherited  qualities,  a  large  number  of  the  human  race  might  justly 
reproach  the  constitution  of  things  that  brought  them  into  being. 
But  there  is  no  one,  let  him  be  as  cross-grained  as  he  may  bv  nature, 
who  may  not  achieve  a  happiness  and  make  his  life  a  benefaction  by 
acting  upon  Jefferson's  principles.  From  the  first  hour  that  we  get 
any  knowledge  of  him,  we  see  him  a  person  who  never  remained 
content  with  the  j^ifts  of  fortune,  but  turned  them  to  the  best 
account,  and  pressed  forward  to  worthy  achievement.  He  was  an 
indomitable  student  always,  and  a  man  of  better  sustained  activity 
than  almost  any  other  of  his  time.  There  was  not  an  idle  bone  in 
his  body. 

In  his  public  life  the  same  good  fortune  attended  him.  He  was 
usually  in  the  thick  of  events  when  his  presence  was  of  the  utmost 
advantage  to  himself;  but  on  several  occasions  he  enjoyed  those 
happy  absences  from  the  scene  of  difficulty  which  have  often  sufficed 
to  give  a  public  man  ascendency  over  rivals.  These  absences  were 
never  contrived,  and  their  advantage  never  could  have  been  fore- 


SUMMARY.  741 

seen.  During  that  buoyant  and  inspiring  period  when  all  hearts 
were  in  unison,  from  the  Stamp  Act  to  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  circumstances  and  inclination  united  to  keep  him  in  the  van 
of  affairs,  and  to  assign  him  the  kind  of  work  in  doing  which  Nature 
had  formed  him  to  excel.  Thus,  by  an  exercise  of  his  talents  which 
we  may  call  slight  and  accidental,  his  name  was  forever  associated 
with  the  act  that  began  the  national  life  of  America.  Virginia  then 
summoned  him  imperatively  away  to  adjust  her  laws  and  institutions 
to  the  Declaration  which  he  had  penned.  When,  at  last,  his  good 
fortune  seemed  to  forsake  him,  and  the  storm  of  war  broke  over 
Virginia,  so  long  exempt,  and  swept  away  civil  government  and 
civil  governor,  then  the  triumph  at  Yorktown  consigned  his  mishaps 
to  prompt  oblivion,  and  all  men  saw  in  the  light  of  that  triumph 
that  he  had  done  whatever  was  possible  by  civil  methods. 

It  has  been  said  that  a  complete  man  buttons  up  a  good  soldier 
whenever  he  puts  on  his  waistcoat.  This  would  be  true  if  there  were 
any  complete  men.  But  there  are  not.  If  Jefferson,  when  the  war 
broke  out,  had  gone  to  the  field,  and  kept  Arnold  from  ravaging  his 
native  province,  and  been  in  at  the  death  of  the  hunted  foe  at  York- 
town,  he  would  have  done  a  noble  and  heroic  thing;  but  he  would 
not  have  been  Thomas  Jefferson.  And,  from  first  to  last,  there  was 
always  in  Virginia  a  redundancy  of  officers.  John  Marshall,  after 
wards  chief  justice,  went  all  the  way  from  Virginia  to  head-quarters 
near  New  York,  alone,  on  foot,  ragged,  and  destitute ;  because,  after 
waiting  many  months,  he  could  not  find  in  Virginia  a  chance  to  serve 
as  an  officer.  In  the  field  Jefferson  could  only  have  rendered  service 
that  many  stood  ready  to  perform ;  in  civil  office  he  did  some  splen 
did  things  which  no  man  in  Virginia  could  have  done  so  well  as  he. 

After  the  war,  during  all  that  anxious  and  dividing  period  when 
the  thirteen  States  lacked  the  hoop  to  the  barrel,  he  was  honorably 
absent  in  France;  and  again,  during  the  frenzied  time  of  American 
politics,  from  1797  to  1800,  he  was  safe  and  snug  at  home,  while 
friend  and  foe  conspired  to  give  prominence  and  fascination  to  his 
name.  In  the  closing  years  of  his  life  his  peace  was  disturbed  by 
the  decline  in  the  value  of  his  estate,  and  by  apprehension  for  the 
future  of  his  descendants.  But  he  died  without  knowing  the  worst, 
and  the  timely  generosity  of  two  grateful  States  saved  his  daughter 
from  painful  embarrassment.  He  was  happier  in  this  than  either  of 
the  other  two  of  the  Republican  triumvirate.  Monroe  died  bank- 


744  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

directed  his  prow  westward,  and  sailed  dauntless  till  a  new  world 
had  been  reached,  is  the  type  of  the  second.  Of  our  own  generation, 
Charles  Darwin  will  probably  be  regarded  by  posterity  as  our  first 
man  of  the  first  order,  and  John  Brown  as  a  specimen  of  the  second. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  Jefferson  belonged  to  either  of  these  illustri 
ous  classes.  Nor  can  we  claim  for  him  a  place  among  men  of  genius, 
the  pets  and  darlings  of  mankind,  who  cheer,  amuse,  soften,  and 
exalt  the  care-laden  sons  of  men. 

Our  faults  appear  to  spring  from  the  same  root  as  our  excellencies. 
A  man  of  very  quick,  warm  sympathies,  cool  intellect,  and  good  tem 
per  is  not  the  person  to  pioneer  a  conviction.  He  is  apt  to  have  so  clear 
a  sense  of  the  necessity  which  antagonists  are  under  to  think  just  as 
they  do  think,  that  he  forbears  to  assail  their  opinions.  Some  read 
ers  of  Jefferson's  letters  will  feel,  that,  occasionally,  he  carried  his 
tolerance  of  other  people's  sentiments  to  a  point  beyond  what  courte 
sy  demanded.  In  writing,  for  example,  to  Isaac  Story,  one  of  the 
few  New  England  clergymen  who  sided  with  him  in  politics,  he  good- 
naturedly  used  expressions  that  seemed  to  imply  a  belief  which  we 
know  he  repudiated.  This  respectable  clergyman  had  sent  him  some 
speculations  with  regard  to  the  transmigration  of  souls,  and  improved 
the  occasion  to  compliment  him  upon  his  inaugural  address.  Jefferson 
replied,  "The  laws  of  nature  have  withheld  from  us  the  means  of 
physical  knowledge  of  the  country  of  spirits  ;  and  revelation  has,  for 
reasons  unknown  to  us,  chosen  to  leave  us  in  the  dark  as  we  were. 
When  I  was  young,  I  was  fond  of  the  speculations  which  seemed  to 
promise  some  insight  into  that  hidden  country ;  but  observing  at 
length  that  they  left  me  in  the  same  ignorance  in  which  they  had 
found  me,  I  have  for  very  many  years  ceased  to  read  or  think  con 
cerning  them,  and  have  reposed  my  head  on  that  pillow  of  ignorance 
which  a  benevolent  Creator  has  made  so  soft  for  us,  knowing  how 
much  we  should  be  forced  to  use  it.  I  have  thought  it  better,  by 
nourishing  the  good  passions  and  controlling  the  bad,  to  merit  an 
inheritance  in  a  state^of  being  of  which  I  can  know  so  little,  and 
to  trust  for  the  future  to  Him  who  has  been  so  good  for  the  past." 

And  again,  at  the  close  of  this  kind  and  wise  letter,  he  uses  simi 
lar  language. 

"  I  am  happy  in  your  approbation  of  the  principles  I  avowed  on 
entering  on  the  government.  Ingenious  minds,  availing  themselves 
of  the  imperfection  of  language,  have  tortured  the  expressions  out 


SUMMARY.  745 

of  their  plain  meaning,  in  order  to  infer  departures  from  them  in 
practice.  If  revealed  language  has  not  been  able  to  guard  itself 
against  misinterpretations,  I  could  not  expect  it." 

The  complaisance  to  a  clerical  friend  that  prompted  the  use  of  the 
words  revelation  and  revealed  seems  to  me  to  have  been  excessive 
and  needless.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  absurd  than  for  him 
to  obtrude  opposition  to  a  belief  which  so  many  of  the  virtuous  peo 
ple  of  Christendom  then  cherished  ;  but  it  was  not  necessary  to  lend 
it  support.  Very  few  such  instances,  however,  occur  in  the  nine 
volumes  of  his  writings  which  we  possess,  and  none  occur  in  his 
letters  to  persons  whom  he  might  be  supposed  interested  to  concili 
ate.  The  belief  implied  in  the  use  of  the  word  revelation  is  one 
to  which  no  intelligent  person  can  be  indifferent;  because,  if  it  is 
true,  it  is  the  most  important  of  all  beliefs,  and,  if  false,  it  is  the 
most  obstructive  and  misleading. 

I  cannot  agree  with  those  who  think  he  ought,  being  an  abolition 
ist,  to  have  emancipated  his  slaves.  There  are  virtuous  and  heroic 
acts,  which,  when  they  are  done,  we  passionately  admire,  but  which, 
at  the  same  time,  we  have  no  right  to  demand  or  expect.  Few  per 
sons  acquainted  with  the  history  and  character  of  John  Brown  could 
avoid  having  some  sense  of  the  real  sublimity  of  his  conduct;  but 
who  can  pretend  that  human  affairs  admit  of  being  generally  con 
ducted  on  the  John  Brown  principle  ?  If  Jefferson,  on  coming  to  a 
clear  sense  of  the  iniquity  of  slavery  and  the  impossibility  of  indu 
cing  Virginia  to  abolish  it,  had  set  his  slaves  free,  and  led  them  forth 
with  his  daughter  Martha  holding  his  right  hand,  Maria  the  left, 
and  the  slaves  marching  behind  with  their  bundles  and  their  chil 
dren,  and  he  had  conducted  them  to  a  free  territory,  and  established 
them  as  freemen  and  freeholders,  standing  by  them  till  they  were 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  he  would  have  done  one  of  those 
high,  heroic  deeds  which  contemporaries  call  Quixotic,  and  posterity 
sublime.  And  if,  while  the  young  patriarch  was  on  the  march,  a 
mob  of  white  trash  had  set  upon  him  and  kille^l  him,  contemporaries 
might  have  said  it  served  him  right,  and  centuries  hence  his  name 
might  serve  as  the  pretext  for  a  new  religion,  and  nations  contend 
for  the  possession  of  his  tomb.  But  no  one  has  a  right  to  cen 
sure  him  for  not  having  done  this,  except  a  person  who  has  given  proof, 
that,  in  similar  circumstances,  he  would  have  done  it.  Such  individ 
uals —  and  there  are  a  few  such  in  each  generation  —  seldom  cen 
sure  any  one. 


746 


LIFE  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


We  must  admit,  then,  that  he  belonged  neither  to  the  first  nor  to 
the  second  order  of  human  beings.  He  was  not  the  discoverer  of 
the  truths  he  loved,  nor  did  lie  promote  their  acceptance  by  any  of 
the  heroic  methods.  He  did  not  always  avoid  the  errors  to  which 
his  cast  of  character  rendered  him  peculiarly  liable. 

But  the  sum  of  his  merit  was  exceedingly  great.  He  was  an 
almost  perfect  citizen.  He  loved  and  believed -in  his  species.  Few 
men  have  ever  been  better  educated  than  he,  or  practised  more  habit 
ually  the  methods  of  an  educated  person.  He  defended  the  honor  of 
the  human  intellect  when  its  natural  foes  throughout  Christendom 
conspired  to  revile,  degrade,  and  crush  it.  After  Washington,  he  was 
the  best  chief  magistrate  of  a  republic  the  world  has  ever  known  ; 
and,  in  some  material  particulars,  he  surpassed  Washington.  He 
keenly  enjoyed  his  existence,  and  made  it  a  benefaction  to  his  kind. 


sr*. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


DAMS,  Charles  Francis.    Upon  old  age  of 
bhn  Adams,  734. 

lams,  John.  Proscribed  in  England,  142. 
n  Congress,  164.  Quoted  upon  Jefferson, 
64,  165.  Upon  Dickinson's  timidity,  165. 
Jpon  Franklin's  galleys,  181.  Upon  Har- 
•ison,  192.  His  opinions  upon  government 
n  1776,  195,  196.  Jefferson  to,  on  Mazzei, 
Curses  the  protective  system,  275. 
Snvoy  in  Europe,  276.  Franklin  to,  in  1784, 
80.  Treats  for  American  captives  in  Bar- 
>ary,  298.  In  England  with  Jefferson,  312, 
13.  Upon  presidential  etiquette,  366. 
'ublishes  discourses  upon  Davila,  370. 
Minister  to  London,  403.  Upon  Paine's  re- 
•ly  to  Burke,  425.  Publicola  attributed  to, 
27.  Upon  the  British  Constitution,  433. 
To  Jefferson  on  the  Genet  excitement,  489. 
Tefferson  to,  on  farming,  509.  Relates  Jef- 
erson's  first  nomination  to  the  presidency, 
>13.  Extols  Ames,  519.  Elected  president, 
>24.  Distrustful,  543.  His  alarm  in  1798, 
)56.  Convinced  by  Gerry,  re-opens  rela- 
ions  with  France,  560.  •  His  heterodoxy, 
>70.  During  the  tie  intrigues  of  1801,  579. 
Retires  from  the  presidency,  585.  His 
ourney  to  Washington,  600.  His  last  ap- 
jointrnents,  609.  Upon  Jefferson's  admin- 
stration,  634.  His  difference  with  Jeffer- 
3on,  679.  Detests  Calvinism,  711.  His 
death,  734. 

dams,  Mrs.  John.  To  Europe  in  1784,  279. 
Describes  a  strange  flower,  309.  Entertains 
Vlaria  Jefferson,  332.  Her  journey  to 
Washington  in  1800,  601.  Her  correspond 
ence  with  Jefferson,  679. 
dams,  John  Quincy.  Upon  Paine's  reply  to 
Burke,  426.  Upon  Jefferson's  administra 


tion,  633.     "Why  not  appointed  by  Jeffer 
son,  681. 

Adams,  Samuel.  Proscribed  in  England,  142. 
In  Congress,  164.  On  Liberty,  373.  Thought 
of  for  governor,  428.  Gerry  to,  on  Boston 
Port-Bill,  542.  Jefferson  to,  after  his  in 
auguration,  588. 

Alberti.  Teacher  music  at  Monticello,  133. 
Jefferson  to,  on  a  home  band  of  music,  221. 

Alexander  I.  of  Russia.  Jefferson  accepts 
his  bust,  625. 

Alexandria,  Va.  Aids  Boston,  131.  Welcomes 
Jefferson  home,  347. 

Alfred,  King.    His  laws,  50. 

Algiers.  Its  corsairs  in  1784,  296.  American 
captives  in,  297.  Jefferson  fears  for  his 
daughter,  331.  Piracies  of,  636,  C38. 

Alien  Law,  The.  Passed,  551.  Jefferson's 
opinion  of,  553. 

Alston,  Joseph.  Marries  TheodosiaBurr,  765. 

Ames,  Fisher.  Quoted  on  the  public  debt, 
376.  On  the  site  for  a  capital,  394.  His 
speech  on  the  Jay  treaty,  518.  Upon  Jeffer 
son's  administration,  6.'J4. 

Andrew,  John.    In  affair  of  the  Gaspee,  118. 

Annapolis.  Visited  by  Jefferson  in  1766,  68. 
Congress  at,  in  1783,  268. 

Appointments.  Jefferson's  policy  with  re 
gard  to,  605. 

Aristocracy.  Jefferson  dreads,  273,  274. 
Evils  of,  in  France,  288,  335,  336.  The 
true,  364. 

Arnold,  Benedict.  Invades  Va.,  243,  246. 
Denounced  by  Gerry,  543. 

Astor,  J.  J.  Quoted  upon  Pacific  coast,  320. 
In  business  at  New  York,  403.  Founds 
Astoria,  676. 

Auburn,  N.Y.    Why  so  named,  40. 
749 


INDEX. 


ADAMS,  Charles  Francis.  Upon  old  age  of 
John  Adams,  734. 

Adams,  John.  Proscribed  in  England,  142. 
In  Congress,  164.  Quoted  upon  Jefferson, 
164,  165.  Upon  Dickinson's  timidity,  165. 
Upon  Franklin's  galleys,  181.  Upon  Har 
rison,  192.  His  opinions  upon  government 
in  1776,  195,  196.  Jefferson  to,  on  Mazzei, 
227.  Curses  the  protective  system,  275. 
Envoy  in  Europe,  276.  Franklin  to,  in  1784, 
280.  Treats  for  American  captives  in  Bar- 
bary,  298.  In  England  with  Jefferson,  312, 
313.  Upon  presidential  etiquette,  366. 
Publishes  discourses  upon  Davila,  370. 
Minister  to  London,  403.  Upon  Paine's  re 
ply  to  Burke,  425.  Publicola  attributed  to, 
427.  Upon  the  British  Constitution,  438. 
To  Jefferson  on  the  G-cnet  excitement,  489. 
Jefferson  to,  on  farming,  509.  Relates  Jef 
ferson's  first  nomination  to  the  presidency, 
513.  Extols  Ames,  519.  Elected  president, 
524.  Distrustful,  543.  His  alarm  in  1798, 
556.  Convinced  by  G-erry,  re-opens  rela 
tions  with  France,  560.  •  His  heterodoxy, 
570.  During  the  tie  intrigues  of  1801,  579. 
Retires  from  the  presidency,  585.  His 
journey  to  Washington,  600.  His  last  ap 
pointments,  609.  Upon  Jefferson's  admin 
istration,  634.  His  difference  with  Jeffer 
son,  679.  Detests  Calvinism,  711.  His 
death,  734. 

Adams,  Mrs.  John.  To  Europe  in  1784,  279. 
Describes  a  strange  flower,  309.  Entertains 
Maria  Jefferson,  332.  Her  journey  to 
Washington  in  1800,  601.  Her  correspond 
ence  with  Jefferson,  679. 

Adams,  John  Quincy.  Upon  Paine's  reply  to 
Burke,  426.  Upon  Jefferson's  administra 


tion,  633.     Why  not  appointed  by  Jeffer- 
son,  681. 

Adams,  Samuel.  Proscribed  in  England,  142. 
In  Congress,  164.  On  Liberty,  373.  Thought 
of  for  governor,  428.  Gerry  to,  on  Boston 
Port-Bill,  542.  Jefferson  to,  after  his  in 
auguration,  588. 

Alberti.  Teacher  music  at  Monticello,  133. 
Jefferson  to,  on  a  home  band  of  music,  221. 

Alexander  I.  of  Russia.  Jefferson  accepts 
his  bust,  625. 

Alexandria,  Va.  Aids  Boston,  131.  Welcomes 
Jefferson  home,  347. 

Alfred,  King.    His  laws,  50. 

Algiers.  Its  corsairs  in  1784,  296.  American 
captives  in,  297.  Jefferson  fears  for  his 
daughter,  331.  Piracies  of,  636,  638. 

Alien  Law,  The.  Passed,  551.  Jefferson's 
opinion  of,  553. 

Alston,  Joseph.  Marries  TheodosiaBurr,  765. 

Ames,  Fisher.  Quoted  on  the  public  debt, 
376.  On  the  site  for  a  capital,  394.  His 
speech  on  the  Jay  treaty,  518.  Upon  Jeffer 
son's  administration,  6IJ4. 

Andrew,  John.    In  affair  of  the  Gaspee,  118. 

Annapolis.  Visited  by  Jefferson  in  1766,  68. 
Congress  at,  in  1783,  268. 

Appointments.  Jefferson's  policy  with  re 
gard  to,  605. 

Aristocracy.  Jefferson  dreads,  273,  274. 
Evils  of,  in  France,  288,  335,  336.  The 
true,  364. 

Arnold,  Benedict.  Invades  Va.,  243,  246. 
Denounced  by  Gerry,  543. 

Astor,  J.  J.  Quoted  upon  Pacific  coast,  320. 
In  business  at  New  York,  403.  Founds 
Astoria,  676. 

Auburn,  N.T.    Why  so  named,  40. 
749 


750 


INDEX. 


BACON,  Edmund.  Jefferson  to,  on  farm  oper- 
ations,  601.  At  Washington,  616.  Re- 
ceives  sheep  for  Jefferson,  027.  Describes 
destruction  of  dam,  G23.  Conducts  remov 
al,  684.  Upon  the  visitors  at  Monticello, 
688.  Upon  Jefferson's  temper,  693.  Upon 
the  sale  of  Jefferson's  library,  730.  Leaves 
Monticello,  731. 

Ball,  Joseph.  Quoted  on  project  of  sending 
George  Washington  to  sea  as  a  sailor,  32. 

Ballooning.    In  1784,  at  Philadelphia,  277. 

Baltimore.     Aids  Boston,  131. 

Bancroft,  George.    Quoted  upon  Mason,  208. 

Bank  of  U.  S.    Established  by  Hamilton,  396. 

Baptists.  Their  petition  to  Burgesses  of 
Va.,  174.  Persecuted  in  Va.,  202-203. 
Defended  by  Patrick  Henry,  204. 

Barbe-Marbois,  FraiKjoisde.  Questions  Jef 
ferson  on  Va.,  260.  Receives  Notes  on 
Virginia  in  reply,  260.  Negotiates  sale 
of  Louisiana,  651-954. 

Bartlett,  John  Russell.  Quoted  upon  the 
burning  of  the  Gaspee,  118. 

Bartram,  John.  Becomes  a  botanist,  6. 
Corresponds  with  European  botanists  6,  306. 

Beaumarchais,  Caron  de.  His  Marriage  of 
Figarro  produced,  290. 

Beckwith,  Major.  Upon  Paine's  pamphlet, 
424. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward.  His  gift  to  Univer 
sity  of  Virginia,  711. 

Beecher,  Dr.  Lyman.  A  church-and-state 
man,  573. 

Bcllew,  Captain.  Refused  provisions  in  Va., 
185. 

Berwick,  Mass.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Bibby,  Captain.    Prisoner  in  Va.,  222. 

Bible,  The.  Not  a  part  of  the  Common  Law, 
49.  Jefferson  upon,  338. 

Blddle,  Owen.  In  excursion  on  the  Dela 
ware,  181. 

Black,  Professor  Joseph,  26. 

Blackstone,  Sir  William.  Jefferson  upon, 
48,  713. 

Blair,  John.  Governor  of  Va.,  pro  tern.,  85. 
Protects  the  Baptists,  204. 

Bland,  Colonel  Richard.  Introduces  bill  to 
mitigate  slavery,  97.  On  committee  of  cor 
respondence,  124.  Elected  to  Continental 
Congress,  143.  Re-elected,  172.  Excused 
and  thanked,  173.  In  command  of  Bur- 
goyne  prisoners,  237. 

Bleeding.    Anecdote  of,  63. 


Bompard,  Captain.  At  Charleston,  470. 
At  Philadelphia,  473. 

Bonaparte,  Joseph.  In  Louisiana  negotia 
tion,  649. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon.  Affects  Republican 
methods,  370.  His  early  career,  509.  Dread 
ed  by  Federalists,  571.  Offended  with  Paine, 
583.  Offends  Paine,  591.  Bella  Louisiana 
to  U.  S.,  652. 

Bonvouloir,  M.  de.    At  Philadelphia,  183. 

Boston.  Gifts  to,  during  closing  of  the  port, 
130.  Jefferson  indignant  at  wrongs  of, 
139.  Extols  people  of,  102.  Jefferson  at,  in 
1784,  279. 

Boswell,  James.  Inventor  of  interviewing, 
146. 

Botctourt,  Lord.  Arrives  in  Va  ,  86.  Opens 
Burgesses,  89,  93.  Dissolves  them,  94. 
Takes  part  with  Virginians,  96.  Death  of, 
97. 

Bracton,  Henry  de.    His  work  upon  law,  43. 

Brassy,  Thomas.  Upon  the  Maison  Quarree, 
315. 

Brazil.  An  emissary  from,  meets  Jefferson, 
321. 

Brooklyn,  Mass.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Brown,  George.  In  affair  of  the  Gacpee, 
118. 

Brown,  John.    Remark  upon,  744. 

Brown,  John,  of  Rhode  Island.  Heads  attack 
upon  the  Gaspee,  113  to  116. 

Brown  University.    Why  so  named,  113. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen.  His  poem  on  the 
Embargo,  675,  690. 

Buckle,  Henry  Thomas.  Quoted  upon  lei 
sure,  29.  Upon  Spain,  397. 

Buffon,  Count  de.  Jefferson  supplies  with 
specimens,  309,  310. 

Bull  Run.    Battle  of,  181. 

Bunker  Hill.  Battle  of,  162.  News  of,  in 
Congress,  168. 

Burgesses,  House  of,  in  Va.  Its  manners  and 
usages,  68,  71.  How  opened,  89.  Dissolv 
ed  by  Botetourt,  94.  First  assembled,  121. 
Summoned  by  Dunmore,  157,  158,  159. 
Abandoned  by  him,  160.  Replies  to  Lord 
North,  160. 

Burgoyne,  General.  Effects  of  his  surrender 
In  Va.,  220,  221. 

Burk,  John.  Quoted  upon  Small,  24.  Upon 
Fauquier,  29.  Upon  religion  in  Va.,  58. 
Upon  Lord  Botetourt's  equipage,  89.  Up 
on  witchcraft  in  Va.,  202. 


II^DEX. 


751 


Burke,  Edmund.  Causes  publication  in  Eng 
land  of  Jefferson's  pamphlet,  142.  His  eu 
logy  of  Marie  Antoinette,  418.  Denounces 
French  Revolution,  419.  Paine  replies  to, 
420.  Misleads  his  country,  4G3. 

Burnaby,  Ilev.  Andrew.  Describes  Wil- 
liamsbtfrgh,  19.  Quoted  upon  Fauquier, 
23.  Upon  people  of  Rhode  L>land,  110. 

Burr,  Aaron.  Injured  by  association  with 
French  officers,  232.  In  the  tie  intrigues, 
576.  Elected  vice-president,  580.  Seeks 
appointment  from  Jefferson,  CG3.  Hi* 
trial,  GG3. 

Burr,  Theodosia.    Her  marriage,  576. 

Burwell,  Miss  Rebecca.  Jefferson  in  love 
with,  34,  35,  36,  37,  38,  39. 

CABF.LL,  Joseph  C.  Co-operates  with  Jeffer 
son  in  founding  the  University  of  Virginia, 
701. 

Csesar.    His  fidelity  to  Jefferson,  258. 

Callender,  James  T.  Jefferson's  connection 
with,  606,  680. 

Calvinism.    Jefferson  detests,  711. 

Camden,  S.  C.    Defeat  at,  in  1780,  242. 

Campaign  Lies.    Of  1800,  567. 

Campan,  Madame  Jcane  Genet.  Quoted 
upon  the  queen,  328.  Her  family  and  ca 
reer,  4G1. 

Capet,  Louis.    Sec  Louis  XVI. 

Carlyle,  Thomas.  Upon  French  Revolution, 
134,  323.  Upon  Washington,  382. 

Carmicbael,  William.    At  Cadiz  in  1785,  297. 

Carpenter's  Hall.    Congress  sits  in,  163. 

Carr,  Dabney.  Marries  sister  of  Jefferson, 
44.  Hears  of  the  burning  of  the  Gaspee, 
116,  119.  Speaks  in  House  of  Burgesses, 
123,  124.  -Death  of,  125.  Allusion  to,  271. 
Education  of  his  sons,  276,  332,  333. 

Carr,  Mrs.  Dabney.  Death  of  her  husband, 
125. 

Carr,  Peter.  Jefferson  advises,  on  morals, 
333.  On  religion,  338. 

Carrington,  Colonel  Edward.  Hamilton  to, 
on  Jefferson,  435,  436. 

Carroll,  Charles.  Jefferson  to,  on  Indian 
depredation,  413. 

Cary,  Archibald.  On  committee  of  corre 
spondence,  124. 

Catherine  II.  Frustrates  Ledyard,  321. 
'Compliments  Burke,  420. 

Channing,  Dr.  W.  E.  His  theology  described, 
361.  Jefferson  upon,  711. 


Charles  I.    His  letter  to  the  Virginians,  121. 

Charleston,  S.  C.  Aids  Boston,  132.  Genet 
at,  in  1793,  469.  Importance  of,  then,  470. 

Charlmont,  Mass.    Aids  Boston,  130. 

Chase,  Judge  Samuel.    His  trial,  6:17. 

Clin^tc'llux,  Marquis  de.  Visits  Monticello, 
2G2.  Returning  to  France,  207. 

Chattcrton,  Thomas.  Contributes  to  North 
Briton,  257. 

Chatham,  Lord,  63.  His  veneration  for 
George  III.,  136.  Extols  Congress,  1G3. 

Chesapeake,  The.  Fired  into  by  the  Loop- 
ard,  672. 

Christianity.  Not  part  of  the  common  law, 
50.  Quoted  upon  aristocracy,  201. 

Church  of  England.  Intolerant  in  Va.,  202, 
210, 

Churches.    Ruins  of,  in  Va.,  78. 

Cincinnati,  The.    Jefferson  opposes,  273. 

Clerk,  Rev.  Archibald.  His  work  upon 
Ossian,  103. 

Clarke,  George  Rogers.  Takes  Kaskaskias, 
2^2.  Keeps  Indians  in  check.  233.  Cap 
tures  Vincennes,  234.  Desires  to  attack 
Detroit,  237,  243.  Assists  in  repelling  Ar 
nold,  247.  His  later  life,  6J6. 

Clarke,  General  William.  Employed  by  Jef 
ferson,  606.  Explores  western  country, 
628. 

Clay,  Rev.  Charles.  Denounces  Christmas 
fiddling,  13.  Preaches  on  Fast  Day,  130. 

Clay,  Henry.  His  family  in  Va.,  13,  58. 
Studies  under  Wythe,  29,  30,  31.  His  fa- 
thcr,  174.  Quoted  upon  Jefferson  and 
Mirabeau,  32'). 

Clay,  Rev.  John,  174. 

Clergy,  The.    In  Old  Va.,  55,  56. 

Clinton.  DeWitt  Clinton.  His  duel  with 
Swartwout,  658. 

Clinton,  George.  His  daughter  marries  Ge 
net,  490. 

Clinton,  Miss  Cornelia.  Married  to  Genet, 
490. 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry.  Mitigates  treatment  of 
prisoners,  237. 

Coke  upon  Lyttleton.    Jefferson  studies,  34. 
Described,  47.    Jefferson's  opinion  of,  48, 
.  63. 

Coles,  Edward.    Quoted  upon  Adams,  580. 
Cole,  John.    In  affair  of  the  Gaspcc,  118. 

Collinson,  Peter.  Corresponds  with  Bar- 
tram,  5.  His  notices  of  the  father  of  Jef 
ferson's  mother,  7. 


752 


INDEX. 


Committee  of  Correspondence.  Origin  of, 
124. 

Cooper,  Peter.    His  father  in  New  York,  403. 

Cooper,  Dr.  Thomas.  Uproar  at  his  appoint 
ment  as  professor,  707. 

Congress,  The  Continental.  Proposed,  130. 
Instructed,  135.  Members  elected  to,  In 
V;i.,  143.  How  paid,  162.  Described,  163. 
Jefferson  in,  164.  Anecdote  of,  166.  De 
clares  Independence,  192.  Meets  at  Annap 
olis  io  1783,  268. 

Connecticut.  Blue  Laws  of,  a  forgery,  51. 
Jefferson's  remarks  upon,  339. 

Corbin,  lion  Richard.  Pays  for  the  stolen 
powder,  155. 

Cornwallis,  Lord.  In  command  at  the  South, 
231,  244.  Ravages  Jeflerson's  estate,  253. 
Surrenders,  259. 

Custom  House.    Exactions  of,  in  London,  75, 


DALLAS,  G.  J.    In  Genet  affair,  483. 

Damiens,  R  F.    His  execution,  134. 

Dartmouth,  Lord.  In  affair  of  the  Gaspee, 
116,  118,  119.  His  reply  concerning  second 
petition,  179. 

Darwin,  Charles.  First  man  of  his  genera 
tion,  744. 

Darwin,  Erasmus.    Friend  of  Dr.  Small,  24. 

Davila,  Henri.  Discourses  upon,  by  John 
A. lams,  370. 

Davis,  John.  Quoted  upon  inauguration  of 
Jefl'erson,  587. 

Daw.Min,  II.  1*.    Quoted  upon  Genet,  403. 

Dearborn,  General  Henry.  Slandered  In 
1800,  572.  Appointed  secretary  of  war, 
598.  His  career,  597.  Imports  pigs,  G27. 

Decimal  currency.  Perfected  by  Jefferson, 
2  v.i.  Adopted  by  Congress,  309. 

Declnra'ion  of  Independence.     188  to  193. 

DC  la  Tude,  M.  A.     Guest  of  Jefferson,  319. 

Delaware.    Aids  Boston  in  1774,  152. 

Di'inn-thencs.  His  use  of  forms  still  adhered 
to,  140. 

De  Stael,  Madame.    Married,  319. 

Detroit.  Henry  Hamilton  commands  at,  230, 
233.  Clarke  desires  to  attack,  2:17.  Retained 
by  Great  Britain  after  the  Revolution,  402. 

Dickinson,  John.  In  Congress,  164.  De 
ft  rred  to  by  Congress,  165,  Ib6.  The  king's 
opinion  of,  K,7.  Pens  draft,  168, 170. 

DiL'u'es,  Dudley.  On  committee  of  corre 
spondence,  124. 


Dilke,  Sir  Charles.  Behavior  of  Tories  to, 
421. 

Dix,  Governor  John  A.  Upon  Jefferson's 
playing,  222. 

Doddridge,  Dr.  Philip,  14. 

Dominica.    Aids  Boston,  132. 

Dorchester,  Lord.  In  command  in  Canada, 
412. 

Dorset,  Duke  of.    Jefferson  friendly  to,  319. 

Douglass,  Rev.  William.  Jefferson  attends 
his  school,  14. 

Drayton,  William.  Jefferson  to,  on  the  ol 
ive,  307. 

Dubuque,  M.   Pike  meets,  on  Mississippi,  629. 

Dudington.  Lieut.    His  vessel  burnt  at  New- 

^port,  111.    Wounded,  114. 

Dunmore,  Lord.  Replaces  Botctourt,  122. 
His  proclamation  derided,  151,  152.  Seizes 
the  powder,  152.  Pays  for  it,  155.  Sum- 
mons  Burgesses,  157.  Hans  away,  160. 
Asks  for  a  fleet,  179.  Invites  slaves  to  join 
him,  183. 

D'Yrujo,  Seiior.    Sells  wine  to  Jefferson,  626. 

E  ACKER,  George  I.  His  duels  with  Price 
and  Hamilton,  658. 

Earle,  T.     Hamilton  benefits,  431. 

Eaton,  William.  His  negotiation  with  Bey 
of  Tunis,  638. 

Education.  Jefferson's  bills  to  promote,  in 
Va.,  216.  His  labors  in  behalf  of,  700. 

Ellcry,  William.    Signs  treaty  of  peace,  269. 

Embargo,  The.    Of  1807,  674. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  How  defrauded, 
630. 

Entail.    Abolished  in  Va.,  209. 

Eppes,  Francis.    Elected  major,  174. 

Eppcs,  Francis,  jun.-   At  Monticello,  694. 

Eppcs,  John  W.  With  Jefferson  at  Philadel 
phia,  401.  Engaged,  505.  Buying  horses, 
587. 

Eppes,  Maria  Jefferson.  Going  to  Franco, 
330,  332.  At  Paris,  333.  Return  home,  345. 
Engaged,  505.  Her  death,  678. 

Etinuctte.  Of  president's  house  in  Washing 
ton's  time,  365,367,  368.  In  Jefferson's,  614. 

FALMOUxn.Mass.    Aids  Boston,  132.  Burnt, 

185. 

Farmington,  Ct.    Aids  Boston,  131. 
Fauquier,  Francis.     His  character  and  habits, 

27,  28,  29,  82.    Death,  85.    Incorruptible, 

110. 


INDEX. 


753 


Federalists,  The.  Described  by  Freneau 
444.  Their  downfall,  580.  Virulent 
against  President  Jefferson,  633.  Assai 
him  in  retirement,  689. 

Federalist,  The.    How  written,  362. 

Fenno,  John.  Alarmed  at  Discourses  upon 
Davila,  371.  Tone  of  his  paper,  433.  At 
tacks  Freneau,  434.  Hamilton's  contribu 
tions  to,  445. 

Field,  David  Dudley,  46 

Fine,  John.    Quoted,  368. 

France.  Sends  emissary  to  Continental  Con 
gress,  182,  183.  Alliance  with,  197^  Rati 
fied  by  Va.,  229.  Not  an  unmixed  good, 
230,  261.  Jefferson's  impressions  of,  in  1785, 
288.  His  attachment  to, 
with  in  1798,  539,  550. 

Free  Trade.  Jefferson  recommends,  292,  293, 
340,  413.  % 

French  Revolution.  Jefferson's  part  in,  318, 
323,  326.  Effect  of,  upon  the  world,  372. 
John  Adams's  opinion  of,  372.  Effect  on 
politics  of  United  States,  417.  Burke  upon, 
418.  Paine  upon,  421.  Paine  in,  454.  Ham 
ilton  upon,  456. 

Franklin,  Dr.  Benjamin.  In  Congress,  163, 
164.  Obstructs  the  Delaware,  181,  277. 
Meets  French  emissary,  182.  Effect  upon, 
of  the  burning  of  Norfolk  and  Falmouth, 
135.  Anecdote  of,  188.  Jefferson  likes, 
197.  Jefferson  to,  on  change  of  government 
in  Va.,  219.  His  reception  of  Mazzei,  228. 
Upon  ballooning  in  1784,  276,  277.  To  Ad 
ams  on  their  new  duties  in  1784,  280.  Leav 
ing  France,  283,  284.  His  excellence  as  a 
diplomatist,  285.  Rumor  of  his  capture, 
296.  Anecdote  of,  309,  313.  Last  inter 
view  with  Jefferson,  248.  With  Priestley, 
498.  Upon  value  of  Mississippi  river, 
641. 

Frederick  II.,  of  Prussia,  makes  treaty  with 
Congress,  282. 

Freneau,  Captain  Philip.  Jefferson  appoints, 
432.  Sets  up  newspaper,  433.  Attacks 
Hamilton,  434,  444.  Hamilton  attacks,  445. 

Fry,  Professor  Joshua.  Associated  with  Pe 
ter  Jefferson  in  making  early  map  of  Va., 
9,  241. 

Fulton,  Robert.  Employed  by  Bonaparte, 
584. 

GAGE,  General  Thomas.  Warned  by  Va., 
144, 145.  Precipitates  war,  152. 


Galileo.  Right  in  recanting,  513. 
Gallatin,  Abraham  Albert  Alphonso.  Re- 
port  of  his  murder,  292.  Menaced  by  Al 
len  Law,  551.  Appointed  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  594.  His  career,  595.  Jefferson 
to,  on  reducing  his  department,  613.  Jef- 
ferson  to,  on  the  silver  mines,  629. 

Gaspee,  The.  Burnt  in  Narragansett  Bay, 
109  to  114. 

Gates,  General  Horatio.  In  command  at 
South,  240.  Defeated  at  Camden,'  242. 

Genet,  Edmond.  Coming  as  minister  to  U. 
S.,  459,  460.  His  early  life,  461.  At  Charles 
ton,  469.  At  Philadelphia,  471.  Interviews 
with  official  persons,  478,  434.  Recalled, 
489.  Marriage,  490. 

Gerry,  Elbridge.  Jefferson  meets,  at  New 
York  in  1776,  68.  Signing  Declaration  of 
Independence,  192.  His  poverty  during 
the  war,  226.  Signs  treaty  of  peace,  269. 
Jefferson  to,  in  1784,  on  Boston,  279.  In  em 
bassy  to  France,  541.  His  poverty  during 
Revolution,  542.  Exposes  Benedict  Arnold, 
543.  In  Paris,  544.  Converses  with  Tal 
leyrand,  548.  Recalled,  550.  Visits  Presi 
dent  Adams,  560.  Restores  peace  between 
France  and  the  U.  S.,  561.  Jefferson  to, 
on  his  political  system,  564. 

George  IV.  Compliment  to,  135.  As  a  boy, 
167.  As  a  man,  316,  317. 

George  III.  Succeeds  to  the  throne,  28.  An 
expensive  king,  115.  Dismembered  Brit 
ish  empire,  135,  137.  His  family  life,  166. 
His  opinion  of  American  patriots,  167.  Jef. 
ferson  upon,  180,  189.  Jefferson  presented 
to,  312.  Jefferson  upon,  316.  Speech  to 
John  Adams,  406.  His  antipathy  to  the 
United  States,  410.  Pensions  Burke,  419. 
His  birthday  at  Philadelphia,  475. 

George,  Lake.    Jefferson  upon,  425. 

Georgia.    Aids  Boston,  132. 

Goodrich,  Chauncey.  Quoted  upon  level- 
ling,  374. 

Goodrich,  G.  G.    Quoted  upon  manners,  584. 

Graham,  George.    Detects  Burr,  665. 

Granger,  Gideon.  Appointed  postmaster- 
general,  599. 

Grange,  The.    Captured,  470. 

Great  Britain.  Reduced  in  importance  by 
the  American  Revolution,  157,  177.  Her 
protective  system,  414. 

Greeley,  Horace.  Publishes  a  letter  of  Jef 
ferson's,  626. 


7r>4 


INDEX. 


Grimm,   Baron.    Jefferson  knew,  319.    As- 

:..  dyard,  320. 
Groton,  Mass.    Aids  Boston,  130,  132. 

HALE,  Sir  Matthew.    Jefferson  upon,  50. 

Hall,  Lieut.  Francis.  Relates  visit  to  Moiiti- 
cello,  719. 

Hall,  Rev.  Robert.  Quoted  upon  Priestley, 
500. 

Hamilton,  Alexander.  Corrupted  by  French 
officers,  262.  His  early  career  in  V.  S.,  352. 
His  self-sufficiency,  353.  His  politics,  363. 
Upon  etiquette  of  President's  house,  365. 
His  bet  with  G.  Morris,  369.  Meets  Jeffer- 
eony  374.  Appointed  Secretary  of  the 
!-ury,  377,  3S3.  Reports  on  the  Pub 
lic  Debt,  383.  Inclined  toward  England, 
411,  412.  Opposes  tariff  retaliation,  414. 
Differences  with  Jefferson,  428,  430.  Ami 
able  at  home,  431.  Talleyrand  upon,  431. 
Ignorant  of  America,  432.  Has  two  fami 
lies  to  maintain,  431.  Accuses  Jefferson  and 
Madison  of  cabal,  4.0.:>,  436.  His  opinion  of 
the  British  constitution,  438.  A  lobbyist, 
439.  Attacks  Jefferson  in  the  press,  445. 
Defends  his  course,  487.  A  monarchist, 
450.  Upon  French  Revolution,  456,  458. 
Upon  reception  of  Genet,  460,  406.  Toast 
ed  at  English  banquet,  475.  Against  Gc- 
lu-t's  proceedings,  47'.),  486,  488.  His  amour 
with  Mr.-.  Reynolds,  534.  His  scheme  to 
invade  South  America,  551.  His  political 
programme  for  1799,  558.  Intrigues  John 
Adams  out  of  the  presidency,  562.  Attacks 
Jefferson  in  1800,  568.  During  the  tie  in 
trigues,  580.  Retires  from  politics,  582. 
His  complicated  methods,  613.  Upon  Jef 
ferson's  administration,  634.  His  evil  in 
fluence,  7-J2. 

Hamilton,  Henry.  Stirs  up  Indians  to  attack 
western  settlements,  230,  233.  A  prisoner, 
234.  Release,!,  236. 

Hamilton,  Mrs.  Alexander.  At  home,  431. 
Benefits  a  poor  artist,  431.  Her  husband 
false  to,  431. 

Hamilton,  Philip.    His  duel  with  Backer,  658. 

Hammond,  George.  English  minister  at 
Philadelphia,  414.  In  conference  with  Jef 
ferson,  415."  His  marriage,  47o.  Remon 
strates  atrainst  Genet,  478. 

Hancock,  John.  Proscribed  in  England,  142. 
Signs  address  to  people  of  England,  171. 
.Anecdote  of,  191.  John  Adams  upon,  428. 


Harrison,  Benjamin.  On  committee  of  cor- 
respondence,  124.  Elected  to  Continental 
Congress,  143.  On  committee  to  arm  Va., 
150.  In  Congress,  166,  171.  Re-elected, 
172.  Anecdote  of,  192.  Sent  to  Congress 
for  arms,  249.  Washington  to,  on  New 
York  canal,  272. 

Hartford.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Hay,  George.    In  trial  of  Burr,  669. 

Helps,  Sir  Arthur.  Quoted  upon  Brassy,  315. 

Henings,  Madison.  Does  not  know  his  own 
father,  569. 

Henings,  Sally.    Mistake  respecting,  569. 

Hening's  Statutes  at  Large.  Contributed  to 
by  Jefferson,  84. 

Henry  Patrick.  A  player  upon  the  violin, 
12.  First  meeting  with  Jefferson,  18.  Ad 
mitted  to  bar,  33.  Dabney  Carr  his  only 
rival,  45.  In  the  clergy  case,  55.  Borrows 
books  of  Jefferson,  60.  Menfber  of  House 
of  Burgesses,  64.  Opposes  Stamp  Act,  65, 
66.  Denounces  the  loan  bill,  80.  Compar 
ed  with  Jefferson,  83.  At  dissolution  of 
House  of  Burgesses,  94.  In  consultation 
upon  Gaspee  affair,  119,  124.  Promotes 
Fast  Day,  129.  An  indolent  reader,  142. 
Proscribed  in  England,  142.  Elected  to 
Congress  in  1774,  143,  445.  In  Va.  Con 
vention  of  1775, 149.  On  Committee  to  arm 
Va.,  150.  At  the  head  of  troops  gets  paid 
for  the  stolen  powder.  154,  155. 

Hessians,  The.  Prisoners  in  Va.,  221,  223, 
228,  244. 

Ilillcgas,  Michael.    His  love  of  music,  181. 

Hillsborough,  Earl  of,  96. 

Hitchcock,  Mr.    In  affair  of  the  Gaspee,  118. 

Hone,  Philip.  Raises  money  for  Jefferson, 
731. 

Hopkins,  Captain  John.  Reads  Declaration 
of  Independence,  192. 

Hopkins,  Chief  Justice.  In  affair  of  the  Gas- 
pee,  112. 

Hopkinson,  Francis.  Jefferson  to,  on  his 
Notes,  310. 

Hume,  David.  His  Essay  on  Miracles,  60. 
His  History  of  England,  713. 

Humphries,  Colonel  David.  In  Paris  with 
Jefferson,  333.  Jefferson  recalls,  609. 

Hutchiuson,  Governor.  Upon  the  burning 
of  the  Gaspee,  116. 

IMPRESSMENT.    Barbarity  of,  416. 
Independence.     Virginia   decides   for,   180. 


INDEX. 


755 


Debates  upon,  187.  Declaration  of,  written 
by  Jefferson,  188.  Declared,  191. 

Indians.  Jefferson's  liking  for,  10.  At  Wil 
liam  and  Mary  College,  21. 

Inoculation.  Jefferson  undergoes,  67.  Sub 
jects  his  family  to  it,  266. 

International  Copyright.  Remarks  upon, 
630. 

Iredell,  Judge.    Extols  Ames's  speech,  519. 

Irving,  Washington.    Retained  for  Burr,  666. 

Isaacs,  Mr.  Ilis  experiment  with  salt  water, 
398. 

JACKSON,  Andrew.  Described,  353.  Desires 
governorship  of  Louisiana,  656. 

Jackson,  Francis.  Describes  Washington, 
D.C.,  616.  His  first  conference  with  Madi 
son,  618. 

Jackson,  George.  Upon  speculation  in  cur 
rency,  390.'  Upon  the  eite  for  a  capital, 
394. 

Jay,  John.  In  Congress,  163.  Hostile  to  R. 
H.  Lee,  169.  Vain  of  his  writings,  169. 
Meets  French  emissary,  182.  In  Paris,  266, 
267.  Sends  commission  to  Jefferson,  283. 
Reports  upon  the  Algerine  captives,  300. 
Promotes  exportation  of  flour,  325.  Upon 
government,  373.  Consulted  by  Washing 
ton,  380.  On  the  treaty  of  peace,  406.  Dis 
approves  Paine's  reply  to  Burke,  427. 
Negotiates  treaty  with  England,  514,  516. 
Rejects  advice  of  Hamilton,  562. 

Jay  Treaty,  The.    Signed,  517. 

Jefferson,  George,  Declines  a  federal  ap 
pointment,  608. 

Jefferson,  Jane.  Wife  of  Peter  Jefferson. 
Her  marriage,  6.  Allusion  to,  36.  Burnt 
out,  98.  Death  of,  186. 

Jefferson,  Lucy.    Her  death,  330. 

Jefferson,  Miss  Jane.  Her  singing,  12. 
Death,  45. 

Jefferson,  Peter.  His  farm  and  home,  2. 
His  person  and  character,  3.  Marriage,  5. 
Strength,  8.  Assists  Fry  to  make  map  of 
Va.,  10.  Trains  negroes,  11.  Educates  his 
son,  14.  Death,  15. 

Jefferson,  Randolph.    His  inheritance,  31. 

Jefferson,  Thomas.  His  person  at  seventeen, 
1.  Birth,  5.  Boyhood,  10,  11,  12.  Plays 
the  violin,  13.  Attends  Maury's  school,  17. 
Enters  college,  20.  At  College,  23,  26.  Es 
capes  vices  of  Va.,  30.  Begins  law,  32. 
In  love,  34  to  40.  Of  age,  42.  Methodical 


and  exact,  43.  As  a  law  student,  46. 
Sworn  in  as  vestryman,  59.  His  course  of 
study,  61.  Hears  Patrick  Henry,  65.  Jour- 
ney  nortnward,  67.  Inoculated,  68.  Prac 
tises  law,  69,  72,  80,  81,82,  83.  Elected  to 
House  of  Burgesses,  88.  Takes  part  in 
proceedings,  92.  Supports  bill  to  mitigate 
slavery,  97.  His  house  burned,  98.  Mar 
ries,  101.  Sends  for  Ossian  manuscripts, 
102.  Consults  on  Gaspee  affair,  119,  123. 
On  committee  of  correspondence,  121. 
Buries  Carr,  126.  Recommends  fast-day, 
129, 130.  Draughts  instructions  for  members 
of  Continental  Congress,  136.  They  are 
published  in  England,  142.  Retires  from 
the  bar,  147.  His  order  for  English  sashes, 
148.  Chairman  of  committee  of  safety,  148. 
On  committee  to  get  arms  for  Va.,  150. 
Elected  member  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gross,  151.  Clings  to  England,  157.  Re 
plies  to  North,  159.  In  Continental  Con- 
gress,  162.  Urges  Livingston  to  pen  draught, 
169.  Draws  it  himself,  170.  Re-elected  to 
Congress,  172.  Buys  violin  of  John  Ran 
dolph,  176.  Meets  French  ernmissary,  182. 
Writes  ^Declaration  of  Independence,  1S8. 
Retires  from  Continental  Congress,  194. 
Declines  French  mission,  198.  Reforms 
laws  of  Va.,  201,  210.  Defends  freedom  of 
thinking,  211.  Attentive  to  Hessian  pris 
oner,  222,  223,  224.  Elected  goveror  of  Va., 
226.  Sworn  in,  229.  Retaliates  ill-treatment 
of  prisoners,  236.  Re-enforces  Gates,  241, 
242.  His  conduct  during  Arnold's  invasion, 
246,  248.  Driven  from  Monticello,  252. 
Retires  from  governorship,  255.  Smarts 
under  censure,  258.  Declines  a  mission  to 
France,  258.  To  Monroe  and  Lafayette,  on 
the  supposed  censure,  259.  Thanked  by 
legislature  of  Va.,  260.  Writes  Notes  upon 
Virginia,  260.  Visited  by  Chastcllux,  262. 
Loses  his  wife,  266.  Elected  peace  com 
missioner  to  France,  266.  In  Congress  at 
Annapolis,  268.  Perfects  our  decimal  cur 
rency,  269.  Washington  to,  on  canal  sys 
tem,  272.  Objects  to  the  Cincinnati,  273. 
Letters  to  his  daughter  at  school,  274.  Ac 
cepts  mission  to  Europe,  276.  In  Paris, 
280.  Appointed  plenipotentiary  to  France, 
283.  Impressions  of  Paris,  287.  His  labors 
there,  2(J2.  Treats  with  the  Alacrities,  298, 
Sends  rice  and  olives  to  8.C.,  307,  309. 
Supplies  Buffon  with  specimens,  309.  Visit 


756 


INDEX. 


to  England,  312.  Tour  in  Europe,  314. 
His  part  in  French  Revolution,  31H,  323,  327. 
His  connection  with  Ledyard,  320.  Rescues 
his  daughter  from  a  convent,  334.  Leaving 
France,  335.  Appointed  secretary  of  state, 
342.  Accepts,  345.  Welcome  home,  344. 
Takes  office  in  New  York,  349.  First  im 
pressions,  364.  Meets  Hamilton,  374,  383. 
Helps  him  to  a  majority  in  Congress,  392, 
395.  Opposed  to  his  finance,  396.  Recom 
mends  mint,  399.  Resides  at  Philadelphia, 
400.  His  opinion  on  passage  of  British 
troops,  412.  Favors  tariff  retaliation,  414. 
Committed  by  Paine's  pamphlet,  423,  425. 
Excursion  to  Lake  Champlaiu,  425.  Op 
poses  bank,  428.  Quarrel  with  Hamiltou, 
430.  Appoints  Freneau,  432.  Discloses 
his  intention  to  retire,  441.  Hamilton  at 
tacks,  in  the  press,  445.  To  Washington, 
on  Hamilton,  448.  His  estate  in  1793,  452. 
Washington  urges  upon  him  mission  to 
France,  459.  Upon  reception  of  Genet, 
467.  Upon  Genet's  conduct,  471,  480,  483. 
Interview  with  Genet,  484.  Against  violent 
measures,  4S6.  Resigns,  492.  His  corre 
spondence  with  Hammond  and  Genet  pub 
lished,  493.  A  Democrat  in  practice,  495. 
Promotes  scheme  of  western  exploration, 
495.  As  a  farmer,  501.  Visited  by  Roche 
foucauld,  503.  Gets  medal  for  a  plough, 
607.  Invited  to  return  to  cabinet,  510. 
Candidate-  for  the  presidency,  510,  512. 
On  Jay  treaty,  520.  Elected  vice-president, 
524.  Composes  manual,  527.  Adams  con 
sults,  529.  Attends  banquet,  530.  Part  of 
letter  to  Mazzei  published,  533.  Urges 
Gerry  to  accept  mission  to  France,  541. 
On  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  553,  554.  To 
John  Taylor,  against  secession,  555.  To 
Gerry  on,  his  political  system,  564.  In 
campaign  of  1800,  565.  To  Xolan,  on  wild 
horses,  565.  Invents  revolving  chair,  566, 
Lies  respect  int.',  in  1800,  568.  During  the 
tie  intrigues,  576.  Elected  president,  580. 
Inaugurated,  586.  His  first  letters,  588, 
689.  Eulogizes  Madison,  594.  Methods  of 
his  administration,  C05.  Buys  Louisiana. 
642.  Repels  Burr,  663.  Frustrates  Burr's 
expedition,  665.  Recommends  embargo, 
674.  Corresponds  with  Mrs.  Adams,  678. 
Upon  death  cf  his  daughter  Maria,  ii7s. 
Retiring  from  presidency,  683.  Overrun 
by  visitors,  689.  His  alarm  at  the  Missouri 


question,  698.  His  opinions  respecting  sla 
very,  698.  Founds  University  of  Virginia, 
703.  His  habits  in  old  age,  714.  Visited  by 
Lafayette,  727.  Sells  his  library  to  Con 
gress,  730.  Impoverished,  731.  Death, 
734.  Summary  of  his  life  and  character, 
737. 

Jefferson,  Mrs.  Thomas.  Marriage  of,  101. 
Character  and  habits,  105,  106.  Birth  of 
her  daughter  Martha,  107.  Her  children, 
126.  Anecdote  of,  128.  Prevents  Jeffer 
son's  acceptance  of  French  mission,  197. 
Her  ill-health,  219.  Attentive  to  Hessian 
prisoners,  221,  222.  Her  letter  to  ladies  of 
Va.,  241.  Entertains  Chastellux,  262,  263. 
Death  of,  265.  Mourned  by  her  husband, 
287. 

Jesus  Christ.    Jefferson's  remarks  upon,  338. 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel.  Influences  Jefferson's 
style,  38.  Denounces  Ossian,  39. 

Johnson,  Sir  William.    At  Saratoga,  425. 

Johnson,  Thomas.  His  gift  to  University  of 
Virginia,  710. 

Jouitte,  Mr.  Warns  Jefferson  of  British 
troops,  251. 

Journalism.    An  infant  art,  146. 

Juuius.    Remarks  upon,  257. 

KASKASKIAS.    Taken  by  Clarke,  233. 

King,  Rufus.  Discloses  transfer  of  Louisi 
ana,  642. 

Kinglake,  A.  W.    Quoted,  191. 

Kings.  How  regarded  formerly,  134,  135, 136. 

Knox,  General  Henry.  Quoted  on  an  army 
toast,  351.  Upon  government,  373.  Ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  war,  378,  379.  In  cab 
inet,  458.  On  Genet,  486,  488,  489. 

Kosciuszko,  General  Thaddeus.  Driven 
from  U.  S.  by  Alien  Law,  551,  590. 

LAFAYETTE,  General.  Applauds  Jefferson 
in  1781,  258.  Forwards  a  letter  to  him,  258. 
Jefferson  to,  on  the  public  censure,  259. 
Assists  Jefferson  in  France,  294,  '2l.»5.  Jef 
ferson  to,  on  the  French  peasantry,  316. 
His  political  dinner  at  Jefferson's  house, 
326.  Sends  key  of  r>a~tille  to  Washington, 
4'2'2.  Jcllcrson  meditates  appointing  him 
governor  of  Louisiana,  606.  Visits  Monti- 
cello,  7J7. 

Langdon,  John.    In  Congress,  164. 

Law,  John.  Hamilton  borrows  from,  358, 
385,  389,  396. 


INDEX. 


757 


Laws.  Of  ancient  England,  49,  50.  Of  Old 
Virginia,  52,  70,  71,  84,  199. 

Lawyers.  In  Va.,  46,  47.  Ancient,  47,48,  69 
to  73.  Thrown  out  of  employment  in  1774, 
in  Va.,  146. 

Leander,  The,  Fires  into  an  American  vessel, 
672. 

Lear,  Tobiaa.  Assists  "Washington  to  raise 
money,  377.  Quoted  upon  Paine's  pam 
phlet,  424,  425. 

Lebanon,  Ct.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Ledyard,  John.  His  scheme  of  exploration, 
320. 

Lee,  Arthur.  Accuses  Bland,  173.  Dispu 
tations,  268. 

Leeds,  Duke  of.  In  conference  with  G.  Mor 
ris,  409,  410. 

Lee,  Henry.  Befriends  Freneau,  473.  Ad 
vises  Genet,  477.  A  tale-bearer,  521. 

Lee,  Francis  Lightfoot.  In  consultation  up 
on  Gaspee  affair,  119.  Aids  to  reform  Va., 
214. 

Lee,  Richard  Henry.  In  consultation  upon 
Gaspee  affair,  119,  124.  His  bill  against 
slave  trade,  139.  Elected  to  Continental 
Congress,  143,  144.  On  committee  to  arm 
Va.,  150.  In  Congress,  164.  Re-elected, 
172.  Signs  Jefferson's  commission,  283. 
Jefferson  gets  a  lamp  for,  304. 

L'Embuscade.    At  Charleston,  469,  470. 

Leslie,  General  A.  Co-operates  with  Corn- 
wallis,  244. 

Letters.  Their  use  as  material  of  biography, 
41. 

Lewis,  Meriwether.  Private  Secretary  to 
Jefferson,  623.  Ilia  exploring  expedition, 
628. 

Lexington.    Battle  of,  153,  156. 

Liberty,  The.    Burnt  at  Newport,  111. 

Lincoln,  Abraham.  His  definition  of  slavery, 
655. 

Lincoln,  Levi.  Takes  possession  of  the  office 
of  secretary  of  state,  586.  Appointed  at 
torney-general,  598. 

L'Infant,  Major.    His  mission  to  France,  274. 

Little  Sarah,  The.    Captured,  470. 

Livingston,  R.  R.  On  committee  to  draught 
Declaration  of  Independence,  187.  Minis 
ter  to  France,  599.  Why  recalled,  606. 
Sends  sheep  to  Jefferson,  626.  Negotiates 
for  purchase  of  Louisiana,  643,  654. 

Livingston,  William.  In  Congress,  164.  Jef 
ferson  urges  to  pen  draught,  169. 


Logan,  Dr.  George.  His  attempt  to  preserve 
peace  between  France  and  U.  8.,  552. 

Logic,  Charles.  His  generosity  to  American 
captives  in  Algiers,  297. 

London.    Sends  aid  to  Boston  in  1774,  132. 

Louis  XV.    In  affair  of  Damiens,  134. 

Louis  XVI.  His  inconvenient  virtue,  328. 
Paine  tries  to  save,  454.  Executed,  455. 

Louisiana.    Purchase  of,  041. 

Lyttleton,  Lord.    His  work  upon  law,  47. 

McCLEOD,  Captain.    Protects  Monticello,  258. 

Macon,  Nathaniel.    Jefferson  consults,  607. 

MacPherson,  Charles.  Jefferson  knows,  40. 
Jefferson  asks  to  send  Ossian  MSS.,  and 
Gaelic  works,  102. 

Madison,  James.  Remembered  Braddock's 
defeat,  16.  Why  he  entered  Princeton,  25. 
Escaped  vices  of  Va.,  30.  His  excessive 
study,  60.  Advised  by  Jefferson  as  to  his 
studies,  61,  62.  Upon  Jefferson  as  a  speak 
er,  83.  Lost  election  by  refusing  to  can 
vass,  88.  Upon  intolerance  of  the  church 
in  Va.,  202,  203.  His  character  and  career, 
208.  Aids  to  reform  Va.,  208,  210.  To 
Jefferson  on  public  affairs  in  1780,  238. 
Upon  Jefferson's  election  to  France,  266. 
Disappointed  in  love,  270.  Jefferson  urges 
to  settle  near  Mcnticello,  271.  Guardian 
of  Jefferson's  nephew,  276.  Jefferson  to, 
upon  France,  289.  Jefferson  gets  a  watch 
for,  304.  Jefferson  to,  on  architecture,  305. 
On  accepting  office,  317.  Visits  Jefferson 
in  1790,  345.  Jefferson  to,  on  French  Revo 
lution,  351.  To  Jefferson  on  the  new  gov 
ernment,  376.  Cordial  with  Hamilton  in 
1789,  383.  His  difference  with  Hamilton, 
391.  On  site  for  a  capital,  394.  With  Jef 
ferson  on  an  excursion,  425.  Advances 
Freneau,  432.  Hamilton  accuses,  436.  Jef 
ferson  to,  on  Genet,  403.  On  his  desire  to 
resign,  492.  On  beginning  of  Adams's  pres 
idency,  523.  Proposed  as  minister  to  France, 
531.  Urged  by  Jefferson  to  write,  554. 
Appointed  secretary  of  state,  592.  His  ca 
reer,  593.  Presents  Merry  to  Jefferson,  619. 
Imports  sheep,  6':6.  Pigs,  672.  In  negotia 
tion  for  purchase  of  Louisiana,  C43.  Jef 
ferson  to,  on  impending  war,  673.  Jefferson 
defends,  687.  Upon  the  University  of  Vir 
ginia,  706.  Impoverished,  742. 

Madison,  Colonel  John.  After  Braddock's 
defeat,  15.  His  death,  592. 


758 


INDEX. 


Madison,  Mrs.  James.    Her  poverty,  742. 

Madison,  Professor  James.  Observes  the 
•winds,  263. 

Magna  Charta.  Source  of  liberal  politics,  47, 
48,  71.  Virginians  attached  to,  121. 

Mai  son  Quarree.     At  Xismes,  305,  315,  322. 

Man- Held,  Lord.    Jefferson  disapproves,  48. 

Marbois,  M.  de.    See  Barbe-Marbois. 

MarMehead,  Mass.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Marie  Antoinette.  Her  high  play,  316.  Jef 
ferson's  opinion  of,  328.  Quoted  upon  the 
American  Revolution,  417.  Burke  eulo 
gizes,  418.  Advances  Genet,  461,  462. 

Marriage.     Remarks  upon,  3,  103. 

Mars.cllaise,  The.  Sung  in  Philadelphia  thea- 
tr.-s,  456. 

Marshall,  John.  Quoted  upon  Jefferson,  493. 
To  France  in  grand  embassy,  541,  549,  550. 
Anecdote  of,  586.  Dines  with  Burr,  666. 
In  trial  of  Burr,  689. 

Martin,  Luther.     Defends  Burr,  666,  668. 

Martin.  Receives  British  troops  at  Monti- 
cello,  258. 

Maryland.     Aids  Boston,  131. 

,  George.  Aids  to  reform  Va.,  207, 
214.  His  opinion  of  Hamilton,  352. 

Mason,  Kev.  John.  Quoted  upon  Jefferson, 
571.  Upon  Bonaparte,  571. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  Public 
obligations  to,  133. 

Massachusetts.  Asks  co-operation  of  Va., 
85.  Virginia  imitates,  95,  123.  Jefferson 
extols,  162,  702. 

Matlnirins,  The.  Employed  to  ransom  Amer 
ican  captives,  300. 

Maury,  James,  jun.  Consul  to  Liverpool, 
17. 

Maury,  Rev.  James.  Jefferson  attends  his 
school,  16. 

Maury,  Rev.  Mr.  Marries  Martha  Jefferson, 
346. 

Mazzei,  Philip.  Settles  near  Monticello,  104. 
Supplies  Jefferson's  garden,  105.  To  Eu 
rope  for  a  loan,  227,  229.  In  Paris,  329. 
Publishes  extract  from  Jefferson's  letter, 
533.  Anecdote  of,  573. 

Mcadc,  Colonel  R.  K.  Attached  to  Hamilton, 
354. 

.  "William.  Quoted  upon  industry  of 
Old  Virginia,  11.  Upon  the  Washingtons, 
32.  Upon  the  clergy  of  Va.,  55,  56,  57,  59. 

Medicine  men.     Jell'erxui  d<'serjbi  s,  677. 

Merchants.    Jefferson  dislikes,  339. 


Merry,  Mr.  His  reception  by  Jefferson,  618, 
621. 

Mexico.  Jefferson  discourages  revolution  in, 
322. 

Michaud,  Andrew.  Attempts  to  explore 
west,  495. 

Mifflin,  Governor.  In  Genet  affair,  483,  486. 
His  reception  of  Jefferson  at  Philadelphia, 
527,  528. 

Miller,  Samuel.  His  gift  to.  University  of 
Virginia,  710. 

Mint.    Established  at  Philadelphia,  398. 

Mirabeau,  Count  Honore".  Jefferson  ad 
mired,  325. 

Miranda,  Don  Francisco.  His  scheme  of 
South  American  independence,  551. 

Monroe,  Colonel  James,  14. 

Monroe,  James.  His  father,  14.  Advised  by 
Jefferson  as  to  his  studies,  61,  62.  In  the 
field  in  1781,  252.  Jefferson  to,  on  the  cen 
sure,  259.  Buying  land  near  Monticello, 
270,  271.  Jefferson  to,  on  France,  287. 
Jefferson  to,  on  need  of  a  navy,  351.  Jef 
ferson  to,  on  deadlock  in  Congress,  395.  On 
Paine,  427.  Builds  house  near  Jefferson, 
507.  Minister  to  France,  522.  Assists 
Paine,  523.  Why  not  a  graduate  of  a  col 
lege,  600.  Minister  in  London,  621.  To 
Paris  for  purchase  of  Louisiana,  650,  653, 
654.  Negotiates  treaty  with  England,  672. 
Reconciled  to  Madison,  687. 

Monticello.  Why  chosen  for  a  residence,  44. 
Jefferson  goes  to  live  at,  98.  Improves,  99, 
105, 106.  Described,  106.  Seized  by  Tarl- 
ton,  252.  Visited  by  Chastellux,  262.  The 
prevalent  winds  there,  263. 

Montmorin,  Count  de.  Conference  with  Jef 
ferson,  340. 

Moody,  Samuel.    Sends  aid  to  Boston,  132. 

Moore,  Thomas.  His  verses  upon  Jefferson, 
605.  His  interview  with  Jefferson,  012. 
Jefferson  enjoys  his  poetry,  621. 

Montague,  Admiral.  In  affair  of  the  Gaspee, 
116,  117,  119. 

Montague,  Captain.  Threatens  to  fire  upon 
Williamcbnrg,  158. 

Montreal.     Aids  Boston,  131. 

Morris,  Gouverneur.  Suggests  decimal  cur 
rency,  iM'.t.  His  character,  2'.»4.  At  JettVr- 
son's  house  in  Paris,  320,  328.  Assists 
French  nobles,  3'JS.  Quoted  upon  nobility 
in  France,  :j2'.».  llis  U-t  with  Hamilton, 
369.  Envoy  to  England,  408.  Upon  Ilaiu- 


INDEX. 


759 


ilton's  opinions,  450.  In  Paris  during  reign 
of  terror,  457.  Replaced  by  Monroe,  522. 
Visits  Mt.  Vernon,  502.  Interviews  Jeffer 
son  on  the  tie,  577.  His  opinion  thereon, 
580.  Describes  Washington,  B.C.,  601. 
Upon  Jefferson's  administration,  633,  650. 
Upon  Monroe's  appointment  to  France,  671. 

Morris,  Robert.  Signs  treaty  of  peace,  2G9. 
His  tobacco  contract  with  France,  293,  294. 
Hamilton  to,  on  finance,  358,  359.  In  New 
York  in  1789,  367.  Recommends  Hamilton, 
377. 

Morris,  "William.    Killed  by  Indians,  234. 

Moultrie,  G-overnor  W.  In  Genet  affair, 
470. 

Moustier,  Count  de.  Jefferson  to,  on  Louisi 
ana,  642. 

Muhlenberg,  General  J.  P.  G.  Jefferson  to, 
on  his  wine  duty,  626. 

NARRAGANSETT  BAY.  Scenes  in,  before  Rev 
olution,  108  to  116. 

Natural  Bridgo.  Owned  by  Jefferson,  103. 
Visited  by  Chastellux,  264. 

Naturalization.    Terms  of,  213. 

Necker,  Jacques.    Gets  flour  from  U.  S.,  325. 

Negroes,  The.    Jefferson's  opinion  of,  199. 

Nelson,  Thomas.  Elected  to  Congress,  172. 
Despatched  to  eastern  counties,  240,  246. 
Governor  of  Va.,  255. 

Nemour,  Dupont  de.  Jefferson  to,  on  Loui 
siana  purchase,  646. 

New  England.  Early  laws  of,  51.  Prosperi 
ty  of,  77.  Ought  not  to  have  been  so 
named,  120.  Enriched  by  commerce  in 
slaves,  190.  How  its  men  were  formed, 
195.  Sides  against  the  embargo,  674.  Re 
marks  upon,  700. 

New  Hampshire.    Aids  Boston,  132. 

New  Jersey.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Newport,  R.  I.  Commerce  of,  before  Revolu 
tion,  108,  109.  Scenes  at,  111,  112,  117. 
Aids  Boston,  132.  Allusion  to,  388. 

Newspapers.    Jefferson  upon,  in  1787,  317. 

New  York,  City  of.  Visited  by  Jefferson  in 
1766,  68.  Aids  Boston  in  1774,  132.  Inde 
pendence  declared  at,  193.  Society  of,  in 
1790,  364,  367,  368.  Beginning  of  rapid 
growth,  396.  Congress  removes  from,  400. 

Nicholas,  George.  Confers  with  Jefferson  on 
Kentucky  Resolutions,  558. 

Nicholas,  R.  C.  On  committee  with  Jeffer 
son,  92, 124.  Quiets  the  people,  153.  Elect- 
60 


ed  chairman  of  Burgesses    of   Va.,  174. 

His  politics,  209. 

Nicholas,  W.  C.  Confers  with  Jefferson,  558. 
Noailles,  Vicompte  dc.  At  Philadelphia,  477. 
Norfolk,  Va.  Burnt  by  the  English,  185. 

Jefferson  at,  in  1789,  342. 
North  Carolina.    Aids  Boston-,  131, 
North,  Lord.    Comes  to  the  premiership,  97. 

His  proposition  to  the  colonies,  159. 
Norwich,  Ct.    Aids  Boston,  131. 
Notes  upon  Virginia.    Written  by  Jefferson, 

260.    Published,  310. 

OLIVES.    Jefferson's  efforts  to  introduce  into 

the  U.  S.,  307. 
Ontasscte.    His  oratory,  10. 
Orleans,  Duke  of.    G.  Morris  assists,  328. 
Osgood,  Dr.  David.    Assails  Jefferson,  690. 
Ossian.    Jefferson  loves,  39.    Gives  name  to 

a  town,  40.    Jefferson  intends  to  read  him 

in  the  original,  102.    Recent  light  on,  103. 

Jefferson  and  Chastellux  converse  upon,  263. 
Otis,  J.  Upon  British  protective  system,  275. 
Owen,  Robert  Dale.  Alluded  to,  631. 

PACA,  William.    In  Congress,  163. 

Page,  John.  At  college,  24.  Jefferson  to, 
upon  his  love,  34,  35,  36,  37,  38.  His  house, 
36.  Marriage,  41.  Jefferson  to,  on  Dab- 
ney  Carr,  44.  Advises  Dunmore,  155,  157. 
In  House  of  Burgesses,  175.  Devises  seal 
for  Va.,  193.  Candidate  for  governor  of 
Va.,  225.  Jefferson  to,  in  1785,  287.  Sec 
ond  marriage  in  New  York,  349.  Jefferson 
appoints  to  office,  608. 

Paine,  Thomas.  His  Common  Sense  pub 
lished,  186.  Quoted,  190.  Gives  a  year's 
salary  to  the  Revolution,  238.  Jefferson  to, 
on  the  press,  317.  Hamilton  replies  to  hia 
Common  Sense,  354.  Replies  to  Burke  on 
French  Revolution,  421.  Forwards  key  of 
Bastille  to  Washington,  422.  His  pamphlet 
in  United  States,  423,  425,  426.  Jefferson 
to,  on  the  same,  427.  Defended  by  Fre- 
neau,  4o4.  Endeavors  to  save  Louis  XVI. 
Burnt  in  effigy  at  Bristol,  476.  Befriended 
in  Paris  by  Monroe,  523.  Gives  money 
toward  French  invasion  of  England,  549. 
Offends  Bonaparte,  583.  Permitted  to  re 
turn  to  U.S.  in  a  naval  ship,  590.  His  abode 
in  Paris,  590.  Remarks  upon,  591,  606. 

Pardoning  Power.  How  exercised  by  Jeffer 
son,  632. 


760 


INDEX. 


Parish,  John.    G.  Morris  to,  on  Jefferson,  671. 

Payson,  Edward.     Assails  Jefferson,  690. 

Pemlh'ton,  Edmund.  On  committee  of  cor 
respondence,  124.  Elected  to  Continental 
Congress,  143.  On  committee  to  arm  Va., 
150.  Thanked  by  Burgesses,  172.  Ills 
dexterity  in  debate,  209,  213,  215. 

Pepperill,  Mass.    Aids  Boston,  130. 

Philadelphia.  Sends  aid  to  Boston  in  1774, 
132.  Continental  Congress  meets  at,  163. 
Defended  by  galleys,  181.  Lead  collected 
from  house  to  house,  186.  Seat  of  general 
government,  395.  Congress  removes  to, 
400.  Scenes  at,  in  1793,  470. 

Phillips,  General  William.  A  prisoner  in 
Va.,  222.  Remonstrates  on  behalf  of  Hen 
ry  Hamilton,  236. 

Philosophical  Society.  Jefferson  sending  his 
Notes  to,  310.  Members  of,  witness  an 
experiment,  397.  Sends  Michaud  to  explore 
west,  495. 

Pickering,  Timothy.  Upon  Botetourt's  coach, 
225. 

Pike,  General  Z.  M.  Explores  western 
country,  629. 

Pinckney,  General  C.  C.  Commissioner  to 
France,  541,  548.  Candidate  for  presidency, 
562,  690.  Upon  Jefferson's  administration, 
633. 

Pintard,  John.     Resigns  clerkship,  432. 

Pitt,  William.  Exempts  Jefferson's  baggage 
from  the  duties,  341.  In  conference  with 
Adams,  404.  With  G.  Morris,  408. 

Plymouth,  Mass.    Incident  at,  145. 

Politeness.    Importance  of,  430. 

Port  Bill,  Boston,  129  to  133. 

Portsmouth,  N.H.    Aids  Boston,  132. 

Price,  Dr.  Richard.  Calls  forth  Burke's 
reflections,  417. 

Price,  Mr.    His  duel  with  Backer,  659. 

Priestley,  Dr.  Joseph.  Jefferson  recom 
mends  to  students,  61.  Jefferson  to,  on 
classical  education,  216.  His  house  de- 
Btroycd,  477,  496.  His  life  in  England,  497. 
Removes  to  America,  4W.  Jefferson  at 
tends  his  church,  530.  Menaced  by  Alien 
Law,  551.  Preaches  in  Philadelphia,  574. 
Jefferson  invites  and  commends,  589.  Jef. 
frrson  consults  on  the  University,  704. 

Primogeniture.    Abolished  in  Va.,  214. 

Prisoners  of  war.  How  treated  in  Revolu 
tionary  War,  234,  235,  2:y,. 

Protective  System.    Before  the  Revolution, 


109,  275.  Struggles  to  destroy,  277.  Jef. 
ferson  opposes  in  France,  292,  340.  Eng 
land  devoted  to,  414.  Complicated,  630. 

Providence,  R.I.  Commerce  of,  before  Rev 
olution,  108.  Men  of,  burn  the  Gaspce, 
112  to  116.  Aids  Boston,  132. 

Purdie,  Hugh.    Barbarity  to,  416. 

QUEBEC.    Sends  aid  to  Boston,  131. 

Qtiincy,  Josiah.  Quoted  on  Merry's  recep 
tion,  619.  Opposes  purchase  of  Louisiana, 
654.  On  Jefferson's  retirement,  684. 

RADICALS.    Remarks  upon,  207. 

Raglan,  Lord,  191. 

Raleigh  Tavern.    Scenes  in,  34, 119. 

Randall,  Henry  8.  Quoted  upon  Peter  Jef 
ferson,  8.  Upon  Jefferson's  habits,  43. 
Upon  his  law-practice,  81.  Upon  Mrs. 
Carr,  125.  Upon  Jefferson's  skill  in  music, 
222.  Upon  Jefferson's  exactness,  314.  Up 
on  his  welcome  home,  345.  Upon  T.  M. 
Randolph,  504.  Upon  treatment  of  the 
slaves  at  Monticello,  508.  Defends  Jeffer 
son,  569.  Relates  anecdotes  of  Jefferson's 
Bimple  manners,  624.  Furnishes  reminis 
cences  of  Jefferson's  grand-daughters,  714. 
Upon  raising  money  for  Jefferson,  731. 

Randolph,  Edmund.  At  college,  25.  Jeffer 
son  gets  books  for,  304.  Appointed  attor 
ney-general,  380.  Described,  380.  Hamil 
ton  to,  on  the  French  Revolution,  456.  His 
opinion  on  privateering,  481.  On  Genet, 
488.  Jefferson  to,  on  the  pardoning  power, 
632. 

Randolph,  George  Wythe,  570. 

Randolph,  Isham.  His  lineage  and  character, 
4,  7. 

Randolph,  John.  Att'y-gen.  of  Va.  Sells 
violin  to  Jefferson,  176.  Jefferson  to,  on 
public  affairs.  177,  180. 

Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke.  Upon  Jeffer 
son,  210.  Toasts  Martha  Jefferson,  401. 
Goes  into  opposition,  607.  Eulogizes  Jef 
ferson's  administration,  613. 

Randolph,  Martha  Jefferson.  Born,  107. 
Anecdote  of,  as  a  child,  128.  Upon  the 
death  of  her  mother,  265.  Jefferson  ad- 
•-'71.  To  Paris',  277,  280.  At  school 
in  Paris,  330,  332.  Rescued  from  a  convent, 
333,  334.  Engaged  to  be  married,  334. 
Return  home,  314.  Married,  :V10.  JrtlVr- 
son  to,  on  birth  of  a  child,  400.  On  the 


INDEX. 


761 


marriage  of  her  father-in-law,  401.  Jeffer- 
eon  to,  on  Lake  G-eorgc,  425.  Jefferson  to, 
on  party  violence,  555.  Refutes  the  Dusky 
Sally  slander,  570.  Lives  at  Monticello, 
688.  Her  disposition,  693.  Her  death,  736. 

Randolph,  Colonel  Peter.    Anecdote  of,  66. 

Randolph,  Peyton.  Revered  by  Jefferson, 
30.  Anecdote  of,  66.  Elected  speaker  of 
House  of  Burgesses,  90.  On  committee  of 
correspondence,  124.  Presents  Jefferson's 
draught  of  instructions,  142.  Proscribed  in 
England,  142.  Elected  to  Continental  Con 
gress,  143.  Chairman  of  it,  151.  Quiets 
the  people,  153.  Induces  troops  to  return 
home,  154.  Induces  Jefferson  to  reply  to 
North,  158.  In  Congress,  163.  Re  elected, 
172.  Retires  from  public  life,  174. 

Randolph,  Colonel  T.  J.  Quoted  upon  the 
Dusky  Sally  slander,  569.  Anecdote  of  his 
youth,  624.  Describes  Jefferson's  labors 
for  the  university,  706. 

Randolph,  Thomas  Mann.  In  Paris,  334. 
Engaged  to  Martha  Jefferson,  334.  Mar 
ries  her,  346.  Marriage  of  his  father,  401. 
His  impetuosity,  504.  His  opinions  respect 
ing  slavery,  694.  His  translation  from  the 
Greek,  697. 

Randolph,  William,  4. 

Reid,  Lieutenant.    His  vessel  burnt,  111. 

Religion  set  free  in  Va.,  210,  211.  Effect  of  it 
in  France,  311.  Jefferson  advises  nephew 
respecting,  338.  His  opinions  on,  711,  712, 
744. 

Reynolds,  James.  Extorts  money  from  Ham 
ilton,  536,  538. 

Reynolds,  Mrs.  James.  Her  amour  with 
Hamilton,  535. 

Rhode  Island.  People  of,  before  the  Revolu 
tion,  110.  Accepts  Independence,  193.  Jef 
ferson's  remarks  upon,  339. 

Rice.  Jefferson  sends  varieties  of,  to  U.  S., 
307,  308,  309. 

Richmond,  Va.  Convention  at,  in  1775,  149. 
Becomes  capital  of  Va.,  213,  238.  Public 
buildings  at,  305. 

Ricdesel,  General.  A  prisoner  in  Va.,  221, 
228.  Liberality  to  his  troops,  223. 

Riedcsel,  Madame.  Her  residence  in  Va.,  221. 
Her  habits,  223,  228. 

Rittenhouse,  David.  With  Franklin  on  the 
Delaware,  181.  Jefferson  employs,  221. 
Witnesses  an  experiment,  398.  Receives 
Genet,  471. 


Rivanna  River,  2.  Improved  by  Jefferson, 
42. 

Rives,  William  C.  Quoted  upon  violin,  12. 
Upon  Jefferson's  plough,  507. 

Robinson,  Crabb.  Quoted  upon  good  com- 
pany,  164. 

Rochefoucauld,  Due  de  la.  Visits  Monti- 
cello,  503. 

Rogers,  Samuel.    Anecdote  of,  193. 

Rolfe,  John.    Plants  first  tobacco  in  Va.,  72. 

Roswell,  Va.    Described,  36. 

Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin.  Jefferson  to,  on  the 
message  system,  623. 

Rutland,  Vt.    Aids  Boston,  132. 

Rutledge,  Edward.  In  Congress,  164.  Jef 
ferson  to,  on  rice,  308. 

Rutledge,  John.  In  Congress,  164.  His 
draught  rejected,  168.  Jefferson  to,  on  Eu 
ropean  governments,  289. 

SABIN,  Mr.  On  the  burning  of  the  Gaspee, 
117. 

St.  Clair,  General  Arthur.  Defeated,  413, 
416. 

St.  John,  The.    Fired  into  at  Newport,  111. 

Salaries.    Insufficient,  paid  by  U.  S.,  286. 

Salem,  Mass.    Aids  Boston  in  1774,  132. 

Saratoga  Springs.    In  early  days,  425. 

Saxe-Weimar,  Duke  of.  Relates  visit  to  Mon 
ticello,  724. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Admired  James  Watt, 
374.  Jefferson  upon,  713. 

Secession.    Jefferson's  argument  against,  555. 

Shadwell  farm.  Why  so  named,  5.  Charged 
with  support  of  Jefferson's  mother  and 
sisters,  31.  House  burnt,  98. 

Scdgwick,  Catharine.  Quoted  upon  her  fa 
ther,  373. 

Sedgwick,  Theodore.  His  arrogance,  373. 
Quoted,  394.  Hamilton  to,  on  John  Adams, 
562. 

Sedition  Law,  The.  Described,  552.  Jeffer 
son's  opinion  of,  553,  679. 

Selma,  Ala.    Why  so  named,  40. 

Sessions,  Darius.  In  affair  of  the  Gaspee, 
111  to  115. 

Shard,  Julius,  104. 

Sheep.    Imported  by  Jefferson,  626. 

Sheridan,  General  P.  II.  Protects  Universi 
ty  of  Virginia,  710. 

Sherman,  Roger.  In  Congress,  164,  187. 
Signs  treaty  of  peace,  269. 

Shippen,  Dr.    Inoculates  Jefferson,  67. 


762 


INDEX. 


Short,  William.  Beloved  by  Jefferson,  270. 
In  Paris  with  Jefferson,  324,  333.  Charge 
at  Paris,  335,  340.  Jefferson  to,  on  the 
French  Revolution,  456.  On  selling  his 
stock,  494.  Jefferson  recalls,  609. 

Bimcoe,  Colonel.    His  proclamation,  515. 

Skelton,  Martha.    Marries  Jefferson,  101. 

Slavery.  In  Jefferson's  boyhood,  11.  Ab 
horred  by  George  Wythe,  31.  In  Va.,  55. 
Jefferson's  bill  concerning,  in  House  of 
Burgesses,  97.  Opposition  to,  in  the  colo- 
iiii-s,  139.  A  cause  of  terror  in  times  of  civ 
il  commotion,  152.  Denounced  in  draught 
of  Declaration  of  Independence,  189,  190. 
Remarks  upon,  199.  Jefferson's  scheme  to 
abolish,  218.  Jefferson  denounces,  in  his 
Notes  on  Va.,  260.  Jefferson  moves  to  pre 
vent,  in  N.  W.  territory,  270.  His  remarks 
upon,  in  Paris,  336. 

Sloane,  Hans,  5. 

Slodtz,  A.    His  Diana,  315. 

Small,  Dr.  William.  Instructs  Jefferson,  24, 
26,  30.  Removes  to  Birmingham,  31.  Jef 
ferson  to,  on  Lexington,  156. 

Smith,  Dr.  John  B.  Converses  with  Mazzei, 
572. 

Smith,  Mrs.  E.  Vale.  Quoted  on  marine  spo 
liation,  518,  Upon  Algerine  piracies,  636. 

Smith,  Rev.  Cotton  Mather.  Slanders  Jeffer 
son,  568. 

Smith,  Robert.  Appointed  secretary  of  the 
navy,  :V.»0.  Why,  600. 

South  Carolina.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Springfield,  Mass.    Aids  Boston  in  1774,  132. 

Stamp  Act.    Opposition  to,  in  Va.,  63,  64,  65. 

Story,  Rev.  Isaac.  Jefferson  to,  on  religion, 
744. 

State  Rights.    Light  on  the  question  of,  259. 

Stiles,  Dr.  Ezra.  Jefferson  to,  on  a  flower, 
309. 

Stratford  upon  Avon.  Visited  by  Jefferson 
and  Adams,  314. 

Strikers.  Their  operations  described,  540,  547. 

Stone,  William.    In  Congress,  1G3. 

Sullivan,  General.  Sends  moose  to  Jefferson, 
310. 

Bwartwout,  John.  His  duel  with  Clinton, 
658. 

TALLEYRAND,  Prince.  Upon  Hamilton,  431. 
In  X  Y  Z  affair,  545,  548.  In  negotiation 
for  cession  of  Louisiana  to  U.  8.,  646. 

Talon,  M.    At  Philadelphia,  477. 


!  Tammany  Society,  of  Baltimore.  Anecdote 
of,  610. 

Tancy,  Roger.  Describes  Luther  Martin,  666. 

Tarlton,  Colonel  Bannastre.  Seizes  Monti- 
cello,  252. 

Taylor,  John.  To  Jefferson  on  secession, 
555. 

Ternant,  M.    At  Philadelphia,  458. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.     Quoted,  379,  614. 

Threshing  Machine.    Where  invented,  506. 

Ticknor,  George.  Quoted  upon  Talleyrand, 
431. 

Tie,  The.    Between  Jefferson  and  Burr,  576. 

Tobacco.  Use  of,  disapproved  in  Va.,  27. 
Clergy  paid  in,  55.  Culture  of,  in  Va.,  72. 
Frauds  upon,  74.  Exportation  of,  forbid 
den,  144.  Monopoly  of,  in  France,  -2 .••_'. 

Townsend,  Charles.  Quoted  upon  British 
policy,  85. 

Township  system.    Jefferson  upon,  674. 

Tracy,  Nathaniel.  To  Europe  with  Jefferson, 
279. 

Tripoli.    Negotiations  with,  in  1786,  299. 

Trist,  N.  P.  Quoted  upon  breach  between 
Hamilton  and  Madison,  391.  Upon  Jeffer 
son's  regard  for  Madison,  594.  Governor 
T.  M.  Randolph's  letters  to,  694.  At  death 
bed  of  Jefferson,  733. 

Troup,  Colonel  Robert.  Takes  Hamilton's 
law  business,  377. 

Tucker,  Professor  George.  Upon  tobacco- 
rollers  of  Va.,  201.  Upon  Jefferson's  ap 
pointment  policy,  608. 

Tunis,  Bey  of.  His  conversation  with  Eaton, 
638. 

Tuscany,  Duke  of.    Refuses  a  loan,  227,  228. 

Twain,  Mark.    Quoted,  574. 

UNIVERSITY  of  Virginia.  Founded  by  Jef- 
eon,  703. 

VAN  BCREN,  Martin.  Quoted  upon  G.  Mor 
ris  at  Washington,  368. 

Vans  Murray,  William.  Goes  as  minister  to 
France,  561. 

Venable,  Dr.  Charles.  Describee  University 
of  Virginia,  708. 

YiTLrmnes,  Count  de.  Advises  the  Ameri 
can  commissioners  in  1784,  282.  Receives 
Jefferson,  283.  Conferences  with  him,  292. 

Vermont.  Sends  aid  to  Boston,  132.  Jef 
ferson  visits,  in  1791,  426. 

Vestryman.    The  oath  of,  in  Va.,  59. 


INDEX. 


763 


Victor,  Lieut-General.  Appointed  to  com 
mand  in  Louisiana,  647. 

Vincennes.    Taken  by  Clarke,  234,  237. 

Violin,  The.  Its  use  in  Virginia,  12.  Jeffer 
Bon  plays,  27,  28,  34,  37.  Saved  from  the 
burning  house,  98.  Odd  compact  for  one 
175.  Jefferson's  skill  upon,  222.  Deprived 
of,  314. 

Virginia.  The  ancient  sports  of,  12.  Schools 
of,  in  early  days,  14.  Its  ancient  capital 
19.  Ilabits  of,  27.  Early  gambling  in,  29 
No  choice  of  occupations  in,  32.  Early  law* 
of,  51,  52.  Clergy  in  olden  time,  56,  57,  58 
Tobacco  culture  in,  73.  Legislature  of,  82 
In  accord  with  Mass.,  85.  Reception  of  Lord 
Botetourt,  86.  Dependent  upon  Great  Brit 
ain  for  manufactures,  95.  Winter  in,  101, 
104.  Attached  to  monarchy,  120.  And  to 
liberty,  122.  Aids  Boston,  131.  Elects  mem 
bers  of  Continental  Congress,  143.  Pays 
her  members  liberally,  162.  Menaced  with 
devastation  in  1775,  183.  Its  admirable 
legislature,  184.  Decides  for  independence, 
186,  187.  Her  ancient  laws  reformed  by 
Jefferson,  199.  An  election  in,  described, 
200.  Witchcraft  in,  202.  During  first  years 
of  Revolutionary  War,  220.  Hessian  pris 
oners  in,  221,  223.  Ratifies  treaty  as  a  sov 
ereign  state,  229.  Ravaged  by  Arnold, 
246.  By  Cornwallis,  258.  Notes  upon,  by 
Jefferson,  260.  Farming  in,  501,  502. 

Volney,  Compte  de.  Flies  from  Alien  Law, 
551,  590. 

Voltaire.  Upon  execution  of  Damiens,  135. 
Interested  in  American  Revolution,  146. 
Upon  anvil  and  hammer,  288.  Upon  fish  in 
Lent,  307.  Upon  Newton,  489.  Knew  the 
Gallatins,  595. 

WALSH,  Robert.  G.  Morris  to,  on  Hamil 
ton,  450. 

Wanton,  Joseph.  In  affair  of  the  Gaspee, 
111  to  115. 

Ward,  General  Artcmas.  Knox,  his  aid-de 
camp,  378. 

Washington,  Augustine.  Consulted  by  Boston 
committee,  132. 

Washington,  D.C.  Selection  of  the  site,  393. 
Laid  out,  399.  Government  removed  to, 
600.  Described,  601. 

Washington,  George.  In  the  field  after  Brad- 
dock's  defeat,  15.  Project  of  his  going  to 
sea  before  the  mast,  32.  Upon  frauds  in 


London,  77.  In  House  of  Burgesses,  89,  94. 
Elected  to  Continental  Congress,  144,  145. 
On  committee  to  arm  Va.,  150.  Command- 
er-iu-chiefi  161.  Hears  of  Bunker  Hill,  162. 
Thanked  by  Burgesses  of  Va.,  172.  Decides 
to  release  Henry  Hamilton,  236.  Jefferson 
to,  on  danger  of  Va.  in  1781,  251.  Resign 
ing  his  commission,  269.  Foretell*  the  Erie 
canal,  272,  273.  Upon  the  draught  of  the 
commercial  treaty  of  1784,  232.  Wrong  to 
refuse  pay,  286.  Jefferson  to,  from  France, 
288.  Jefferson  to,  on  the  lungs,  310.  Ap 
points  Jefferson  secretary  of  state,  345. 
Dangerous  illness  in  1790,  350.  Quoted  on 
need  of  efficient  government,  351.  His  re 
lations  with  Hamilton,  354.  Etiquette  dur 
ing  his  presidency,  365,  367.  Resents  fa 
miliarity,  369.  Beginning  of  his  presidency, 
376.  Carlyle  upon,  382.  Sends  G.  Morris 
to  England,  408.  Paine  dedicates  pamphlet 
to,  422.  Lear  to,  on  Paine's  pamphlet,  4'J4. 
adulation  of,  434.  Endeavors  to  reconcile 
Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  442,  447,  450.  On 
Virginia  overseers,  453.  Urges  Jefferson  to 
accept  mission  to  France,  459.  In  Genet 
affair,  464.  Receives  Genet,  478.  His  an 
ger  at  a  caricature,  489.  Compliments  Jef 
ferson  on  his  retiring,  492.  Invites  Jeffer 
son  to  return  to  cabinet,  510.  Signs  Jay 
treaty,  517.  To  Jefferson  on  Lee's  charges, 
521.  Retires  from  presidency,  529,  530. 
Urged  by  Hamilton  to  return,  562.  Galla- 
tin  describes,  596. 

Washington,  Mrs.  Martha.  Her  workroom 
at  ML  Veruou,  11.  To  Mrs.  Jefferson  on 
ladies  aiding  Revolution,  241.  Her  arrival 
in  New  York  in  178'J,  3(57.  Detested  demo 
crats,  522. 

Washington,  Mrs.  Mary.  Thinks  of  sending 
George  to  sea  before  the  mast,  3  >. 

Watson,  Elkanah.  Quoted  upon  a  Virginia 
election,  200. 

Watt,  James,  25.  His  steam-engine  inveiiU-d, 
303.  Admires  Sir  Walter  Scott,  374. 

Wayles,  John.  His  estate,  100.  Jefferson 
marries  his  daughter,  101.  Death,  103. 

Webster,  Daniel.  Quoted  upon  lawyers, 
73.  Upon  Hamilton,  352, 384.  Relates  visit 
to  Monticello,  722.  Assists  Mrs.  Madison, 
742. 

Webster,  Noah.  Begins  copyright  in  U.S., 
304. 

Wells,  Me.    Aids  Boston,  132. 


764 


INDEX. 


Wethersfield,  Ct.    Aids  Boston,  131. 

Witchcraft,    In  Va.,  54,  202. 

Wheelbarrows.  Jefferson's  experiments 
with,  104. 

Whittier,  J.  G.     How  defrauded,  630. 

Wilkinson,  General.  Reveals  Burr's  project, 
665. 

Willartl,  Dr.  Joseph.  Jefferson  corresponds 
with,  2SO. 

William  and  Mary  College.  Jefferson  enter- 
ing,  1.  Early  history,  21,  23.  Jefferson 
proposes  to  enlarge,  216.  He  reforms,  238. 
Desires  to  unite  it  with  University  of  Vir 
ginia,  704. 

William* burg,  Va.  Described,  20.  Gayety 
in,  35.  Situation  of, 42.  Scenes  at,  in  early 
day,  94.  Powder  seized  at,  152, 159.  Polite 
to  naval  officers,  158.  Ceases  to  be  the  capi 
tal,  213,  238.  Wawhington  a  copy  of,  399. 

Williams,  Roger.    Instructed  by  Coke,  47. 

Windham,  Ct.    Aids  Boston,  130. 

Wine.     Spoils  gayety,  56. 

Wirt,  William.  Quoted  upon  Dabney  Carr, 
45.  Upon  Jefferson  and  Mirabeau,  325. 


Upon  Edmund  Randolph,  330.  In  trial  of 
Burr,  669. 

Wistar,  Dr.  Caspar.  Witnesses  an  experi 
ment,  393. 

Wolcott,  Oliver.    Quoted  upon  Jefferson,  435. 

Wrentham,  Mass.    Aids  Boston,  130. 

Wright's  Ferry.  Proposed  as  site  for  capital 
of  U.S.,  393,  394. 

Wythe,  George.  Early  friend  of  Jefferson, 
29,  30.  Emancipates  bis  slaves,  31.  Re 
fused  to  sign  Patrick  Henry's  license,  33. 
In  accord  with  Jefferson  in  1774, 141.  Sup 
plies  Washington  with  statistics,  145. 
Elected  to  Congress,  172.  Attests  violin 
compact,  176.  Devises  seal  for  Va.,  193, 
194.  Consults  John  Adams  upon  govern 
ment,  196.  Aids  to  reform  Va.,  208.  Re 
vises  the  laws,  215.  Jefferson  to,  on  France, 
288.  On  freedom  of  religion,  311.  Assists 
to  prepare  Jefferson's  Manual,  527.  Be 
queaths  his  library  to  Jefferson,  730. 

Wythe,  Mrs.    Her  mixture  of  wines,  105. 

X  Y  Z  Affair,  545. 


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